Zoey's good-time adventure day!
I recently refinanced my home, an experience comparable to sleep paralysis in its feelings of freedom and enjoyment, but this was offset yesterday by a check sent from one of my old mortgage companies to reimburse me for taxes and escrow paid this year. Not a huge check or anything, but it was sort of nice. So nice it's lasted me all of two days.
People say animals have a basic understanding of human languages, and I'm inclined to agree. Not more than an hour after Rowan called to tell me the check had come and that we should buy new phones, did Zoey decide to fall ill and wipe out what small gain we had made.
We knew right away what it was as the same thing had happened to him about a year and a half ago. Long story short, he had crystals in his penis. And not the good kind like you see pewter dragons holding, either. Little tiny struvites and calcium oxalate crystals.
If you're wondering about the pain factor involved, the first sentence of the Wikipedia article on calcium oxalate reads, "Calcium oxalate is a chemical compound that forms needle-shaped crystals." Ouch.
So off we went last night to the emergency vet (Veterinary Referral & Critical Care, just outside of Richmond), which turned out to be quite reasonably priced. After having been financially violated by the Cary Street Emergency Vet to the tune of $300 in return for no advice and incorrectly shot X-rays, we didn't expect much from the new place. I'm not trying to shill for them or anything, but the VRCC was much nicer, in both staff and cost. If your dog gets a face full of porcupine quills, that's the place to go.
This time, for just under $200, we got a urinary test, an X-ray (on CD - the future is now!) and a handy-dandy glass vile of Zoey's penis stones. Let me tell you, they ain't lying about the calcium crystals being sharp. And they aren't tiny, either. The struvite crystals just look like sand, which probably isn't very comfortable I'm sure, but the calcium looks like kosher salt that's been carved into arrowheads.
Luckily they got him cleaned out and peeing again, but we still took him to our regular vet this morning for yet more tests. All the tests were fine, no kidney damage or anything, we just need to change his diet. Glad he's okay, just need to find a good way to keep this from happening again.
Apparently the type of crystal formed is determined by the pH of the urine; too acidic and you get one type, too alkaline and you get another. In a stroke of luck, Zoey has both types of crystal. Therefore his new diet has to perfectly balance his urinary pH so nothing can grow. Not even love.
Right now Rowan and I are looking at different foods and websites to figure out what to feed him. From what we've read so far he needs a high protein, low grain diet with no protein and lots of grains. So we'll see how that goes.
People say animals have a basic understanding of human languages, and I'm inclined to agree. Not more than an hour after Rowan called to tell me the check had come and that we should buy new phones, did Zoey decide to fall ill and wipe out what small gain we had made.
We knew right away what it was as the same thing had happened to him about a year and a half ago. Long story short, he had crystals in his penis. And not the good kind like you see pewter dragons holding, either. Little tiny struvites and calcium oxalate crystals.
If you're wondering about the pain factor involved, the first sentence of the Wikipedia article on calcium oxalate reads, "Calcium oxalate is a chemical compound that forms needle-shaped crystals." Ouch.
So off we went last night to the emergency vet (Veterinary Referral & Critical Care, just outside of Richmond), which turned out to be quite reasonably priced. After having been financially violated by the Cary Street Emergency Vet to the tune of $300 in return for no advice and incorrectly shot X-rays, we didn't expect much from the new place. I'm not trying to shill for them or anything, but the VRCC was much nicer, in both staff and cost. If your dog gets a face full of porcupine quills, that's the place to go.
This time, for just under $200, we got a urinary test, an X-ray (on CD - the future is now!) and a handy-dandy glass vile of Zoey's penis stones. Let me tell you, they ain't lying about the calcium crystals being sharp. And they aren't tiny, either. The struvite crystals just look like sand, which probably isn't very comfortable I'm sure, but the calcium looks like kosher salt that's been carved into arrowheads.
Luckily they got him cleaned out and peeing again, but we still took him to our regular vet this morning for yet more tests. All the tests were fine, no kidney damage or anything, we just need to change his diet. Glad he's okay, just need to find a good way to keep this from happening again.
Apparently the type of crystal formed is determined by the pH of the urine; too acidic and you get one type, too alkaline and you get another. In a stroke of luck, Zoey has both types of crystal. Therefore his new diet has to perfectly balance his urinary pH so nothing can grow. Not even love.
Right now Rowan and I are looking at different foods and websites to figure out what to feed him. From what we've read so far he needs a high protein, low grain diet with no protein and lots of grains. So we'll see how that goes.
Labels: zoey
posted by artsick at
9/21/2007 03:25:00 PM
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