Phoebe went in for an unscheduled vet visit this morning. As far as I know she is fine, but in the past ten days she has peed on the floor three times in the night. This is really not like her, and if it hadn't coincided with some very rainy days (as I've already written, Phoebe really does NOT like to go out and dispatch her "business" in the rain) I would have been more concerned, but I was pretty sure that she was just being a snotface. I consider basic housebreaking to be the first order of business with any new dog or puppy, and barring illness or advancing age, once mastered, I expect it to be solid. At five years old, Phoebe is neither a puppy nor a senior dog, so I was, I'll admit, rather miffed, but neither was I particularly concerned that anything might be wrong. The third incident, though, which happened last night and was discovered at six thirty this morning when I awoke, concerned me.
Phoebe had a persistent UTI and demodectic mange when I adopted her as a six month old puppy, and while she hasn't had any trouble with it recurring, it crossed my mind that a UTI might be the issue so we hustled through our morning routine and made it to our wonderful vet's office right as they were opening (and they kindly squeezed us in right away so that I was only five minutes later for work, bless their hearts!), to see what was what. They took a urine sample (no blood in her urine thank goodness) and the urinalysis is pending (we should hear tomorrow morning). While we were in there, I had them do baseline blood work as well as she hasn't had blood drawn since before she was spayed a week or two before I adopted her.
I've got fingers crossed that all is well with the blood work, and there's really no reason to think that it won't be, but I will admit that I am halfway hoping she does have a UTI or bladder infection, or something else minor, not life-threatening, and easily fixable) that could explain this recent behavior. Nothing else would seem to, and I can't think of any other reason a solidly housebroken dog would suddenly "lose" her house training in this way. (If anyone else can, please let me know!)
I will of course post the results of the tests when I have them. Meanwhile, Phoebe, as expected, is milking the oh-so-traumatic experience of an early morning vet visit for all it's worth.
See what I mean?
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