February 15, 2023:

I gave Honey 18-042’s social media followers a chance to ask questions they’ve always wanted to know about her, and this update will answer some of them!
What is the weirdest thing Honey does? I think it’s really weird that Honey doesn’t retrieve. Anything. Zero interest in retrieving! Or swimming.

Does she have a favorite toy? She does!! She loves tennis balls! And not like most retrievers who like to fetch and chase balls, she only likes to keep balls away from her golden retriever brother. That’s it.

Did Honey ever have a home or has she always been in foster care? Honey came to GRRoW at about 14 weeks old when the people who owned her mom realized her medical issues were too great for them to manage. They were responsible enough not to sell her like they did her litter mates. She did not come from a breeding facility. So, she had a loving home before coming to GRRoW but she’s been considered a foster dog since then. She will stay with us until crosses the bridge.

Does she sleep on the bed with you? Yes. Of course!

How many pairs of pants does she have? I feel too ashamed to answer this, as it is reflects on my mental state. There are only 2 people who can make pants for her that are good quality and fit correctly, and I am always worried that they will stop making them for me! So I tend to order too many. Let’s just say that the number is over 20!

How did she get so absolutely adorable and sweet? Was she born that way? There is no doubt that she was born with it!! She has been practically perfect since she came into rescue as a little puppy!!! She has a very charming personality and just a great easy going demeanor!!

So there is your peek into the life of Honey 18-042!

October 25, 2022:

Another few months have gone by in the life of Honey 18-042. She continues to fight off bladder infections, but her kidneys have been staying out of the mix! This means that she hasn’t gotten as overtly sick with fevers and lethargy, but she does leak much more urine when she’s infected. She had a fun summer taking walks and playing with her dog friends any chance she got! Another trip to UW vet school which now we do every 3 months for check ups, and now she has a new resident there! There is no doubt Honey will give this veterinarian a run for her money! Fingers crossed that we can keep our girl as healthy as possible! Honey continues to be a happy dog who brings joy to all who meet her!

May 2, 2022

Honey has had another eventful past couple of months. She spent 2 days at UW for some more diagnostic testing to see why she’s been getting so sick from her bladder infections. It seems like she became resistant to one of the medications she takes to make her bladder sphincters work better. (They don’t work well at all on their own!) After some medication changes she seems to have improved noticeably! She’s back to her normal level of urine leaking and that’s a huge relief after the weeks of torrential downpours of pee!! She’s also been infection free since February!!! Huge accomplishment! Honey continues to enjoy her nice long walks in the neighborhood, and playing chase around the cherry tree with her puppy brother! They have a blast together! She is still the happy, smiley dog that everyone loves!

January 27, 2022:

Our Honey girl has had an eventful couple or months. She continued to fight off the bladder and kidney infection she’s had since May. We thought she had cleared it finally in December. But in early January it came back with a vengeance and she had to be hospitalized for 24 hours. She had a high fever and was lethargic. It was very scary. She is now on some medication that people can’t even touch with bare hands because it’s dangerous to human bone marrow!! Yikes!! Honey is scheduled for another procedure at UW veterinary medicine in February to take a look at her bladder and girl parts. They want to see if there is something new causing her all of these issues.

In November Honey’s golden retriever foster sister lost her battle with cancer. It came up very quickly and we were all devastated.
Honey had a nice quiet Christmas until her new baby brother puppy arrived! She is very patient with him and they have a lot of fun together!

We hope her surgical procedure in February brings some helpful answers and that 2022 is a good year for Honey!

October 30, 2021:

Honey has had a busy couple of months since her last update! She needed to go back to the UW vet school several months earlier than planned to address some symptoms that refused to subside. We found out that the UTI she had in May that caused her to be so sick, had settled into her kidneys. Kidney infections are harder to treat and cause much worse symptoms. She is on new medicine and hopefully can shake these bacteria for good soon! Honey has had some fun days too, like going on some fall leaf peeping walks, meeting new friends, and playing with her old friends!! One of her favorite things to do is to be chased by her sister dog around the backyard!! Honey is much faster than Joey and that frustrates Joey! Honey also really likes when he friend Bella the mastiff comes over for play dates at our house! As usual, she tolerates my near constant picture taking (with and without fun props!) because it always means SNACKS!

