Wee'll meet again ...

When we decided to keep Harry and Piglet – not that there was a lot of option, because nobody wanted a dog puppy (not even us, if truth be told!) – we realised that if we were to retain a semblance of sanity we’d have to get Clover and Beattie spayed. Having entire dogs and bitches, who there’s no way should be mated together, in the same house is emphatically not to be recommended! The girls were selected for surgery because Clover was too old to have another registerable litter and Beattie wasn’t suitable for breeding anyway. Neither males nor females should be neutered until they’re physically mature, so the boys had to be left intact for at least 18 months. So the girls went, midway between seasons when surgery is safest, to visit Uncle Geoff the vet. That was 5 years ago.

Now, no surgery is without risk or side-effect, and one of the side-effects of spaying is a higher risk urinary incontinence. If a bitch is spayed very young it’s more likely to happen sooner rather than later, and we hoped that, being older girls, Clover and Beattie would be okay. However for about the past year we’ve noticed that Clover’s been leaving little damp patches, about the size of a half-crown (which depressingly the vet didn’t understand!) behind her when she’s been asleep, but it was only intermittent, and liveable-with. But then a couple of days ago Beattie started doing the same. Oh dear – but worse was to come. That evening I sat on the sofa beside Beat, right in a hot puddle. She’d had a flood. Luckily it’s good drying weather and I managed to get everything washed and clean and dry in a day. The cushions are now encased in binbags with the covers over the top, so at least the sofa (it’s many years too late to ban them from the furniture) won’t smell like a urinal.

So today Clover, Beattie and I paid a visit to the vet to make sure they didn’t have cystitis or an infection or anything horrid, but easily treatable, like that, and no, they haven’t. So I’ve got a bottle of Propalin syrup for them, which they have to have three times a day (just as well I’m not working now) which is supposed to be very effective. Fingers crossed it works. The most awkward thing at the moment is going to be storing it – it has to be kept at below 25°, but not refrigerated. With the outside temperature being roughly that at 10pm, I think we may have a problem!