Wow, thanks again for all of the replies and info, guys! This place is great
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No, I haven't had a thyroid panel done on him. To be honest, I never even considered that this could be related to anything other than diet(can you tell I'm dumb about dog health?[8|]), especially since the changes occured over the course of switching him to raw.
A year after I got him he ended up with heartworm (yes, he's on prevention) and the vets pretty much wrote him off- none in my area even wanted to bother trying to treat him and most considered him so far gone that they advised us to euthanize. We finally took him to Auburn Vet school and after an $800 treatment (my parents took care of it, so I'm not sure exactly what was done to him) he lived. His heart took a pretty huge blow though, and he's never had the stamina that he had before. Any exercise he gets can't be *too* vigorous since he just can't handle it. We play in the backyard and I take him around the block a few times, but he really can't handle anything more than that- heck, sometimes even that tiny workout is enough that I practically have to carry him home at times. Before heartworm, he could go all day and hardly stop to pant.
So because of all this, his weight became a problem. He was still a beautful dog, shiny and muscular and healthy, he just tended to chub a little. He was never really horribly obese.
None of the negative changes occured until I switched him to raw. I'm going to go to some local stores today and see exactly what they have (thanks brookecove, for looking those places up for me) and I'll try to find a decent kibble for him. I'm going to try him on something chicken-free for a week or two and see if there's any improvement, and if not I'll look into having a thyroid panel done and anything else the vet think might help.
Honestly, the reason I don't just go ahead and have one done is because SDA (a rat specific virus that kills through secondary infections) hit my rattery about a week ago and I've spent well over $500 in the past week on antibiotics and various other things for my 35 rats. I know how important it is to have money for vet care- I keep a vet fund that usually has enough for anything I need, but this really was a crisis situation and I'm pretty much cleaned out at the moment. So, if a change in diet doesn't help him, I'll definitely have some tests run to see what the problem is, it'll just take me a bit to get my finances back where they were. I run a rat forum, and believe me, I'm one of the first to get onto people for not
lanning ahead for vet care, but I have- this recent thing was an unusual circumstance and it's pretty much cleaned me out. I'm really, really hoping this is as simple as a chicken allergy or some other dietary problem.
As for the fatty tumors, yes, a vet has seen him for it. I recently moved to Macon from Columbus (just got married and got out of my parent's house) and I was never, EVER happy with the vets in columbus. My various animals have been to virtually every vet there, and they never seem to know what they're doing- they hate to run tests, hate to do ANYTHING more invasive than a spay or neuter- maybe it's just been my experience, but they seem totally lazy, apathetic, and inept. No matter what my concerns were, they never seemed to know what I was talking about or care, and they were totally dismissive to everything, as was the case when Axl had heartworm ("Just put him to sleep/don't know what's wrong with him, probably a liver problem/there's no telling/he's sick, just put him down.") I really think it's because columbus is about 45 minutes from the Auburn vet school. The vets in columbus were happy to do routine spays and neuters and vaccinations, maybe set a broken bone, and anything else they would honestly just shrug and reccomend euthanasia for. It took ALOT of persistance and prodding to get them to finally refer me to Auburn, and because of the distance, and their insane prices, going to Auburn was pretty much reserved for emergencies. (Again, this was when I was a teenager and not in control of the dogs/finances. They were the family dogs. I could complain a little, but ultimately I had no real say.) Anyway, my point is, I've never been able to get a real answer about his lumps. I took him to three different vets, and they all just shrugged and said "fatty tumor. We'll look into it if it gets any bigger." No needle biopsies, nothing. They don't seem to bother him, he's had them for a couple of years now, but I'd still like a real answer on them. Like I said, I've just moved to Macon and haven't found a vet that I really liked yet and haven't been here long enough to establish a real relationship with one. In about a month or so my vet fund should have recovered and I'll be able to have his lumps really looked into.
Here's a few pics of him just before I switched him to raw:
He was fat, but he was shiny and healthy and fairly energetic and happy. The happy dog smile in these pictures? I haven't seen him make that face in months. He just seems so miserable.
Here are some from earlier today, after a few months on raw. I dunno, maybe you have to see him in person to tell the difference. I'll post them anyway:
The protruding lump on the lower part of his belly is the main one that concerns me, and the only one of that type that he has. It hasn't grown at all, , it's really soft, and it doesn't seem to be painful at all.
Here's one of his broken/filed canines. All four of them are this way:
And here are some of the warts/tumors that have been on him since we got him:
They're really small, and he has several.
So I hope no one thinks me horribly irresponsible- up until August, he was a family dog, more my parent's than mine, and I had very little say in what they did with him. Now that he's officially mine, I plan on getting all of his little problems worked out, it's just going to take me a bit to replenish the vet fund.
Sorry for writing a novel...you guys are seem nice and knowledgeable and I hope you'll have a bit more insight into his problems than I do. I know ultimately though, he needs to see the vet and that's on the list of urgent things to do.