July 12, 2021:

Honey had a fun 3rd birthday this month, she had an event filled day and finished it with a visit from one of her favorite friends and a trip to Culver’s! We’ve gotten back to in-person GRRoW fundraising events and Honey loves them!! She turns on the charm and loves everyone she meets!

She’s still being treated for the bladder infection she came down with in the middle of May. She’s on medication three times a day, but she’s almost done with that! Fingers crossed that this will be the end of that scary infection, it was the worst she’s had yet. The 4th of July is officially her least favorite holiday as her noise anxiety has gotten worse. One of her veterinarians gave us some suggestions for things to help her and we are going to add them to her regime! As always, she continues to leak urine and requires “pants” to contain the mess. We give her baths about twice a week to keep her clean, sometimes even more. She always behaves like a gem in the bath tub!!! Honey has settled into the reality of being in a 2 dog home since the loss of our Irish Setter, and both she and our other dog are doing great with the change now that they’ve adjusted to it. She’s still a happy smiley dog!!

May 30, 2021:

We’ve missed a few months of updates but there hasn’t been much new to talk about. Honey continues to have bladder infections, sometimes they require antibiotics and sometimes we can get by without treating. It depends on how bad her symptoms get. In the last 5 weeks she’s needed treatment twice. That’s at least 2 weeks of antibiotics at a time.

Honey continues to leak urine and must wear her “pants” at all times, including when lounging outside as she gets very dirty with urine and stinky if she’s “naked”. She continues to enjoy almost daily walks in the neighborhood but we’ve upped our mileage to almost 4 miles at a time! Honey meets lots of dog and people friends on these walks and this makes her very happy!!

Our Irish setter passed away recently and Honey was very sensitive to everyone’s sadness. She would have made an excellent therapy dog. I guess she is a therapy dog to us anyway! Honey gave us a scare this week as she got very sick from another UTI. She was showing signs of illness that she normally doesn’t, including having a fever. She was treated with fluids at the vet and got some more antibiotics, she’s slowing perking up. We hope she recovers quickly!

March 14, 2021:

A quick catch up with Forever Foster Honey 18-042!

It turns out that Honey seems to always have nasty bacteria infecting her bladder due to her physical anomalies. We are learning that she does not always show symptoms that require medical treatment, though. We try not to give her antibiotics too often to protect her (and the bacteria) from becoming resistant to the antibiotics. Honey continues to leak urine from her bladder which means she still wears her special, custom made dog diapers (her foster dad calls them Pull-ups), with bladder pads inside them.

Honey continues to see the doggy chiropractor every month, taking her numerous nutritionist recommended supplements, and eating her prescription food! Her IBD (irritable bowel disease) is being managed and controlled well with this regime.

She takes 3 mile walks with her foster mom almost every day and makes new friends all the time! She’s gotten over a lot of her recently attained noise phobias, which makes life easier for everyone! Honey also gets bathed about 2 times a week to keep her bottom as clean as possible and maybe help keep bacteria at bay!

Her favorite things are playing with her dog friends GG and Teddy, walking with her neighbor Barb and foster Mom, and squeaking her toys very loudly in the morning!

She’s a happy, golden girl with a charming attitude!

January 7, 2021

Honey has had a great month! After about 2 weeks of her strange, anxious behavior, she returned to her mostly stable self. She still gets scared of weird noises but has returned to her happy, smiling self! She’s also had a good health month which is very rare! No infection symptoms that required treatment! We celebrated the holidays quietly at home and are now settled back into working and schooling from home, which Honey loves!

November 30, 2020:

Honey likes to keep us on our toes! This month she has become anxious about things that have never bothered her before, like loud noises. When we walk in our neighborhood if she hears anything remotely scary to her, she refuses to continue. We regularly walk by a house that is being built, and one day a worker dropped a board and it made a loud noise. Honey had a panic attack and we had to turn around. Now she won’t even go down that street at all. She’s been such a stable dog until now, and it makes me a little sad. We will keep working with her to get her through her new fears and hopefully turn them back around! We are getting a dog bath tub installed in our basement so that we can keep Honey clean. She is not so sure what she thinks about this! Honey continues to leak urine, and can no longer have time out of her diaper except outside. Even then she gets very wet and needs cleaning. But her IBD has stabilized for the time being thanks to prescription food and several supplements. We all had a nice Thanksgiving and got to spend a few minutes with neighbors outside (safely distanced!). Honey was thrilled to see some of her favorite people!

