Patty’s Place

Sounds like a rock group doesn’t? Well, in a way it is… Cody has bladder stones, lots of them, but really tiny. he has been on antibiotics for a month, but to no avail. He still has them.

Back up to a month ago:
I noticed blood in his urine and took him to the vet. After x-rays it was as suspected; bladder stones. I was issued a month of antibiotics, he was put on a special diet and told to take my dog and watch him urinate every… EVERY time he goes out because a blockage could happen and it could become an emergency. But we’d like to try to dissolve the stones and avoid surgery, so here I am every day taking him for a walk down the road 35 times a day (an exaggeration, but it feels like that many!) So now, picture this… do you think he would hike his leg in such a way that I could see him urinate without being to obvious? OH NO… he manages to position himself in such a way that I just about have to stand on my head to make sure there is a stream with each hike… I wonder what folks driving down the road think as they see this woman sticking her head down to the ground and watching her dog pee? LOL!! He won’t pee on a leash in the backyard… nor can I keep up with him loose in the back yard to see him pee… so the walk is the only way.

NOW… a week or so later, the vet wants a urine sample to test his ph. Oh, okay I say, shall I bring him for you to do that? Not at all says she, just take a bowl out and catch some in it and bring that in…. AHHHHH… more humiliation… sure, okay… so out I go with my dog and my bowl… he hikes, I look around… how do you do this inconspicuously?? You don’t… that’s how… so… he hikes, I shove the bowl under him, he stops peeing immediately and looks at me as if to say… ummmm a little privacy here, huh?? 4 blocks down the road, I have 4 drops of urine in a bowl, a wet hand and one really irritated dog! LOL Not too mention an entire city probably gossiping about the strange woman who walks her dog, watches him pee and catches it in a bowl… what fun!!

We went last Friday for more x-rays, the stones are still there, we are on another round of different antibiotics for two weeks, after a week and half I get to chase him with a bowl again and take in a sample… plus more x-rays, if there is still no improvement, he’ll have to have surgery. A quite expensive procedure I am sure, I am afraid to ask the cost just yet as I am unsure how I am going to pay for it. But pay for it I will, one way or another.

I think the worst part so far has been the fact that he is not allowed ANY treats whatsoever on this special diet. He does not understand this. It’s really hard to turn down those pleading eyes.

Summary:

1st set of x-rays tests, etc.: $300.00
Second set of x-rays: $100.00
Special Diet for a month: $25.00
Being seen catching my dog’s urine in a bowl: Priceless