The Last Supper

Tonight I have to wonder--what would I like for my last dinner if I were a dog? Hamburgers? Freshly hunted bird? Kitty roca? Tonight Mai will dine...for the last time!!! Bwahahaha!
Whoops...I realize that I haven't updated this blog in a while. So I will fill you in.
After the passing of Nostromo, I directed my attention to my other animals and their health problems. I noticed that Mai was having trouble holding her urine, and was showing signs of a UTI. She would squat for a long time and not pee anything--pee uncontrollably, pee only a drop, etc. So I took her into the vet for a check up and they performed a urinalysis. It came up positive for a pretty bad infection, but there was more. The vet said they had detected struvite crystals which she said could indicate bladder stones (and if she had those, the infections would keep coming back), and she recommended an x-ray and a urine culture to make sure. The culture would also confirm exactly which antibiotic would kill the infection. I told her I couldn't afford it, and she sent Mai home with a general antibiotic. After the 10 days on it, she had only gotten worse, to the point of peeing blood and eventually having to wear a diaper.
So, I called and got her in for the x-ray and culture. The culture was sent off, and I got a call about the x-ray. They wouldn't tell me over the phone, so I headed down to the vet, expecting the worst.
First off they told me what a strong little dog she is. She was obviously in incredible pain, and she didn't make a sound when peeing/being examined. Then I saw the x-ray. She indeed had a bladder stone--one as big as her bladder! It is about as big as a small egg, which for a 12 pound dog is pretty atrocious. They said for her, it causes lots of pain as it rubs against other organs (causing the bloody urine), and making her feel like she has to "go" all the time. The vet said that it has been there for a while and probably been the cause of her potty problems.
So, to the treatment. The vet said that until the culture came back, he couldn't be sure what type of chemicals were in her body and what could be causing the buildup. He said most stones require surgery (which I got the estimate for--it would be $890)--but one type of stone can respond to a food diet that can dissolve it. That would be a struvite stone, and he said he was cautiously optimistic that it might be a struvite stone due to the struvite crystals in her urine. However, we wouldn't know until the culture was back.
So for a week, I stressed and stressed, watching Mai get slowly worse and worse. She now wears a diaper exclusively. I wondered how I could afford the surgery--there was no way. But there was also no way I was going to let my little girl suffer either.
And today I got the call! The culture confirmed that it is most likely a struvite stone, and also the infection is responsive to every antibiotic they tested against it so the vet was able to prescribe the cheapest. She will probably have to be on antibiotics the rest of her life, because bladder stones are caused by a series of "sub-clinical" UTIs, though she could cut down to a lesser dosage once the stone disappears. So, onto the food therapy.
If I follow an extremely super strict diet of ONLY the prescription food and the antibiotics, her stone could dissolve. However, she cannot get any other food at all. No table scraps, treats, grass, etc. This is going to be hard with a toddler who loves to feed her his leftovers, but it's worth it.
So, tonight is her last meal before the new diet. I'm leaning toward a beggin strip burger...