[linz06]

Hey guys. I haven't been around much lately. A month ago we celebrated a year with no flare-ups with Layla's IVDD. We adopted two more senior dogs and they are fitting into our family wonderfully. Even Layla is sharing her bed sometimes!

Well, when Layla was still going to rehab, she had some bad smelling dark pee for awhile and they did some tests thinking it was a UTI but it was clear, and her urine was just really concentrated. She has had her urine tested every once in awhile and there have been no issues so we thought we were doing a good job expressing her.

Well, lately it just started getting darker and darker and started to smell quite strong, and it wasn't just a urine smell anymore. So we took her in at the start of December and the vet found a LOT of bacteria. She said she counted at least 5 kinds. There was also a lot of white blood cells and protein. I am someone with kidney problems myself, she didn't need to explain the protein to me. I know her kidneys are in trouble.

She was put on antibiotics for 20 days, and today is her last day. We took her in again for another sample. Her pee smells a lot better and is not as dark, so I thought it was gone. Well, it's not. There is still a lot of bacteria and a lot of white blood cells and a lot of protein, as well as what she said are renal something... little squiggly lines is how she described it. She said sometimes they just slough off like skin sloughs off, but that there were a lot there.

What we've decided to do is take her off antibiotics completely for one week so that is all flushed out, and take another urine sample directly to the lab for a culture, so they can figure out not only what's happening in the bladder, but in the whole urinary tract. She may have thinner flaccid bladder walls now that she has been expressed for almost two years, and the bacteria may be living right there in the walls of her bladder.

I have always lectured about how keeping on top of this is important and how infections in the urinary tract can spiral out of control and be major problems, and I am so mad that we let this happen to ourselves.

I am crying for my baby girl. Please pray that we can get rid of this and that her kidneys are not failing.