Hindsight

I’m amazed at how well Maisy is doing… and feeling bad because it’s (now) obvious that Maisy was not feeling well for quite awhile. Over the summer she became hesitant to jump in the car. Since she didn’t seem to have trouble getting on the furniture or the bed, I thought maybe she was getting carsick. Nope. She’s now bouncing into the car, even running to it hopefully at other times. Well okay then!
 
I’d also forgotten how much ENERGY this dog has. She’s been a nutcase (in a good way): having evening zoomies again, playing with the cat, even playing with obnoxious adolescent chi-mixes. Although she had never stopped playing ball, she’s redoubled (retripled? requadrupled?) her ball-bringing efforts. It’s getting a bit obnoxious, honestly.
 
Not that I’m complaining! I’m so thrilled to see her feeling so well! She clearly feels better than before she got sick. Yay steroids! I’m so relieved she hasn’t had any negative behavioral side effects with them.
 
Bladder-health-wise, Maisy had a urinalysis on Saturday. I had at done at 3 weeks, which was a bit early (she needs them every 4 to 6 weeks for awhile), but counting is hard. Or something. I’m not sure how I did that.
 
At any rate, it makes the results THAT MUCH MORE exciting as they came back pretty good. Ideally, she should have a urine pH of less than 6.5 and a specific gravity (USG) of less than 1.020. Maisy’s pH was 6.5 on the dot and she had NO crystals! Yay! Her USG was high: 1.050, which means that her urine was more concentrated than we want. We did do the test first thing in the morning, so it had probably been 10-12 hours since she had peed last, but either way, I need to encourage fluid intake. Which is so hard with this dog.
 
We will continue to check her urine every 4 to 6 weeks for six months (when she is due for an ultrasound to confirm there are no stones). The vet- our regular practice vet, not from the hospital- and I discussed other preventative things we could do; she agreed that while effective, the prescription diet is nasty, so in a few months I’ll be consulting with a nutritionist to get a raw/home cooked diet formulated for her. The vet also recommended probiotics and a cranberry supplement (which I already started Maisy on).
 
Any suggestions for increasing fluid intake? I’ve tried broths (usually but not always successful) and adding water to her kibble (I don’t like doing that because I prefer to put her kibble in food toys, but I guess maybe I need to). I want to try drink mixes or even just sugar added to the water. Girlfriend has a sweet tooth like woah. What am I missing? I'd love to hear some other ideas!