Please pray for Layla

[Lindsey]

Layla is not doing well. I am having a hard time with this.

We took her a couple of weeks ago because we thought she had a UTI. I thought that for a long time actually, but Scott insisted she was fine. Her urine was dark and smelled bad, and finally I convinced him that we needed to take her in. It was bad, she had a lot of bacteria in her bladder. The vet said there were at least 5 kinds. She also had white blood cells and protein. I don't need that explained to me, when I have kidney problems myself. I know what's going on. We started antibiotics immediatly.

Today is her last day on her medicine, and everything seemed better. Her pee is not as dark and it smells pretty normal again. We took her in today for a follow-up.

It's not good. She still has tons of bacteria. She still has blood cells and protein. She also has renal something... I don't remember what she called it but she said it shows up as white squiggly lines.

So we had a choice. We could put her on stronger antibiotics, or we could flush out her system and have her off antibiotics for a week, and then take another sample and have a culture done to find out exactly what's going on. We're going to do the culture. The vet said it may be an issue of just having her on antibiotics every couple of months or weeks for the rest of her life. Her bladder walls may be thinner and more flaccid from all the expressing, and bacteria could be just living there in the walls.

I am so upset about all of this. I hope her kidneys aren't failing. I hope we can get rid of this. I am feeling defeated. I always lecture others with IVDD dogs about how UTIs can spiral out of control and turn serious and life-threatening and I am so mad at myself that I let it happen to my baby. I love her so much. The silver lining is at least she can't feel it. I'm sure it would be painful with any other dog.

Please pray that we can get rid of it. Layla has a lot of years left and we need her to be healthy.