October 25, 2020:

What to say about our Honey girl? She had a fun summer with her foster sisters and BFF who came over to play a lot. She had many vet appointments, a few hair cuts, a couple of bonfires, and she did it all like she always does, with a smile. Her health has not improved, and at her August UW vet appointment we found out some of her medical issues are worsening. And she was diagnosed with yet another condition, IBD, irritable bowel disease. Honey also continued to have nearly constant bladder infections which cause a lot of urine leakage. And, we can’t forget, she got kennel cough too!! 2020 has been quite the year for everyone, including Honey! She continues to be a happy, well behaved, social dog, and that makes us happy! She loves everyone she meets and is a great GRRoW ambassador!

July 9, 2020:

This month Honey turned two years old. It really reminded me how far she’s come in such a short time. She had four major surgeries before she was even 18 months old. She’s had countless bladder infections, countless veterinary appointments, countless medications and countless diaper changes. And yet, she’s only two. One thing we can say for sure about Honey is that she is an absolute trouper. She deals with all of her issues with grace. That smile never wanes.

We’ve seen some changes in the way her bladder works and are getting a feel for what even little changes end up meaning in the long run. She has been able to hold urine a bit longer lately, but still nowhere near what a normal dog can. There is a bit less urgency and frequency in her potty habits. But still, she needs to be let out very often, and still, she leaks. And leaking urine means bacteria can move up her urinary tract which means the bladder infections won’t stop.

She did have a rough spring with some unusual skin infections that the veterinarian has never seen! That’s our girl!

This second year of her life has been a bit less of a challenge and it occurred to me that there wasn’t a time this year that I worried she wouldn’t make it!! I couldn’t say that her first year.

Honey has grown into a bright, beautiful golden girl. She always has a smile and a “RooRooRoo” for you! This dog draws people in.

May 13, 2020:

Honey continues to be a super good girl in her forever foster home. She’s currently fighting an infection which is very normal for her. The veterinarians try to keep her on the best antibiotic for the bacteria she has so as not to promote resistance. This means that they usually have to culture her urine so they can find out which bacteria(s) she has. This is a very expensive test and one she needs regularly. As usual, she takes her medicine like a trooper and continues to be a happy, beautiful dog! She certainly is overdue for a “hair appointment” though, like everyone else!! We’ve all been enjoying staying home and Honey likes that she can go out to potty anytime she needs without waiting now!!

April 8, 2020:

Just like all of us, Honey has had quite the month! She started it with another infection, this time on her lady parts, but we caught it early and treated it! As usual, she took all of her medicine like a champ! Honey still has to be left out to go potty many times a day, but now both her foster mom and sister are stuck home all day so she can go out anytime she wants!! She’s enjoying extra walks in the neighborhood thanks to the nicer weather and having bored humans home! Honey still sees her veterinarian every month for chiropractic and acupuncture, we’re thankful that’s still considered essential! We’re also still able to get all of her supplements by ordering online. We can’t wait for life to get back to somewhat normal!!

March 10, 2020:

Honey has had quite a month, starting with a skin infection that also caused her to break out in hives that opened up and bled. She was on several medications to make her feel better, but as luck would have it, one medication made her leak urine even worse than normal! Needless to say I did a lot of wash that first week! She is feeling better now and almost done with all of those medications! Whew. Honey also has had some fun play dates with her friends which she really enjoys! Hoping to get her to some GRRoW fundraising events soon!

February 12th, 2020:

Honey has an unresolved medical condition (ectopic ureters) which causes urinary incontinence. Honey will never be dry and will always need to wear a diaper. She is also highly susceptible to UTI’s. Honey has become a forever foster.

