[Dailydrool] Need Advice Please!! Is my Sr. Basset sick??

[Brenda Waldrop]

Sorry I've been away for so long.  To say things here for us in San Diego
have been a bit crazy is about the understatement of the year.  I'm into 8
months unemployed now, and things are beyond stretched at this point.  I
have a DD folder and it currently has 92 unread drools in it, so I apologize
for all the stuff I've missed.  Lots of drool to everyone who needs it, and
I promise as soon as I get 5 min I will catch up!

Right now I have a bit of an emergency though, and I'm hoping that one of
you can tell me just how worried I should be.  My Sr. Copper (13 years) has
started peeing constantly.  Sometimes when he stands up over the last few
weeks, urine just seems to leak out.  This is not too big of a worry to me,
I have no problem cleaning up the puddles, and we all know that some Sr's
loose the ability to have great control.  That's why I own a steam cleaner.

What has me REALLY worried, is that while cleaning up a puddle today, I
noticed that the urine was dark brown!  I mean almost coffee brown.  I don't
know if it could be blood in the urine?  When I was a nurse I don't remember
ever being able to see blood in urine until after it was spun in the
centrifuge.  That's with humans though, and to be honest I never really saw
urine with a LOT of blood in it, so for all I know it could turn that
color.  Is there anything else that can cause this?

Also, he's been throwing up, a lot.  He doesn't seem to have lost any
weight, but he throws up at least a couple times a week.  He's also turned
super-Velcro dog on me in the last week.  He was already a mama's boy, but
he doesn't seem to want to be not touching me at all times.

He's had cancer in his mouth since we got him.  It's extremely slow growing,
in the three years since we've had him it's grown only like 10%, and the vet
said it was unlikely to metastasize to the rest of the body.  However, that
doesn't mean it didn't, or he didn't develop some other kind of cancer, or
his kidneys are failing or... I'm panicked.

After 8 months without work I have no money to go to the vet and get tests,
and except for the Velcro part he has no other personality or habit
changes.  He seems to have plenty of energy, for a lazy 13-year-old basset
anyway, no weight loss, eating fine, etc.

What I really need to know, is do I need to panic?  Is this something I
should be considering selling a kidney to get the money to have looked at?
If his kidneys need help is there something I can do from home without the
vet?  Any help and any drool would be greatly appreciated!!!

DROOL TO EVERYONE IN NEED, ESPECIALLY TO ELDER CLARA WHO i JUST READ ABOUT A
MINUTE AGO!

Brenda- Momslave to Copper and Elphaba
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