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[siderophobia]

Hello. I'm extremely new here, and mainly it's because I feel like I need to exhaust every venue possible. I have a purebred dalmatian, who is about two and a half years old. In last few months, the dog (who was previously extremely playful and loving) has almost "turned"? He's since bitten two people, luckily close friends who have no desire to

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[pawsup]

My first thought is that there may be a medical reason for this. Thyroid problems can manifest as aggression, as can epilepsy (and epilepsy does not always mean the dog has full-on seizures). I recommend having a blood panel done. I'd also keep an eye out for behaviors that could indicate a partial seizure, such as snapping at "invisible flies", leg jerking/tremoring, head bobbing, "blanking out", and disorientation.

Vision problems aren't very common in Dals, but it can't hurt to have his vision checked. The main vision problem found in Dals is iris hypoplasia (also called iris sphincter dysplasia), which causes discomfort and squinting in sunlight and may lead to difficulty seeing due to cataracts and retinal damage.

It's also possible that he has formed urinary stones, especially if he is not on a low-purine diet. The most common urinary stone in Dals is urate, and while urate stones usually form in the bladder, they do sometimes form in the kidneys - both bladder and kidney stones can be painful (kidney stones almost always cause pain). Urate stones are radiolucent so your vet would have to do an ultrasound or use a contrast dye to find them. When a Dal has stones, they generally have crystals in their urine, which can be found in a routine urinalysis.

By the way, is your dog from a breeder or is he a rescue dog?

[siderophobia]

I'm very on top of his diet/purine intake. I've never heard of epilepsy like this, it's certainly something to look into. Jack is from a breeder, but not a mill. He's actually a rescue in that he was wounded by his mother as a puppy (and has a terrible scar to prove it) and wasn't exactly "desirable" so I took him in. I've had suspicions that the wound was traumatic (as well as the surgery he had later in life to cosmetically repair it), but he really allows me to touch him, move him, basically do whatEVER I want to him with no sensitivity, weirdness, aggression, anything.