Data Data & More Data!
As a special education teacher, one of my favorite things is to see my students grow! One way to see this is by collecting data and putting it into a visual. Some people may do this by checking their weight and looking at a graph to see if they are losing weight. I am not one of these people, mainly because my chart seems to be going in the wrong direction! Ha!
This is how much I love breaking data down. My dog has had chronic UTIs since she was six months old. We took her to a veterinarian not too far from our house, and they could never figure out what was happening. They just kept saying to change dog food. After changing dog food for the 6th time, we decided to change vets. Luckily we heard about a veterinarian that will come to our house! This is important since she now weighs 210lbs and doesn’t fit in the car well! In just one visit, the new veterinarian told us that our pup was allergic to chicken, grains, beef, basically anything delicious, and what most dog food and treats have in the ingredients. Now, we knew what dog food we should put her on. We put her on a salmon and sweet potato diet. She also had to be on cranberry powder because her PH levels were typically off. Then she was also on a probiotic because she was often placed on antibiotics and on some other medication to help alleviate UTIs. Unfortunately, even with all of this, she still seems to get them now and then.
So, why am I bringing up Annabelle’s UTIs? Because I love data! I told my husband that it seems like it is always around when I return to school that she gets another UTI. She will have an accident, and it always stinks! That is my first clue. Belle is 5 in half years old, so she isn’t that old to have so many issues. Even if my toddler drops one small cheerio, it can cause Belle to have a flare-up. So here I am at midnight, unable to sleep because I want to create a graph to see if there are any patterns to when she has a UTI so I can plan with the veterinarian. I went back through all my emails to get the data. At the beginning of the school year, there’s an ongoing list of things to do, so checking anything off my list helps me think straight.
Something interesting I read about when researching chronic UTIs in dogs was that they could come from stress, allergies, E-Coli, or high PH levels. In the spring, many people get allergies from all the plants and flowers. Fall is when I go back to school, so I don’t get to spend every waking minute with my pup, and the kiddos go to daycare. So my Baby Belle goes from having us home every day to just in the evenings. Then her PH levels have already been high, so she takes cranberry supplements. My theory is that there is a pattern to these flare-ups. See the graphs below and let me know your opinion.
