It's been a rough few weeks with Howie the Hound in our household. About 2 weeks ago Howie started have accidents in the house, which he rarely does. He went from rarely having accidents only when we both had perhaps left him an extra long time after a long day at work, to having accidents every other day or so, to having them nearly EVERY day. Very strange, and very frustrating. Initially, we thought it was a behavioral issue; perhaps we weren't spending enough time with him, maybe he wanted more walks. Luke thought perhaps that because he likes to be outside so much, even when he doesn't have to go potty, that he was losing the association of outside as his potty place. That seemed strange to me, and admittedly to Luke, especially since even in the dead of winter in 20-below weather he would ask to go outside for potty and not have accidents.
Something just didn't feel right. Howie is such a good boy, he wasn't flippant about his accidents (he seemed sheepish about them) and just in general sort of sad lately. So after clues of different behavior added up over the past 2 weeks, I brought him to the vet today, suspicious that something was just not right and it wasn't Howie being a bad boy. And now I feel awful, because our little guy has a UTI and I wait TWO WEEKS to bring him in!
After describing all the "it just doesn't seem right" behavior to the vet tech, and them of course taking a sample and finding a ton of two different kinds of bacteria and getting our prescription, the vet tech told me not to feel bad. She said that a lot owners don't bring their pets in unless they see blood in their urine and don't even notice all the little quirks we picked up on, so they wait way longer. She said that there was no way that we could have known, really, and she was impressed that we brought him in. A bit of lip service that made me feel a bit better, but I might have gotten a bit teary when I got home anyway. The poor little guy has been feeling under the weather for TWO WEEKS!! :-(
So Howie is getting even more snuggle and TLC from us lately, poor little guy!!!
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3 comments:
poor Howie! hope he feels better soon.
Jen
Poor Howie. And Poor Janna and Luke too! I know it feels bad that you didn't take him in sooner--but the Vet Tech was right. You did great picking up on all the subtle cues as soon as you did. It could have gone on a lot longer if you guys hadn't been on the ball to notice that stuff. If only our puppies and kitties could just tell us what is going on it would make things so much easier, wouldn't it?
poor Howie! Hope he's back to normal soon.
Did he get a book to snuggle up with while he's sick?
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