My fur baby is sick. :(

My poor Siena-girl. She has a bladder infection. No idea where she picked it up, but Moscow is very dirty and they are putting chemicals down now all over the street to force the ice and snow to melt. She also had a couple accidents in the apartment on Sunday (which is VERY rare for her) and yesterday there was some blood in her pee. :(  

So yesterday I had to collect her pee to get analyzed at a lab. How do you collect pee from a dog, you're wondering?

Basically you scoot a salad plate underneath her rear right when she squats to go. Then pour whatever you capture on the plate into a plastic container and hope you got enough and that it's not contaminated. I did get some on my hand during the process, which was gross, but not horrible...and as Scott said, "urine is sterile!" Haha. Says the guy who doesn't have to do the collecting!

The analysis came back and the numbers indicated that she has stones and crystals in(?) her bladder, which cause irritation and inflammation, resulting in much more frequent need to go, uncomfortableness and some blood coming out whenever she goes. Poor thing, I wish I could make her feel better! When I take her out now, she pees like 4 times during the walk and still doesn't seem to get any relief.

So today the vet said we need to get an ultrasound to check that there aren't any polyps in there too. Not sure what they do if there are polyps, but we'll cross that bridge if we need to. So instead of packing tomorrow afternoon I'll be going to a dog ultrasound appointment. In Moscow. The only upside of having this problem here is that it's probably cheaper here than in the US because the "pet industry" isn't regulated here. :-/

We are leaving on Saturday for the US, so I really hope we can sort this out and have her on the mend before we go!