A dog health issue

I'm going to try to make this long story as short as possible. My sister & her S.O. rescued a dog from being returned to the Detroit Humane Society. He's 9 months and a sharpe/begal mix. They already had 2 6-7 y/o female dogs & 2 cats (1 male about 10-11 & one female about 1-2 y/o). They have had him for 3 weeks and have been working hard at getting him potty trained and getting him to learn rules & boundries. The biggest issue they had was that his potty training was not getting any better. They decided a trip to the vet was in order when he started peeing in the house 10 - 15 minuets after he had been out. They also noticed he drank water excessively. So my sister took him to the vet this morning. The vet aggreed that what my sister was describing sounded like a health issue and not just behavioral. So they did a senior pannel. In addition he has a skin condition that is a sign of a weak immune system. So here are the possiblities the vet is looking for: Diabetes, Cushings or Cancer. If all this turns up negative, then he just has behvioral issues. My sister & her SO are pretty commited to caring for him if it is a health issue. Obviously at this point if it is a health problem he probably would not be kept long by a kill shelter. The issue is more about the financial burden. The woman who gave them the dog may be willing to help them with the financial cost, but if she is not does anyone know of any other options? I know that even if they can not get the help they need he will be taken care of, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of any organizations that might be willing to help them? (they are in Michigan)

First off good for your sister and SO for saving this dog!

I'm not a vet but the bit about how it has to be Cushing's, diabetes or cancer - and if it's not one of those then it must be behavioral - doesn't sound right to me. Sharpeis are notorious for having skin issues,
http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body_shar-pei.html
http://www.sharpeirescue.com/health.htm
and any kind of stress is likely to make that worse.
Excessive drinking and poor bladder control are classic sypmtoms of kidney problems and I would hope the vet has run a urinalysis to check for that.

Sometimes dogs do develop bad habits, like going out and peeing as soon as they come in, and if the previous owners let it go on and on for months then it will be a hard habit to break.

I guess I'd wait to see what the vet comes up with.

As far as the costs go I don't know of any organization that helps out, sorry! Fingers crossed that it ends up being something simple!

Thank you I will send those links to my sister. I'm preety sure he has that mange. I know very little about dogs. The original thought was that he was peeing in the house because he had preety much lived outside and was able to go when ever he wanted. His water was restricted. The problem with it being behavioral is that they do not have the time to properly train him. I think if it is behavioral they will look for a rescue group to take him. They really do like him, but really do not have time for a serious behavioral issue. They really are just trying to do the best they can for him.

Well they can be retrained but it takes a lot of effort and patience. If they go the rescue route then probably they're better off with a SharPei rescue as those are less common. But if your sis and SO want to try to retrain him then it should take about 2-3 months. I personally wouldn't call lack of houstraining a serious behavioral issue, but then again I'm obviously a dog person! Most often it is a matter of not communicating to the dog what you want and being consistent about it and/or not managing situtations and setting the dog up for failure / unwanted behavior.

Anyhoo, best of luck!

Just a quick update. All of his blood urine tests came back normal. So, unless his behavior begins to improve he will be getting rehomed. He is really just too much for their two 6-7 year old dogs. That in combination with his potty issues have proven to be more than they were ready to handle. They had been informed that he was already potty trained or they wouldn't have taken him. They will make sure he gets a good home, that is aware of any issues he has.

Glad to hear there are no serious health issues.
Just curious, could this be submissive urination? What are they doing to housetrain him?

A behaviorist had suggested submissive urination, but it is only a huge problem when they do not restrict his water. My sister was convinced it wasn't submissive urination. I do not know what they are doing to house train him, but I do know they are trying to take him out often. I should add that my sister is in the last 6 monts of her PhD and works crazy hours and her SO works 2 jobs to pay for the house. So this is why they are not comfortable with a dog that needs to be potty trained. My sister does run the dogs every morning. The problem is after he's been in his crate all day he has to go bad. So my sister will let him out of his crate and he starts peeing, and he pees all the way down the stairs all the way though the house and walks in circles at the door until they get out. I think now that his health check out they are trying to do a better job of limiting his water intake. I guess he drinks a lot of water, which is what caused them to take him to the vet.

Aha. If he can hold it until he gets out of his crate then his bladder control is fine. It sounds like if they limit his water after 7PM and maybe put the crate near the door they can lick this. I wish them the best of luck.