Bear's "DogNosis"

Well, as some of you know, Bear's been a sick little doggie! I noticed blood in his urine about a month ago, and since then he's had all kinds of tests and cultures done, and no one knows what is causing the bleeding. He's acting perfectly normal, so that's encouraging.

We finally had to take him to a specialist in Carmichael. After x-rays, ultrasounds, and many many blood and urine tests, the only thing they felt was abnormal was a little growth on his bladder. So he ended up needing exploratory surgery - to check out his prostate, kidneys and bladder, and to remove the growth.

He had his surgery this morning, and all went well. He's recovering fine and will be ready to go home tomorrow. They removed the sack on the bladder, and found that the right kidney is most likely the source of the bleeding. They took samples for biopsy of the kidneys and bladder, and we will hear the results tomorrow.

It is most likely "idiopathic", meaning they don't know what the cause is, and there is likely no cure for it. It sounds like we will just have to continue monitoring him closely for the rest of his life, and will take him in every three months or so for blood cultures and urine samples to make sure he is not anemic from the blood loss, and to check for infections. They're also slightly concerned with pancreas but that is also a wait-n-see kind of thing.

We should hear back on the cultures tomorrow morning. Thanks for your puppy prayers!