Hi. I'm new here, and have been reading the fantastic forum posts, really encouraged that someone might be able to help my little Cairn Terrier. She's a puppy mill rescue, 9 months old. We've had her since she was 5 months, so before that, her health history is a blank. When we got her, our vet suggested we put her on the Kirkland super premium puppy food, she felt the Canidae we feed our 8yr Golden would be too rich for the little one. She did great, gained weight, had tons of energy, was a typical, happy little Cairn rascal. But she never fully got the hang of peeing only outside, even though she was only down to one accident every other day, every couple of days.
A couple months later, we switched her to the Canidae, like her big sister. Then came word of the Canidae change of formula, and I went food shopping. I chose grain-free Nature's Variety Instinct. At the same time, Gidget's peeing problems were becoming horrible, and she began to spend her whole day just laying around at my side--not normal in a constant go-machine Cairn. Took her to the vet, who like me, thought UTI. She had IV fluids to flush crystals from her UT, a single dose of prednisone for anti-inflammatory, and a mega-dose of antibiotic, followed by a course of 10 days worth of Clavamox 2x/day. That was last Friday. The first couple of days she perked right up, and seemed well on her way to recovery--except for the out-of-control peeing and leaking. We opted for diapers, since we couldn't keep up with taking her outside every 10 to 15 minutes. Of course, the vet, not our regular one at the practice and not my favorite by any means, insisted Gidget needs to be on Hills Science Diet c/d. HSD, as far as I'm concerned, is close to the generic, brown paper bag "Dog Feed" the puppy millers were evidently feeding her. Now, she's back to laying around too much, and I'm desperate trying to find something to help her. She's fine with her diaper, but I'm not crazy about it. And more importantly, she's still peeing/leaking randomly, is still sleeping/laying around way too much, and I'm sure, in a great deal of discomfort.
1.) I'm concerned my switching her to a super-high protein, no grain diet (Instinct) may have triggered the severe problems, and 2.) I need any advice those of you with experience can give me re diet (until next spring/summer, because of work commitments, I can't go the home-cooked-by-me route, which I'm sure would be the best, so I need suggestions on brand), supplements, alternatives--anything that will help my little girl. Thanks!