Happy News!

August 6 , 2001 – Humans are seldom, if ever, are featured on DaDane of DaWeek – and for good reason. Great Danes are much more interesting. I am making an exception this week to show you what I look like when I am smiling. And smiling I am. Yes indeed. Last week Jabber's urinalysis came back negative for E. coli.

Do you believe in miracles?
Jabber has been fighting a persistent E. coli infection of his urinary tract since April. He developed the stubborn bladder infection following failed knee surgery which left him crippled and hospitalized for seven weeks. (See details about the surgery.) Despite several months of various antibiotic treatments, Jabber's E. coli infection hung on. Eventually it developed resistance to all but two antibiotics, Amikacin and Tobramycin. Both of these antibiotics are "last choice" drugs because they can cause kidney failure. Before making a final decision about putting Jabber on Amikacin, we ordered one last urinalysis and culture. Jabber had been off antibiotics for three weeks when the specimen was taken. There was no telling what we would find. Perhaps the E. coli had already developed resistance to Amikacin, what then? We waited nervously for the test results.

Jabber!We could not believe it when the news came in. The laboratory found no E. coli in Jabber's urine specimen. None. Not only that, but Jabber's urinalysis was completely normal, indicating that Jabber's kidneys are doing fine. Another bacteria, non-hemolytic Gamma Streptococcus, was isolated in Jabber's urine sample, but this infection tested sensitive to all the usual antibiotics so it would be easy to treat. Even better, Jabber may not even have a Strep infection. Dr. Kaufman reviewed the lab report and concluded that the Strep is possibly just a contaminant. Evidently finding a Strep-based urinary tract infection is pretty unusual. Not only that, but no bacteria was found in the urinalysis. It only showed up in the culture. Dr. Kaufman suggested a new culture and sensitivity profile. This should rule out – or confirm – the presence of either bacteria.

We took Dr. Kaufman's advice. This past weekend another urine sample was shipped off to AnTech Diagnostics for evaluation. This time I am not so nervous. I think Jabber has finally beaten the infection. Now we'll be able to concentrate our efforts on rehabilitating his leg.

Next Installment
See last week for more details about Jabber's case.

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