And the winner is...

The chart read "urinating in house." It said the dog was a neutered male that was 10 years old. A smaller breed who weighed around 15 pounds. Hmmm... I try not to make too many snap judgments, but I usually have two or three guesses as to a diagnosis before I even go into the room. I may discard those upon a physical exam, but they are there nonetheless. So I start thinking, UTI, stones, prostate neoplaisa, etc. before I even walk in.

The owner greets me with a "Hello" and a handshake, somewhat of a rarity here. Usually I get the blank smile with a thought of "This is the doctor?!?" behind it due to my youth and youthful face. Geez, I still get carded to see R rated moves, let alone practice medicine.

I look at poochie on the table. He is very friendly and polite and I examine him as I take a history. No history of illness, not drinking more water than usual, no vomiting or diarrhea, still eating, drinking, and pooping normally. However, for the last week or so he's been leaving a large puddle of urine on the kitchen floor. They don't ever catch him doing it, but due to the volume left they assume it's him instead of one of their two cats. "Hmmmmm..." is my response to this pearl of information.

Physical exam is unremarkable except for a mild Grade 2/6 heart mummer on the left side of the chest. No abdominal pain, could use a dental, but what 10 yr old dog can't? I recommend blood work to the owner looking for diabetes, kidney disease, or other metabolic abnormalities, and recommend a urine analysis.

Blood work is perfectly normal, including the renal values. The urine is not very enlightening either, no blood, no protein, adequately concentrated, and otherwise blah. I report these reassuring but puzzling results to the owner and get consent to do an abdominal radiograph looking for urinary bladder stones or renal stones. These, too are negative. We adjourn for the day with the plan to bring him back the next day so I can get a fasting urine sample to check concentration ability overnight and possibly a urine protein:urine creatinie ratio sent out and possibly do a traumatic urinary catheritization looking for prostate cells. Meanwhile I get on trusty VIN researching urinary incontinence in male dogs (definitely not as common as in females).

The next morning they never show up... I wait and wait and wait. Then about 9:30 I get a phone call all apologetic. Apparently they had had a flat tire. "But, I don't think I need to bring him in," the owner said. "We locked him in our bedroom all night and still found urine on the kitchen floor this morning." We did over $300 of diagnostics on his perfectly healthy dog to find out it was one of the cats.