Posts Tagged ‘dog disease’
Urinary Tract Infections in Dogs
October 20th, 2009
Over the past few months I’ve been at war with Emmala’s stubborn bladder infections. The dog bladder infection issues in my household have not only inspired many vet visits but also intensified my interest in holistic health for dogs. It is was the primary motivation for switching to home cooking and forced me to reevaluate the quality of my dog’s lives.
On a Wednesday, Emmala seemed fairly happy and healthy but by Thursday, there were some pretty serious signs that all was not well. Wednesday night there was the bloody urine. Because I still use puppy pads when my dogs are home alone, to my boyfriend’s dismay, and I happened to notice a few red drops in the middle of a puppy puddle. The blood was fairly subtle, maybe only five or six drops.
By morning, I was awakened by Emmala whining to go downstairs earlier than normal. Actually, she never whines at all. After ignoring her until I could no longer (cruel me!), I brought her outside. Once outside, Emmala squatted probably nine or more times. By her third squat I was already on the phone with the vet.
Upon inspecting the squatting area, I observed that she was leaving literally only a drop of blood. The rest of thursday, Emmala was slightly more lazy than she normally is, and definitely looked sad.
Because I was worried that bloody urine could be a sign of an even more serious problem, I took to the internet. It turns out that urinary track infections were the most likely culprit. I was lucky to have caught the infection so quickly. Many owners won’t spot bloody urine when their dog puddles in the grass and may not observe any changes in their pets bathroom habits if they do not already know how often their pets urinate. Blood in the urine is definitely the most dramatic symptom that signifies something is wrong.
Other symptoms are malaise and straining during urination. Dogs may also regress in their potty training, spotting in incorrect places or having dribble problems. “Excited urination” may actually be a UTI. If your dog has potty training problems it could be an infection instead of a training problem.
If you suspect that your dog has a UTI, make sure your dog does not go to the bathroom the morning of your vet appointment, especially if it is small. I made the mistake this morning of letting Emmala use the potty before we left. As it turns out, she is a small dog with a very small bladder. Being empty, the small bladder was impossible to find even using an ultrasound and a long needle. I ended up having to leave her there for three hours to “re-brew” so to speak.
My vet recommended that the culture and sensitivity test were the most reliable test to diagnose UTI. It takes around three days in which a sample of the bacteria in the urine is grown in the lab and then that culture is checked to see which antibiotic it is sensitive to. Without this testing, choosing an antibiotic is a guessing game. Because Emmala was presumably incredibly uncomfortable because of the UTI’s advanced progression, the doctor opted to have the urine gram tested. The lab also checked to see the basic type of bacteria present, whether they were cocci, rod or the spiral guys.
I received the appropriate antibiotics which are administered twice a day with food for probably two weeks. The total for my visit today came out to about two hundred dollars. Fifty for antibiotics, fifty for the office visit, thirty for the ultrasound, forty or so for the urinalysis, and another 10 for a cytosyntesis.
Some dogs are more prone to bladder infections especially older dogs. Dogs can also develop bladder stones which can harbor bacteria. Bladder stones can be caused by diet as in Emmala’s case. My vet also recommended cleaning the vulva area to try and prevent bacteria from entering the urinary track.
UTI’s are very common in dogs but are sometimes hard to diagnose. In people the first sign of a urinary infection would be the burning during urination, but because dog’s can’t talk it is up to us owners to be vigilant and watch our dog’s behavior.
