Hi everyone
I noticed that something seemed off in my little Sophie. She is 7 months old and fully housetrained but started having accidents. The worst was in my bed (aaarrgh) thank goodness for enzymes a handy steam cleaner and an hour to kill before work.
So I decided to have a urine test done. After following Sophie around the backyard at 5:30 am dressed in PJ's a housecoat my hubbies shoes and armed with a soup ladel I successfully collected a sample (hoping the neighbours were alseep I can only imagine what that looked like).
Tonight my vet emailed me with the results. I am just going to copy and paste the body of the email and hope that some of you may have some experience with this. I have told her that I will gladly do whatever it takes to ensure the best health but of course hearing there are any issues is upsetting.
So here's the email:
I am just heading out for the day but wanted to touch base regarding your little ones urine sample that you dropped off the other day. I understand she has been peeing in the house which she has not been doing before.
The concentration of her urine is quite high for a dog, there also doesn't appear to be any blood or bacteria in the sample. However, there are some crystals that we are seeing and they are calcium based (2 different types). There is a concern for this type of crystal because if the bind together to create a stone they are not dissolvable and need to be removed surgically. Some can be an indication of infection as well. The question is what should we do moving forward.
A couple things. I would consider an abdominal x-ray to make sure there is not a stone already present. Also, we can send the urine for a culture at the lab to make sure there is no infection (they will see if any bacteria grows from her urine sample) and then treat accordingly. If that is not an option we could run a course of antibiotics through her and recheck the sample to see if crystals clear.
In the meantime some things to consider. Is the RAW diet not balanced properly and thus causing issues with the urine? Start adding additional water to her food and dilute the urine so it as not as concentrated thus not as irritating and able to flush crystals from the bladder. If we cannot resolve the crystals and there is no stones I would strongly consider putting her on a prescription urinary diet that dissolves crystals so she doesn't form a stone.
Have a read through the above and let me know how you would like to proceed. Talk soon,
She's the most incredible vet I have ever had in 26 years of having dogs so I trust her completely. Just wondering if this has happened to any of your pups. Primarily looking for some info as I can't talk to the vet till she's in tomorrow.
Thanks guys