Poor Evan had another rough weekend. I mentioned a couple weeks ago how Evan was seemingly having a flare of his bladder cystitis, as he'd started urinating blood and crying while urinating. I upped his meds related to his urinary issues, and since he has a history of chronic UTIs and he therefore has an ongoing prescription for antibiotics, I also started him on those. Within 2 or 3 doses of his antibiotics, Evan's symptoms all went away and he was his happy self again. He received those antibiotics for a week, until last Tuesday, and starting this Saturday his symptoms returned.
Poor Evan is back to urinating blood, acting painful and restless, and his urine is also quite malodorous. His ears and nose also feel warm to me. So, he's off to the vet this morning. Since he's on long-term antibiotics, his vet is worried he has a UTI that's become resistant to his usual antibiotic. I'm hoping these still work, especially since they actually took all of his symptoms away recently, but that perhaps he needs them for a longer duration of time. Either way, Evan's having his urine checked today, and we'll do a culture that will test any growth for antibiotic susceptibility. While we wait for those results, I'll keep him good and drugged to help him feel as comfortable as possible. Urine cultures can take a couple days to show full growth, and so it could be a few days before we know whether any infection is resistant to his current antibiotic.
Evan is getting lots of rest, in no small part thanks to his increased doses of gabapentin. Lots of naps are happening around here.
Though he's not feeling his best, Evan still hopes you all have a magnificent Monday!
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Flashback Doodle of the Day
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Tip of the Day
Today's summer safety tip is all about how to keep your furbaby cool if they are outdoors in the heat. To begin, as we previously mentioned, sometimes the great outdoors is a very dangerous place to be for a pup or dog in the extreme heat of summer. For this reason, please do try to limit time spent outdoors in the heat.
However, if your pup or kitty has to be outdoors for any reason, be sure that they are provided with everything to help them stay as cool as possible. For example, be sure that a sufficient amount of cool, fresh, clean water is available for them to drink. Also ensure that they have somewhere in the shade to stay. A potentially stifling outdoor enclosure, such as a shed, will often be no cooler than the sun. But, shade from trees or a building can enable a furbaby to get out of the sun and stay as cool as possible. For those furbabies who enjoy and take advantage of water, you can also put out a children's pool, with cool, clean water. This way, a pup or even a kitty who likes water for more than just drinking can have another way to cool off.
As we said previously, please do all that you can to keep your pup or kitty out of the heat of summer. If a trip outdoors is necessary for any reason, though, then it is important to know how to keep your furbaby cool and safe, such as by means of water and shade. Summertime is just another example of how you must think and plan ahead for the sake of your furbaby's health and happiness.
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