Lulu Update

It's been a few weeks since we started Lulu on antibiotics for what we hoped was a UTI so I thought I would give you all an update on how the little girl is doing.

After we finished her medication a week or so ago she started peeing in her sleep again. Of course this was very frustrating for both Erik and I. Since we definitely couldn't afford a $500 test to determine whether her incontinence was due to a birth defect or something else I decided to call up the Humane Society, plead my case, and hope that they would help us out. Thankfully they offered us assistance and told us we could bring Lulu in and they would run some tests for us. The doctor I spoke with at the Humane Society clinic seemed pretty confident that we didn't have anything to worry about.

Erik took her in on Wednesday and left her for most of the day. When he went to pick her up he was told that they did not see anything that would indicate she had an ectopic urethra (yay!) but that she did have a significant UTI (apparently the drugs we were giving her didn't complete knock the infection out). She also said that size-wise her bladder was pretty small in comparison to other puppies (like her I guess?). At any rate they gave us some steroids called Proin to get rid of the UTI and strengthen her bladder muscles. We are supposed to continue this treatment for 20 days so hopefully she will get better. Poor girl--a UTI for over a month?? Ouch!

So it was definitely good news for us on the puppy front--no more worries other than trying to teach her to walk correctly on a leash and not to jump on people (which we still haven't mastered). I think I'm going to sign us up for obedience classes at Pet Smart because I know that I could use some instruction on how to get her to respond better to my commands. I'm hoping it won't be a total train wreck because she is always great at home but once we leave the house all bets are off.

In other Lulu related news, she weighed in at 24 pounds at the doctor's office on Wednesday (that's up 14 pounds from when we adopted her 7/31)! She has added shake and wait to her repertoire of tricks and has developed a lovely singing voice. No really...she talks all the time. And howls, and yips. She'll have a whole conversation with you especially when she has misbehaved. It is the oddest thing. Even the vet told Erik we had a very vocal dog. The good thing is that she doesn't really bark a lot, except at the cats who still see her as the antichrist.

So that's it for now. Here are some 4 1/2 month pics for your enjoyment:

Sweet girl

With Erik