I consider myself to be somewhere left of neurotic when it comes to Mina...probably a smidgen closer to neurotic if I give it any amount of thought (I don't). She's 11. She's hypothyroid and incontinent. She has a strange intermittent limping problem with her left shoulder that remains a mystery to the three vets who've seen her. She goes to the vet multiple times a year for blood work and urinalysis and fecal exams and sometimes just because I want to apparently torture her.And now she will be making a trip to the vet Monday because of The Hair Loss.
I'm not sure when it started. I noticed it a couple weeks ago and thought it was a trick of light. Then last week, I thought someone had taken a tweezer and plucked out the hair, in equal proportion, on both sides of her pelvic bone (or hip bones? or are they the same? whatever). A crop circle on my dog's butt. Trying to get a closer look was dangerous, as Mina's white-tipped tail prefers to lash back and forth in doggy happiness whenever she is touched by Those She Loves.
So now I am Concerned. This is not concern or CONCERN, but it still deserves at least one capitalized letter and why not make it be a proper sort of deal?
I think she is drinking more water, but this could also be my imagination. Until Monday, I will be closely monitoring her intake and shaking my fist at Celeste if she dares drink from the official MINA WATER INTAKE BOWL. Maybe I'll put a sticker on it.
Any thoughts? My panicked thought was Cushing's - the hair loss is similar to my last dog who had the adrenal gland problem (she also baffled the vets by living another eight years). But Mina is also hypothyroid and has been on the lowest dose for years, perhaps her thyroid is in need of another pick-me-up. The area isn't irritated, so I know she isn't biting it. It's very localized just on those two spots near her rear end.
I have many fears about losing Mina. Sometimes I have to squish them down deep out of another fear that even THINKING about those fears will somehow make them a reality for Mina. Silly. I don't do this with Celeste, which is probably good for Celeste. But Mina? There has never been a dog I have loved so profoundly. It's a painful love and sometimes, like now, I hate it. Never Mina, of course. She I could love for a kajillion years and more.
