Sunny Shines at the Vet's Office

Why are you sticking that pan under my butt every time I squat to pee?

Sunny went in for blood and urine rechecks today. The news was good, but not excellent.

After two weeks of antibiotics, her white cell count is back in the normal range.

Dr. B. is still concerned about her urine being too dilute. He would like to measure her water intake over a 24 hour period. To do that, we would need to keep her separated from the other dogs. Not an easy thing to do. My guess is that she would be so upset at being kept away from the heart of the family the results of the measuring would be meaningless.

Since her blood work is all normal now, meaning no kidney problems or diabetes, we're not doing it unless she starts leaking again.

The incontinence problem that started all this testing has been resolved with 1 mg of estrogen a week. If she starts "leaking" again, we will address the dilute urine problem in more detail.

The first time I had to do a doggy urine collection, I had no idea how to go about it.

This sneaky method works with Sunny:

1. Use a shallow pie plate shaped pan. It's better if it's plastic because pee hitting a metal pan makes a startling noise and the dog jumps. I have a Glad plastic plate to use for doggy urine collection.
   
   
2. Take the dog out on a short leash.
   
   
3. Wait until she squats and just starts to pee. Then, slide the edge of the plate under her back legs as far as possible without bumping her legs.
   
   
4. Careful not to spill the urine before you get it poured into a taller container. It's nice to have help. When I don't have help I set the plate down, take the dog into the house, and then go back out to get the sample.

Vets don't need very much, so if you don't get the entire catch it's OK.

I've never done a collection on a male dog. That would require some different planning.

The best plan is to tell your dog to stay healthy so you never have to do it.