Update on Marlee

As many of you know, my little pooch got pretty ill last week..it scared me and made me very sad.  It's funny how our pets really are like children to us...even when we have children or have a child on the way.

Anyway, last Tuesday afternoon when I got home from work, I was greeted with a horrible smell when I walked into the house.  It smelled of poop, but I knew there was no way there could be poop in the house because Marlee was crated and she's really good about doing her "business" outside.  Anyway, as I was walking Marlee, I noticed her "business" was not like it normally is.  I immediately called up my good friend Alyssa who is a vet tech and told her about the symptoms Marlee was exhibiting (including the vomit episode she had the previous Saturday evening while Jeff was away).  When I came back inside, I noticed that she had vomited in her crate at some point in the day.  Being the overly emotional person that I am, I immediately started crying (like that is really going to help or solve anything, but that's what I do).

Alyssa highly recommended that I take her in to see the vet on Wednesday, so early Wednesday, I headed to the doc with Marlee.  She was gassing me the entire way there, and it was the most offensive smell ever!!  We get to the office, and they take her right back and get her temp and do a stool sample, and the results of the latter test were alarming, so they took her right to get x-rays and do a full panel of blood work.  Of course, I'm crying in the waiting room because I'm unsure of what is wrong with my Marlee.  After a short wait, the doc comes in and said the x-rays didn't show anything except that her tummy and intestines were inflamed and "angry" as he put it.  He surmised that she had a pretty serious bacteria in her belly and intestines and proceeded to give me 5 different medicines to give her over the next two weeks.

On Thursday afternoon, I got a call from the vet's office with the results of her blood work and urineanalysis.  The blood work looked good and all her levels and vital organs looked good as well.  However, the urine test showed that she has crystals in her urine, calicum oxalate which could turn into bladder stones.  They said the Ph level of her urine was low (acidic) and that we needed to re-test in 4 weeks.  They said if the crystals were still there in 4 weeks, they will want to do more x-ryas and possibly ultrasounds.  OMG!!

Well, we've been very diligent about adding a ton of water to her food to ensure she's getting enough fluids to help flush out her little bladder.  They also said we needed to change up her food and put her on prescription dog food that is supposed to also help with the acidity levels.

She is still not 100% back to her normal little chipper self, and that breaks my heart!  I'm hoping and praying that the changes we're making to her diet and the medicines that we're on for the next week will cure all her issues.  I can't stand the thought of her being in pain or having to have surgery if she does develop bladder stones; Lord knows we can't afford on-going ultrasounds, x-rays, and surgeries.

Please keep my little girl in your prayers...she's gotta get better!!