To Pee or Not to Pee, that is the Question

I recently took Lilith to the vet to get her some arthritis medication. After three days of trying to slip it into her food semi-successfully, I started to notice that she wasn't going to the bathroom. In fact, she was holding her pee for up to 19 hours! That's a foreign concept to me because I have a bladder the size of a walnut, I swear. Shiba Inus are known for their ability to hold it for long periods of time. That's part of what makes them such an ideal apartment dwelling dog. Still, I was worried because that's a looooooooong time, even for a Shiba, and it could be a sign of kidney failure. I stopped giving her the medication, and called the vet to ask if her bladder retention issues could have anything to do with the meds, just in case. He said no, but my intuition told me to keep her off the meds for a couple of days to see if her pee schedule went back to normal. It did, thankfully. So now it appears that we're back to square one with the arthritis meds, even though the vet says they probably aren't the cause of the pee problem. Maybe I'll opt for weekly injections and see if the fountain continues to flow freely. Stay tuned...