Doggie Downers

Anyone who knows our Golden Retriever, Leo, knows that he could benefit from a serious dose of doggie downers, even at the ripe old age of 10. Well, he's now officially been prescribed the downer of all downers....Valium. We've been noticing for a little while that Leo acts like a man with prostate issues; he is constantly standing around the backyard trying to go to the bathroom with little or no luck. We took him to the vet yesterday; they ruled out kidney stones, gave him a steroid shot to take down any inflammation, put him on some antibiotics, and told us to bring him in today if he wasn't any better. Well, he's not any better so we took him in today. The doctor sedated him, lifted him on a table with a drain and pushed on his bladder. I couldn't believe how much urine came out of that poor dog. I'm sure he's been incredibly uncomfortable, however, he hasn't really acted like he's in any pain and he never wants to go out in the middle of the night, if we try to get him to. The consensus is that he may have had a kidney stone that has now passed, however, his bladder may have become very stretched out in the process and needs to shrink back to size. Or, he may have some kind of tumor or neurological issue that is resulting in him having no muscle tone in his bladder. In the meantime, they have put him on Valium to relax those muscles plus we have to go out about every 2 hours and push on his bladder to get him to go to the bathroom. (Guess who's job that will be?!) It's amazing the things you do for a beloved pet.

Oh, and it's snowing......again. This time we have over a foot so far and it's still coming down like crazy. Where are you, Spring???????