Sadly, yes, I have experience with this but the outcome was not good. We have dog doors so weren’t aware how often our lab/chow (Chowbrador) was going out to pee. It was an overnight in a hotel that brought it to our attention (I got into my teenager for not taking the dog out and she said she just got back in with him 15 minutes prior and he had peed forever when he was out with her – then he peed for about 45 solid seconds with me when I took him out just 15 minutes later. We spent all night going out once an hour.)
Anyway, we went to the vet and discovered elevated calcium … and, through testing, we discovered a list of things that COULD have caused it but weren’t the cause for my dog. Meanwhile, he was getting physically weaker and he was unable to keep his back legs from splaying every time he sat or lay down. He was having a hard time getting up. (ETA: vet prescribed special diet but he was already not interested in food.)
Then he quit eating entirely. (All within about 2 weeks of the initial discovery.) I got appetite stimulant/anti-nausea drugs from the vet that they use in cancer patients. No dice. I was down to cooking every tempting morsel I could think of and presenting it warm, or from my hands or whatever. Still no dice. After 5 days of no food, his shape had noticeably changed to starving.
Sadly, I decided to euthanize … unfortunately I have experience with animals who become anorexic to this point with additional physical issues and the outcome has always been that this is an end-stage situation.
Looking back, he had always been a ‘thirsty’ dog but we attributed that to being black and double-coated … much hairier than a usual lab. I wonder if he always had elevated blood calcium and it just got very much worse at the end (he was 12).
I hope you discover the cause of your dog’s issues … please post back with whatever you find out!
