Olive’s Story

As told by Olive’s owner: 

My name is Jeannie and I am a disabled veteran. I had lost my first service dog, Gwen, in September 2019 to a massive heart attack.  I adopted Olive on December 15, 2019. I believe Olive was destined to be my dog because she had an adoption that fell through the same day my Gwen died. Anyway, Olive was my Christmas present to myself. 

Olive had a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) the day I got her. After we finished the antibiotics, we did another urine sample to make sure that we had gotten the infection. My Veterinarian, Dr. Luke Gillespie, and I got to talking about what I observed, which was that Olive always leaked urine, and the medication I was given did not help with it. He thought that she had ectopic ureters (ureters that are not where they belong), and I thought there may have been a fistula (an unnatural tube) between the bowel and the urethra. In either case, surgery would be required to alleviate the problem.  

I called Corgipalooza Rescue and Rehab, where I had adopted her from, and let them know. Syni Brent, who operates Corgipalooza, put me in touch with the wonderful people at Bandit’s K9Care. Carol, Cheryl, and their team, including a wonderful donor, stepped in to make the surgery happen. Olive and I had a definitive diagnosis of ectopic ureters in February of 2020, but because of the COVID pandemic, she could not have surgery done until July 2nd. Since having surgery, Olive is continent about 90 to 95% of the time, except when she is asleep (we were told this would likely be the case). She still has occasional UTIs but that can (and is) being managed with oral medications. 

Olive thinks the world revolves around her, and her world certainly does! We have been to the East Coast (Delaware) to see my siblings and regularly travel back and forth to Utah and Montana to help other dogs (and cats) find new homes. Olive is a happier and healthier dog since the intervention of Bandit’s K9Care!