The Little Pack

Dixie went to the vet tonight to have her staples removed and I expected to be able to report how well she is doing and that she was given a clean bill of health. Unfortunately, they think that the internal stitches may not be holding, which means: more surgery. This poor dog! I would ask if it could get worse, except that I know it could. She goes in Friday and we will know more then.

On a better note, the vet now believes that he may have missed the stone the first time around. He went back to all the x-rays and thinks that it may have been there the whole time, just in a difficult spot to see on the x-ray. This is actually good news because this means that her body may not be making the stones as fast as previously thought. If that is true, we may be able to manage these stones after all.

All research indicates that wet food is a better choice in the case of calcium oxalate stones because it consists of 80% water. The more water she drinks, the more diluted her urine stays, and the less chance the oxalates have of binding together. We have switched her to the wet U/D, and so far, she loves it.

All we can do is take this one step at time and see where it takes us. We are hoping that brings us to a happy, healthy dog with a long future ahead of her.

Can this dog’s week get any worse? We received a call today from the vet, who let us know that they ran a urinalysis on the urine removed from Dixie’s bladder at the time of her surgery. The urine showed an E.coli infection that is resistant to Baytril, the antibiotic she’s been taking since after surgery. And when we got home, her incision was oozing badly. So, yes, you guessed it-we have been to the vet tonight. I’m pretty sure 5 visits since last Wednesday is excessive. Anyway, the incision is oozing due to infection. When they open the bladder, some urine spills into the body, and since the infection is immune to the antibiotic she has been on, it has spread. She is okay though. She had a shot of the new antibiotic and started the new antibiotic tonight. It makes sense why she has felt so crummy now. We go back to the vet Thursday. We should see a big improvement by then.

Dixie in happier times above. Dixie seems to be doing a little better today. She ate a little bit and rested alot. But she admonished the neighbors for being in their own yard, kicked her back legs after peeing, and I even saw her lift her leg while peeing a couple of times. (Both her and Cheyenne do this.) She may only weigh 10 pounds, but she is strong and brave.

Dixie came home from the vet. However, the surgery she had was much more extensive than last time. She really has little control of her bladder, so even though we are taking her out at least every 45 minutes, she is still having accidents. When she goes it is very bloody, and it is obvious that she just doesn’t feel good. We took her for  her 3 day check up today. Her temperature is normal, her incision is fine, they did an ultrasound on her bladder, and it looks good. However, apparently this time, the stone was lodged in her urethra which is what was causing her to be in so much pain. Unfortunately that meant more invasive treatment and her bladder is still weak from the surgery in October. Everything she is experiencing is normal for the surgery she had.

She has hardly eaten a thing since her surgery on Thusday, so although she is supposed to be on 100% U/D and nothing else, our task now is to get her to eat anything at all. On the way home from the vet she began vomiting until she was dry heaving and literally crying and trembling so we turned around and headed back to vet’s. Meanwhile there is a snow storm–why wouldn’t there be?–so the roads are terrible. Once there, they gave her anti-nausea medication and fluids in an IV. We now have her in her kennel and she is sad and confused that she is in there. But until she regains a little more control of her bladder, we don’t really have a good alternative.

Part of the problem facing us is the type of bladder stone that she has. Hers are calcium-oxalate stones. Sometimes diet helps, but I am learning that in some cases with these types of stones, diet can only slow the production of these stones in the body. All you can do is try to catch the stones before surgery is required while they can still be flushed out. Her body seems to generate new stones very quickly. The stone she just had removed was very large, and occurred in 6 short weeks. It seems we have a rough road ahead.

This morning started the same as any other other day. I trudged into the kitchen and cursed the fact that I forgot to make coffee last night, started cooking my breakfast and then stole a few extra minutes of shut-eye on the couch. While I was eating breakfast, my husband took the dogs out. When he came inside, he said that something was wrong with Dixie. She was laying down, trembling, and whimpering. She did not want to walk at all, and she was clearly in pain. I looked at the clock-6:30AM. An hour and a half before I could bring her to our own vet. She was in too much pain to wait it out. So my husband and I both called into work and took her to the emergency vet. After a shot of morphine and 2 xrays later, and way more money than I care to recall, we saw a very large stone in her bladder. By now the regular vet was open, and we took Dixie and the xrays there. The stone was very large, even if it was somehow missed the first time around in October. She had surgery today and did fine. The good news is that her bladder didn’t rupture. However, going forward, I’m not sure what the future holds. She had surgery in October, was cathetarized in January and 2 weeks away from her 8 week follow-up this happened. She is on Science Diet U/D which for her stone type is supposed to be the best thing for her. We were told absolutely, positively nothing but this food and water.  We are pretty good about it now, although she does steal the others’ food when she can and we occasionally let her lick the plate or give her a tiny treat. These are all strictly forbidden now. I pick her up tomorrow and we will take one day at a time.