Regress

This morning Mia woke me up at 5am, which she hasn't done in awhile, and I took her out. She was squatting, grunting, whining, and mini-barking while trying to go the bathroom. Immediately I knew something was wrong -- she seemed to have gotten worse from the night before. The night before I had called the vet and he had said to come by today and pick up some new, stronger meds. Well, after the hour that I was up I knew she was in pain. So I planned to go into school and get a half day sub to come at 11:30 so I could go home and be with Mia.

I called the vet at 7am and left a message with the receptionist. The vet had suggested yesterday to start new strong meds AND also go back on an anti-inflammatory/pain med to help her feel more comfortable, but I had said I didn't think that helped her too much because she wasn't in pain yesterday. Well, this morning when I called I asked if they could also have that filled for me by 11:30 when I got up there. She said she would have the vet call me at 8:30 and leave a message if anything changed.

When he called me and left a message he said he was happy to fill both of the prescriptions but did want to talk to me. I called him at 10:00 when my kids went out for recess and he seemed to think the meds would work and there was no need to bring her in. If the meds didn't work then I could bring her in and we would move onto the next step.

Well, when I got home at 11:30 she was in bad shape. I had tears in my eyes and I knew something was terribly wrong. She had tipped her water bowl all over the kitchen and her food was everywhere too. She never does this. She wasn't excited to see me and she was just very scared and in so much pain. I put her in the car and off we went. Even though the vet said he didn't need to see her, I think he did. She was in so much pain on the drive she was salivating and foaming at the mouth, throwing her head back and howling, and just moving all around to try and get comfortable. I cried the whole way there -- she was acting like she was dying,

When I got to the vet apparently I looked bad enough that they put me right into a room (even though earlier they said they had no spaces - I'm glad they took us right away:)) She had a really low temperature and had lost half a pound. The vet came in and immediately felt her bladder - AGAIN it wasn't emptying. He didn't know what it could be but he took her immediately, had me sign a consent form, and said he was going to sedate her. She was in too much pain and he wanted to put in a catheter and get in there and figure out what was going on.

An hour later he called and said she was coming out of the sedation and doing well. He drained it all but she was VERY SWOLLEN. There were no stones in her bladder and he also inflated her bladder with air to see if there were any tumors (which are EXTREMELY rare, especially in young dogs) and there were no signs of a tumor, which was my biggest fear. All he can think of is her bladder infection is SO SEVERE that she just keeps becoming inflamed and swollen. He was going to call a specialist and fill her in and if in a couple days we don't see improvement with ALL of her meds then we will contact the specialist. He called her for a 2nd opinion and also to bring her up-to-date just in case.

So, Mia is now on 4 different antibiotics. Some are given twice a day, some once a day, some a whole pill, others one and a half, and one of them is a liquid form. No joke, I wrote a list of all of the medicine names and the times she needs to take them. There are WAY TOO many pills, but whatever makes her feel better:)

As soon as we got home she drank a ton, and peed a lot - which made me happy. For the past day and a half it was turning more into a trickle so this is good. She is sleeping now on her pillow and seems more content.

Isn't she sweet? She needs a bath, bad, but we will save that for Derrick:)