November 11, 2019:

What to say about Ms Honey…since her last update she’s had another surgery. She was spayed and had a procedure to fix the shape of her vulva. As usual, she was a trooper throughout the healing process! The hope is that the anatomy change will cut down on UTIs and bladder infections. I wish I could say that the urine leaking has stopped but I can’t. Honey also needs to go out to potty many times a day, sometimes hourly. I am still taking her to a chiropractor. She is on several veterinary nutritionist recommended supplements and she does still leak enough to need to wear a diaper. The surgeon said it could take many months to see final results and we are patiently waiting and hoping she gets the great results we all want for her. Of course, there is a chance that she will always have bladder problems and urine leaking.

Honey Buns is one of the happiest dogs around and is a joy! She is now almost 1 1/2 years old and a nicely behaved sweetheart! Everyone who meets her loves her. Her favorite things to do are play with other dogs, learn tricks and snuggle with people! She still hates getting in the car.

July 14, 2019:

Honey is turning 1!!! We wish we had great news to share, but Honey remains in a holding pattern. She continues to have bladder infections that require nasty meds to treat. She also still struggles with bladder function which forces us to keep her in “pants” unless she is outside. Hopefully her hormones kick in soon and she goes through a heat cycle which might help with some of her anatomy abnormalities. This might also stop the infections. She is the sweetest girl and everyone who meets her says the same thing: “her name is perfect for her.” Honey wants to please and learns quickly! She’s been at some fundraising events and is an absolute rockstar! Fingers crossed that her next update has positive news!!

March 17, 2019:

Honey is a big girl now! She seems to be getting close to full grown at around 50 pounds, she’s a great size for a golden! She will fill out some more and get her grown-up coat but her growth has slowed. We continue to have some struggles with bladder infections and function, and even though she still has to wear her cute “pants”, she has seen some improvement very recently. Honey will graduate from Puppy Basics class next week! She isn’t the biggest fan of car rides so we’ve been trying to take her on short, fun trips instead of just yucky vet visits. And yet, when she gets to her vet appointments she’s an absolute super star!

Everyone loves her wherever she goes, and her adorable diapers make her even cuter!! Honey has quite the engaging personality and even though she faces at least one more surgery, she continues to thrive in her foster home.

January 27, 2019:

Honey has had another surgery to hopefully get her bladder working better. She’s recovering like a champ, feeling good much faster than I expected! Surgery hopefully helps her kidney, and fingers crossed, reduces her need for diapers. Honey started puppy class but had to drop out due to surgery. She was a star pupil while it lasted! She is still a happy, sweet puppy enjoying life at her foster home!

December 27, 2018:

Honey continues to be on her healing journey. She continues to struggle with some bladder issues and still wears a diaper, but is happy and healthy otherwise! Acupuncture has been helping her and she loves to be the center of attention at those appointments! Honey had a great Christmas and got to meet many people including children at her foster family’s festivities. She was gentle and calm! She got many compliments on her behavior!! She starts puppy class soon and we are sure she’ll be a star pup!!!!

November 20, 2018

Honey had her bladder/ectopic ureter surgery. She had a rough time recovering and actually needed a second surgery just 2 days later. She spent 9 days hospitalized but is now home recovering. Things are still up in the air regarding continence in the future. She continues to heal in her foster home with her pack.

October 30, 2018:

Honey has had a great 4 weeks in foster! She’s experienced many new things and done some growing! She plays very well with foster sister and has learned a ton of things! Started puppy class and was a rockstar! She’s practically perfect! Surgery soon and fingers crossed for a great outcome! Honey also gets along with the cats she lives with. She’s met kids too and is respectful.

October 8, 2018:

We’ve decided to change Red’s name to Honey since Red was the color of her collar from her litter as a puppy. Honey has settled into her foster home seamlessly! She’s been to some veterinarian visits, she’s been swimming, she’s even gone through the drive thru at the coffee shop! She’s practically perfect. She’s been diagnosed with ectopic ureters and will need to have surgery to fix this once she grows a bit more. In the meantime, she’s great about keeping her diaper on. She plays great with her foster sisters and cats. She’s a love.

October 1, 2018:

Red just arrived at her foster home. More updates to follow.