The December 16th office visit brought with it injections of famotidine and antibiotic then orders to purchase Pepcid AC (famotidine) administering 1 pill a day and more antibiotic for 5 days - 2 pills a day. Annie also went home with 3 cans of IAMS Veterinary Formula Intestinal Low-Residue food to eat giving her system a chance to settle down. The problem cleared up.
We made it through the holidays and were now in the dead of winter when Annie became sick again. February 17, 2011 was a particularly bitchy day at work; my brother and I were so looking forward to kicking back for the evening when at 9:30PM Annie piddled little blood clots. It was hard to see and it looked like spotting from her anal sacs so we weren't concerned.
At 11PM she urinated clear with a bit of blood in the end part of the flow but by 11:30 she was pestering us to go out yet again and the urine she passed contained blood. It was off to Warren Street Emergency. We didn't have to wait long but by the time anyone could see Annie no one could get a urine sample since she'd wet the reception room floor 3 times. Diagnosis: urinary tract infection (surprise!) and the emergency team wanted to do sub-Q since she was a bit dehydrated. Since I was doing it for Buddy, I decided to play doctor for Annie as well and told them I would administer the 300ML at home. This never happened because once we arrived home, Annie started to drink on her own. We decided to pass on X-rays, wanting to clear the infection up before we went exploring for additional causes. Once the round of medicine was finished we were to take Annie to Dr. Young for a follow up visit.
Two weeks' worth of Clavamox was prescribed. Administering the pills turned into a royal battle. I could only assume that they tasted vile since Annie wouldn't take them plain, wrapped in any kind of cold cuts or in pill pockets. The only way to get them into her was to coat them thoroughly in peanut butter - and we're not talking your run-of-the-mill peanut butter like Skippy or Jiff, we're talking expensive organic peanut butter made from fresh peanuts and oil at about $4.99 a 18 oz. jar. At this point I was trying to figure out if there were jobs that either of them could do to earn a living! The medical care was getting expensive.
As if the battles to get the antibiotic into Annie weren't enough, mealtime was turning into a battleground as well. She would sit in front of her food dish, look at it, look at me but refuse to eat. Once anyone else in the house had food she would beg; something she never did before. Eventually, she resorted to stealing the cat's food so we had to make sure it was well out of her reach. All unusual behavior for our sweet little Annie. Around this time she started eating her poop and eating stuff off the floor and the ground outside. I was ready to tear my hair out.
March 11th, the day before the follow up visit: as we came in the front door, Annie wet the floor. Immediately we went for a walk. She passed urine with blood and three little piddles with clots. It looked like we were back where we started. Needless to say my brother and I were extremely upset - we hadn't even made it to the follow up visit and Annie was sick again although she was acting fine - she ate dinner, had water and treats. Two hours later she urinated again but this time the urine was clear. We decided to keep an eye on her, taking her for her follow up visit the next day. To say we were stressed would be an understatement; to deny that we were terribly upset and concerned would be the height of denial. Where was this leading to?
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