We brought our puppy Packer home at just 8 weeks old and instantly fell in love with him. We was a brilliant little thing catching on to all of his commands within the first two weeks, even learned to rollover and spin, but he just just couldn't grasp potty training. He understood the concept but never seemed to make it to the door, he would pee without knowing it, even peed in his sleep sometimes, so I knew something had to be wrong. First we treated him for a urinary tract infection, then the therapies started piling on. Finally our vet recommended a scan that would visualize Packer's bladder by injecting contrast into it and taking X-rays. When the doctor went over the result with us he told us that he had a congenital defect, "a fluke accident," that nobody has seen before, and he wasn't exactly sure if the problem could be fixed. Packer was born with his bladder located at the base of his pelvis and folded on top of itself, giving it little space for it to expand, making the need to urinate more frequent, and the pressure from everyday activity would make him release his bladder without intention.
We were referred to Dr. Salas at BluePearl, who recommended surgery. We were hesitant at first due to the cost, we just graduated college and moved to Florida, struggling to keep up with our bills, so surgery was not in our budget. We had almost given up hope, we couldn't keep cleaning pee from the carpets, and he was going threw so many diapers. Seeing our desperation Dr. Salas told us about Frankie's Friends, and finally we had some hope. We saved up as much money as we could and set a date for Packers surgery.
It didn't take long after for our "peanut" to return to his normal routine, in fact the hardest part was trying to stop him and his "brother" from playing. Packer is fully recovered now, he is able to hold his bladder more than two hours, and though he still has some accidents in the house, they have decreased in number, "old 'habits' die hard". We cannot thank Dr. Salas, the staff at BluePearl, or Frankie's Friends enough for everything!