Hubby and I were heading off to Spokane on Friday to get some shopping done before vacation. But I was a bit concerned with Allie.

She had just been a big “off” this week. Nothing that I could put my finger on, but just not herself. And to make it more confusing, it wasn’t all the time. One day she’d be raring to get out of the puppy pen in the morning and go outside with the other girls, and the next day she didn’t even want to come out, so I’d have to pick her from the pen and take her out to potty.

One day she would hungrily finish her food and other times it would take a day+ for her to eat a whole bowl of food.

There was no vomiting, no change in stools. Her temperature was normal. But she just wasn’t herself sometimes. Friday morning she was off again.

I needed to get her looked at and figure out why she wasn’t herself before I headed out in a week for my vacation. As I mentioned, we were just getting ready to leave but I was able to call the vet’s and they said to drop her off on the way to Spokane and they’d fit her in when they could. We could pick her up as we headed back home from Spokane later. So that’s what we did.

The doctor called later in the day to say she had examined her. She was a big sensitive along her back so we suspected an issue there. So the next step was an x-ray.

Her spine looked normal (and her hips look great by the way in the other view) 😉 but the x-ray did show another problem.

Kidney stones!

I’ve heard doctors describe humans trying to pass kidney stones as similar to having a baby. My husband has actually had more babies than I have if that’s the case. 😛 (Poor guy, his “labor” was not pretty).

So we can now understand why Miss Allie has not been feeling herself. Unfortunately, she would not cooperate with a urine sample so the vet was not able to check for a UTI in case she needed antibiotics. So she is home now on pain meds that she can safely take while still nursing.

By the way, little Nugget had a big break from mom while she was away, but he was a trooper. He’s very attached to her as you can imagine being an “only”. So it was the longest time he’d had away from mom. He’d still rather nurse than eat puppy food. But by the evidence in the litter box when we got home, he did fine and ate plenty!

The doctor didn’t sound hopeful that the stones would pass on their own and she even mentioned a possible surgery.

Since my vets are not holistic vets, I’ve started doing some research on alternative treatments to see if you can help reduce or get rid of the stones naturally, without having to put her through surgery.

Prayers and good thoughts appreciated for our “Allie-Girl”. ❤️