by Bel Eve Forver

Created on: December 29, 2008

While Canine Hypocalcemia may occur most frequently in females after a litter it can occur in males also. Canine Hypocalcemia can be a side effect of malabsorption due to any number digestive diseases including PLE or Protein Loosing Enteropathy. I speak from experience. I am a dog breeder and know to watch my females for signs of eclampsia but I did not expect to have this condition effect one of my males.

Symptoms - Loss of coordination, stumbling, dragging of feet. Heavy breathing, panting. Muscle spasms, seizure-like episodes, or just a trembling of the limbs that can be felt but not seen. Loss of appetite, but not loss of thirst and high body temperature.

Treatment - is always a trip to the vet. This condition can quickly kill your pet. The vet will administer an IV that will SLOWLY raise the calcium level. This must be done slowly, if the calcium level is increased too fast your dog can go into cardiac arrhythmia. Which in basic terms means the same spasms that are keeping your dog from walking can effect the heart and keep it from beating. Depending on the dog it could take many days for the calcium to return to normal levels.

Causes - an unbalanced diet is the number one cause of Canine Hypocalcemia. Canine Hypocalcemia can also be a side effect of many other conditions like Hypoparathyroidism, acute pancreatitis, some cancers, PLE or some medications.

People tend to think that dogs need protein, but dogs are savagers and as such eat what is available to them. They eat the bones as well as the offal of the animals they kill. Through eating what the animal has eaten dogs get the "vegetable matter" that they need. There is also a tendency to over feed calcium to a bitch to "help" with the bone growth in puppies and help the bitch herself to "keep her teeth". These thoughts might have had some truth many years ago before commercial dog food, but are wrong today. If you are thinking of supplementing remember that the body - human or canine - can not use calcium without Vitamin D. If you care enough to give supplements to your pet, please speak to your vet and get a blood test to ensure you are providing the right supplements and not overdoing.

If your dog is on a special diet remember to ask your vet if a thorough blood test should be done to make sure that all of your dogs blood levels are within normal range. This is a very simple condition to correct if caught in time and easily corrected with little expense. However, if the condition does progress to where your dog needs to be hospitalized then it can easily cost thousands of dollars to get your dog back on his or her feet. If this condition happens post whelp you may not only lose your female but could also lose your puppies if you don't have the ability to feed and care for them yourself. For your males, canine hypocalcemia may be an ongoing expense that is added to your existing vet bill and medications.

I hope you don't find out that your dog has canine hypocalcemia the way I did, on a Sunday after a trip to the emergency clinic.

For more information on PLE see -http://www.petshealth.com/dr_library/ple.html

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