You'll Never Eat String Cheese Again

I am happy to report that Millie hit a big milestone this weekend.  We walked to the end of the street & back!  Twice!  Well, we did it twice, not twice in one day.  Anyway, I've been working hard on building up her muscle  and stamina since her amputation.  On our "poop walks" we go a little further and further each day.  It has been a long time coming, but she did it!  Next step, another distance goal.

On Sunday we had what I will refer to as...the string cheese incident.  A few hours after our walk, Millie ran in between Evan and I, panicked.  At first I couldn't figure out what the problem was.  Then....I saw it.  What can only be described as the worst vaginal discharge I have ever seen...or..."the string cheese incident."  I'm not kidding.  This stuff was disgusting, and I LOVE gross stuff.  Show me puss, and I'm there.  Maggots in a wound, fine.  This. Was. Gross.  The discharge itself was about as big in diameter as string cheese, about 12 inches long, and orange/yellow/brown in color.  Poor Millie frequently gets vaginal discharge when she has a UTI, and when she does, she does not like it at all.  She panics until it is wiped away.  This was no exception.

At 1:00pm I still hadn't heard from U of I regarding the culture results from Millie's cystocentesis last week.  So, I called them.  Not surprisingly I had to leave a message.  About an hour later U of I called back to let me know that the results of the culture were negative, or sterile.  When I told her about the "incident" she repeated that the culture from Millie's bladder was negative, so everything must be fine.  It was at this point that I said, "No.  Everything is clearly not fine.  No normal dog has string cheese coming from its vagina."  The technician suggested I take Millie back to (insert name of a clinic I've never been to) to see if they had any additional recommendations, since the culture was negative.  Really?  Thanks.  Helpful.

Millie's regular vet thought that what we were dealing with was a severe case of vaginitis.  She routinely gets vaginitis (thanks to malformed lady bits), because she is immunodeficient due to chemo, she's more prone to these kinds of things.  They happily refilled her Baytril, and I'm hopeful that another ten days of the stuff will do the trick.  Ugh, I love my regular clinic.

Looks like I may have to invest in a giant, two liter size, bottle of Baytril.