When I put together my "to do list" for the week, I had no idea that I would need to include the heading, "harvest chihuhua wee-wee."
Over the last few days, I've noticed that Flo-Flo, one of the Furry Ts has been a little out of sorts, she's drinking a lot more than normal and has started having little accidents. It's not been very Flo-Flo behaviour, so I thought I should take her to the vets for a checkup.
Having 7 dogs and 3 cats, it sometimes feels like the vets is my second home, some of the Furrys aren't at all bothered by going.
Carol treats it as an opportunity to greet the "fans", she works that waiting room like Beyonce at a Destiny's Child convention. Cyril uses it as a chance to cause shenanigans, I watch him watch the receptionist and then bark when she picks the phone up and stop when she puts it down.
Barbara, Samantha and Beverley aren't bothered either way.
Buddy turns into Jackie Chan. he kicks, he punches, he wriggles. For a tiny pugalier he develops the strength of The Rock and John Cenna combined giving him his kennel cough is a full body work out. You normally end up with an injury, dislocated shoulder, scratches, broken finger, there's normally blood (mine, not his). I'd rather take part in the "Hunger games" than take Buddy to the vets.
Barney is OK, as long as it's not for nail clipping. If he's having his nails clipped, he will stage a dirty protest, the last time this happened the nurse said and this is a direct quote, "I didn't know so much poo could come out of a little dog." Barney managed to pull off a look of indignation and pride and I was just embarrassed.
Poor Flo-Flo is absolutely terrified of the vet. Flo lives in a world of unicorns and rainbows, where she spends her day finding treasure (toys, bits of rubbish and carrying them around proudly) she likes cuddles and kisses and everything in her world is lovely.
Normally when Flo-Flo goes to the vets, Barbara is with her as they have their jabs at the same time. Yesterday it was just me and Flo-Flo and as she sat in the waiting room on my knee shaking, I reassured her that everything would be OK.
Flo-Flo had to have a blood test to make sure nothing horrible was going on. Fortunately that showed that there was nothing obvious, so the vet suggested it was most likely a urinary infection, but to test, I'd need to bring in a sample of Flo-Flo's wee the next day.
Despite many years of owning pets, I'd never had to do a urinary test on a dog (in fact I've never had to do do a wee test for myself) The vet suggested I get an old take away carton (I have lots of them) and when Flo went out for her first wee of the day, I shove the carton under her bum, catch the wee, use the syringe thing to put it in the tube. I felt like Meredith Grey being briefed by Miranda Bailey in "Grey's Anatomy" on how to carry out an important medical procedure.
I left my "medical equipment" out on the kitchen counter ready to perform the procedure first thing in the morning.
I stressed about it all night.
What if I got it wrong? What if I didn't catch Flo's first wee and had to get the second, would the vet know? What if I got covered in wee?
In the morning, I got my "medical equipment", opened the door and ran out into the rain in my pyjamas, with my old takeaway carton and shoved it under a rather surprised Flo-Flo's bum.
It worked!
I had harvested Chihuahua wee-wee. Using my trusty syringe I managed to transfer the wee from the carton to the tube, I wasn't sure how much they'd need, so I filled it up, threw the rest of the wee away and put the tube into a different take away carton (I knew they'd come in useful one day) ready to transport to the vets.
I drove very carefully to the vets, takeaway carton on the passenger seat. The road to the vets is very narrow and as a lady pulled to one side to let me through, I thought, "she knows I'm carrying a takeaway carton of Chihuahua wee-wee and she is trying to help.' I know she couldn't know that, but it made me feel better.
I safely got the carton into the vets. There was a little confusion when I wrote my name on the post-it the receptionist handed me rather than Flo's.... slightly awkward, I think for a second the receptionist thought I'd bought my own wee sample in.
The results have come back, the vet said it was a lot of wee for a chihuahua and that he was pretty certain it was an infection, so he's sent the wee off for more tests and given Flo a series of antibiotics, so hopefully that will sort it.
Flo-Flo is fine in herself and in true Flo-Flo style, she is eating fine and still on her treasure hunts.
From my point of view, I feel justified in keeping those old takeaway cartons, I knew they'd come in useful one day!
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