I love this incredulous expression.

I want to write about my rides this weekend and what I learned; I need to write about the conversation I just had with Savannah's new vet.

On the night that my husband was sick, one of the dogs had an accident in the bedroom.  We automatically assume Savannah, because this is her given symptom for having a UTI.  I called the new vet that day (like I didn't have enough to worry about!) and verified that I could bring in a sample.  Unfortunately, they don't open until 8 AM, which is the same time that I have to be at work.

So I collected a sample on Saturday and we dropped it off.  They wanted to send it out and get another culture, but the last culture came back clean and we weren't a hundred percent sure that the accident was medically-related and not behavioral, as my husband was disrupting the normal scheme of things that night.  We opted for the $100 cheaper in house UA.

The vet called me this morning to relay her findings.  Large rods, no crystals, pH is still a little high (7, versus 8 or 9 of last time), and a small amount of blood (protein plus one).  We spent a few minutes talking about everything.  Since Savannah normally has crystals when she has a UTI, the new doc thinks the diet change has wiped out the crystals and helped to lower her pH.  The plan now is to slam her body with antibiotics.

And schedule an ultrasound.

As far as the antibiotics go, we've historically done 750 mg cipro SID (once a day) for two weeks.  This time, we're going to do 500 mg cipro BID (twice a day) for a month.  The hope is that this will knock out anything lingering and that my sweet dog will be able to go longer than three months without a UTI.  The last treatment was in late February.

The ultrasound is to make sure that there isn't an underlying reason for the UTIs:  bladder stones, tumors, etc.  If there is any of that, then it's a referral to an internal medicine specialist.  The only place in Savannah that does ultrasounds is actually at my old clinic.  The normal procedure is to drop the pets off first thing in the morning and then pick them up that afternoon.  I'm hoping that my prior work experience there would grant me the opportunity to hold for the procedure, given that I held once or twice when I worked there.  It would also get us in and out quicker and I would know immediately if the vet found anything wanky.

Ugh.