Pee on a plate part 3

The things I do for my sweet Siena. Collected her urine again this morning. I'm getting pretty good at the ahem, maneuver, at this point. Not something to put on the resume, unfortunately.

Crossing fingers for a clean report this time. 

"Veterinaria Clinic 'Movet'"

Pee on a plate part 2

This has really been a busy week for Siena. I used to think she was low maintenance!

Yesterday I brought another urine sample to the lab using my patented "plate collection" method (see previous post on this topic). Prior to the holidays they said we needed to retest for crystals to see if the medicine and new food are working.

My only observation this time around is that the vet clinic / lab where I went looks exactly how I envisioned a Russian [people] hospitals would look: cold, crumbling and not necessarily all that sterile. The people clinic that I go to is not at all like this, thankfully! And this vet was quite busy; I even saw two Goldens in the waiting room so they must be legit. The building is just kind of sad and worn out looking.  

This is the door to the lab: "laboratoria" is what the sign under the 7 says. 

Clearly they're not spending rubles on decor. The good news is it's only $10 for a urine culture. Unheard of in the States!

Cross your fingers that the results come back clean and that we don't need to continue the special, expensive urinary tract food and more importantly, that we don't need another ultrasound or more medication!

In the belly of the whale

Chewed up by a whale and waiting to be spit out. That's how my friend M (a former expat herself, who knows about the trailing spouse life overseas) described it. And it's exactly how I feel right now, from the travel, the jet lag and new unwelcome stress.

Siena came back from the "farm" as we call it (where she boards when we're away) with a weird kink in her tail and now it won't go UP at all. She can still wag it, but it just hangs straight down, limp, and sways side to side. Not vigorous and perky like she usually is. It's so sad to see, my poor sweet dog!

I made Scott leave work and come with me, Siena and Beau to the emergency vet -- for crying out loud, a BROKEN TAIL IS an emergency if you ask me!

At the vet they weren't very definitive but said it wasn't very painful (though I disagree because she won't let me near it) and that it is either clogged anal glands (soo gross) or "trauma to the region" (and then they had me hold her still while they did a rectal exam to see if the poor girl had been "ruptured," which she hadn't, thank god). The whole thing was rather barbaric and Siena looked so uncomfortable and sad during the exam. :-(

We left the vet and Scott later tells me that we "wasted" his afternoon. 

But really. would your beautiful animal come back from boarding with a broken tail in the USA? I think not. And if anything did happen, wouldn't they call you right away and tell you they noticed it and had already taken her to the vet to get it checked?? Yes. When we called the farm they had no idea what we were talking about. Of course. 

Anyway, now we have to wait a few days and if it's still limp, we go back to the vet for more tests or pills or something. I know it could have been much, much worse, but honestly, we are still dealing with the urine crystals from before xmas and we have baby jetlag and our own jetlag going on in this household. Enough already!! Can we please get a break???

Poor Siena. She doesn't look like my same puppy dog without her trademark tail wag! I feel so guilty for leaving her. I know it could have happened anywhere but it feels so much worse here. 

Went to bed around 8:30 pm last night, an all time EARLY for me after such a traumatizing day. Thankfully Scott got up with B from 10-12ish? I think...now I've been up with him for feeding etc since 2:30 am but it's actually more tolerable if you go to bed super early. That assumes you have someone else to get up at the half way mark and your child already sleeps 4 hours at some point in the night.  

Ha, only took me 5.5 months and a dog with a malfunctioning tail to figure that out. Way to be a slow learner, CB. Belly of the whale, belly of the whale.

Siena update

We had the ultrasound today and there were no polyps, yay! So no surgery needed. They saw "crystals" in her bladder so she is going to take a week of antibiotics and some other anti-spasm medicines AND they want us to change her food for 2 months. 

But no surgery is huge! I was so worried. Now we can leave the country with more peace of mind. I also think she will be feeling some relief from the infection / crystals soon so that is good too. Hooray!

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!