Howie’s Turn at the Vet

Howie went to the vet on Monday. We had two reasons for being there. First, he needs to go to the vet roughly every 3 months because he is at high risk for bladder stones. Second, we had finally determined that he had an ear infection, and it was causing him pain- so much pain that he was actually snapping at us if we petted around his ears.

Not only did we not like him being in pain, or snapping at us, but the snapping, especially when directed at me, got Larry all in a mood.

So let’s start with the ear thing. We were wrong. It wasn’t an ear infection- it was a dual ear infection. That’s right, there’s lovely yeast growths in both of his ears, poor baby. The vet had to take him in the back and muzzle him in order to get a good look. So know, we have pain pills and ear drops. He will need to get 3 drops in each ear every night for 3 weeks. He is not a fan.

As bad as the ear thing is, we actually got good news on his urinalysis. There are no more crystals! Apparently, there are two types of urinary crystals. One kind indicates an infection and the other comes specifically from diet. The first time he was checked, he had the infection kind. The way to get rid of crystals is mostly for the dog to drink more. Normally, that means giving them a high sodium diet.

Slight problem with that is that Howie has a heart murmur. Just like with people, you don’t want to overload a dog with a heart problem on sodium. So we got a special low sodium Rx dog food to hopefully help with the crystals and we came back a couple of months later for a check up.

At the second check, the infection crystals were gone, but then he had the second kind of crystals- the ones caused by diet. So boom, off the special food and back to “normal”. Because of his issues, we decided to switch all of the dogs to a ½ kibble, 1/3 brown rice, and 1/6 cooked chicken diet. (June and Larry are very grateful to Howie for this change.)

They’ve been eating this for 3 months now, and back we went for the follow up. And NO CRYSTALS!

His urine pH is still on the high side though, so he does need to come back for another check in 3 months. But at least progress is being made. If we can get this under control, the rescue may just decide he’s adoptable after all.

Does anyone out there know how to get a dog to drink more water without overloading them on salt?