Buzzupdate

When last we left our noble canine, we were hoping for a nice calm GI tract.

Toward that purpose, he had an injection of cerenia on Tuesday, and was sent home with oral cerenia, which he had on Wednesday and Thursday mornings.

I am happy to report that his GI tract seems to be working as hoped, and that he ate at least a maintenance amount yesterday, for the first time in over a week and a half. Yay.

However.

Sometime Thursday afternoon he began leaking urine. At first all I was aware of was that he was licking himself.

He licks. He licks the floor. He licks his feet. He's a licker. So at first I wasn't aware that he was cleaning up after himself.

It was Thursday evening when I began to notice little puddles and drips.

Ai yi yi. Little puddles and drips everywhere. Urine was just draining out, clearly not under his control.

(What next, locusts????????)

Ok. So we go camp out in the kitchen (our only impervious floor). Thursday is bridge night, so I'm alone, thinking about what to do. I think/hope this is because of the cerenia, even though this particular side effect is not mentioned on the Pfizer website............

I decide to go buy some diapers and a onesie to hold them on him. I go out into the night, and the Taurus's battery tries one last time to start the car, but fails.

(Ironic, don't you think, that I took the Voyager in last weekend to get a battery, so I wouldn't get stranded in Lansing. Then I never went to Lansing and it's the Taurus's battery that died. At least it was at home!)

I sit on the floor in the kitchen, trying to look at an overdue library book on (very) advanced digital photography techniques. I don't get very much out of the book, in part because it is very advanced, and in part because I am continually interrupted by Buzz, who finds it exceedingly weird that we are hanging out on the kitchen floor.

He has very little tolerance for weirdness.............

("Mom. Let's go upstairs, like we always do in the evening." "Mom. How come we're here?" "Mom." "Mom." "Mom." "Hey, Mom. How come we're sitting here?" "Mom. How come I'm locked in the kitchen?" "Mom. How come you're sitting on the floor in the kitchen? You never do that!" "Mom." "Mom." Etc.........)

Eventually DH comes home from bridge, and I inform him that we are going shopping (and, oh yeah, we have library books to drop off).

We head out, and buy diapers, onesies, a mop, a bucket, and a car battery. And a gallon of milk. It was a weird cart load.....

(Midnight, by the way, is an excellent time to go to Meijers. There's no one there but the shelf-stockers......)

When we get home, it seems that Buzz has dried up. As I really don't want to argue with him about wearing diapers/clothes, nor do I want to "sleep" downstairs just outside the kitchen while he is blocked in the kitchen, I hope sincerely that I won't seriously regret letting him sleep upstairs, and we go to bed for the night.

Yesterday morning, I am fervently hoping all is well. Until I notice that, belly up on the floor, he is leaking.................

SIGH. And argh.

I put in a call to the vet.

She returns the call as I am cutting dog toenails. (Love the cell phone -- I didn't have to get up and run to answer the phone!)

She notes that incontinence is not on the cerenia package insert, and tells me that long-term pred usage can result in urinary tract infections which can cause leakage.

Oh good.

(no no no no! please let it be the cerenia!)

She says that diagnosing the urinary tract infection would require a urine sample gathered by catheterizing him, and I should bring him in with a full bladder.

Aside from the issue of "bringing him in with a full bladder" when he is leaking, I am not looking forward to putting him through that.

I tell her that the car has a dead battery so I can't come right then, and she says it's not an emergency and Saturday will do, or even Tuesday (the next time she'll be in the office after Saturday).

I am loath to put him through catheterization if he will dry up on his own, minus the cerenia, so I am waiting.........

He seemed to be dry for the latter part of yesterday, but I have seen minor licking this morning........................

Watching nervously for flood and pestilence........................