Well, we've about finished the first full week of the second ten-day round of antibiotics for Ruby the Corgi Pup's UTI. Whether she's "cured" (or about to be) remains to be seen; I'm supposed to take another urine sample in to Dr. Bracken next Friday.

She's peeing on the floor much less frequently. And the gross odor is almost gone. Not so much syrupy urine is getting stuck on the fur between her cute little hind legs, and so she doesn't stink all the time, nor does she need to be dipped in the bathtub and scrubbed clean once every day or two.

One thing that became clear when the first round of drugs beat back (but did not finish off ) the bug: she was house-trained. She knew to go outside. But often she just couldn't make it that far, so the poor little thing was essentially leaking onto the floor, willy-nilly. Now that she has more staying power (as it were), she manages to get outside to do her bidness.

A couple of commenters here at MyCorgi.com advised dousing her food with extra water. And I noticed that she seemed to be drinking less water than she did when I first got her at 8 weeks -- then she was guzzling water like it had been laced with bourbon. But more lately...uh uh. This, even though she has access to three water bowls: one in her X-pen. one on the back porch, and the large communal bowl in the kitchen.

So I started putting about 1/2 cup of water over her canned special UTI-formula dog food, creating a kind of "dog soup."

This, she inhaled.

It's getting very hot here now -- triple-digit temps are here to stay, at last. And, weirdly, this little dog LIKES to be outdoors. I don't leave my dogs outside, ande so this means that after she's been out long enough to play and take the morning or evening air, I have to track her down and lure her back into the air-conditioning.

Also, the ongoing drought (a dozen years and counting) gets worse and worse. I don't think I've EVER seen it so dry here. I've taken to sprinkling water on the quarter-minus, because it gets SO dry that when the dogs chase around the backyard, as they love to do, it pulverizes into dust that flies up into their faces. And can we spell "V-a-l-l-e-y- f-e-v-e-r"?????  Argh. Normally quarter-minus packs down into a firm surface, but of late I've had a yardful of powder. To combat that, about the only solution is a sprinkler. Can't wait to see the water bill....

So between the heat and the parched air, it's reasonable to think both dogs are at risk of dehydration.

On the other hand, as it develops you can OVER-hydrate a dog, putting the animal at risk of bloat and other negative outcomes. And the UTI food has as its first ingredient water (IMHO, it's a very weak product nutritionally).

A few minutes of Internet research turned up a supposed rule of thumb: one ounce of water per pound of the dog's weight.

Ruby now weighs a little over 11 pounds. So I cut the water-slopping ration to 1/4 cup per bowl of dog food -- she still eats three times a day. That gives her 3/4 cup of water per day, which is 12 ounces. Plus whatever she drinks freely...which is precious little.

Given the weather conditions and her predeliction for going out in the noonday sun, I'm thinking a third of a cup per bowl is probably not excessive. Will talk with Dr. Bracken about this the next time I see him, but once she's off the canned food, probably will increase the proportion of water in the "dog soup" to make up for the amount that the fake food contains.

Since she likely arrived at my house with this infection or developed it very soon after she got here, I don't hold out much hope that it's something that will go away permanently. At least not very soon. But for the time being, it seems to be under control.

We shall see...