My guess is the "funny smell" is ketones, which means she has developed insulin-dependent diabetes. She is at risk of dying if this is what she has. She will go down quickly.

I don't mean to scare you, and without being able to sniff her myself I can't say for sure.

The body's cells use glucose as fuel. Everything you eat is turned to glucose since this is the only fuel the body can store. Insulin is the "key" that lets the glucose into the cells. In insulin-dependent diabetes, the pancreas is destroyed due to an auto-immune reaction, and insulin is no longer produced. In an effort to maintain itself, the body starts destroying its own tissue. A byproduct of this is a substance called ketone, which is poisonous to the body. In the meantime, all the glucose is circulating through the blood, unusable by the body. The kidneys then begin to work overtime, trying to flush the ketone and excess glucose from the bloodstream, and excessive thirst and urination result. The body continues to break down fat and muscle for fuel, and excessive and rapid weight loss results. In the meantime, the ketones build up, and concentrate as the body dehydrates from the kidneys attempting to balance the blood chemistry. Ketones have a "sweetish" smell, some say like rotten fruit. It is evidently a pretty strong smell. I have never been able to smell it on myself (like we can't smell our own BO or badbreath ) but once my doctor only had to walk into my hospital room to determine that I was still "ketotic" without even having to do a blood test.

Don't wait to try to get a urine sample, she needs to go to the vet now. And if you described all the symptoms, including the smell, when they suggested taking a urine sample, I would think about how much I like this vet, as the weight loss, excessive thirst and "funny smell" are such huge red flags that even a vet student should figure out that she may be diabetic and needs to be seen now.

Good luck with her, and I hope it's not something so serious.