Urinary tract infection

[Ed Bickel]

I have a 5 month old female German Short Hair Pointer puppy that has been battling a UTI for 2 months. She has been on 3 antibiotics without any success. The Vet is now recommending to put on her a 4th antibiotic, Baytril and then suggested an early spaying. Apparently they have had a few similar cases, where, for unexplainable reasons, the spaying seemed to cure the UTI.

I am very concerned at this point as to what the right course of action and am seeking help from anyone that may have had a similar experience.

Thank you for your replies.

Ed

[My Peanuts]

Hi and welcome to PT. You might want to move this to the dog section.

My dog Jimmy was diagnosed with a UTI a couple of months ago. The antibiotics weren't working and then the doctor thought it was his prostate. X-rays showed it wasn't overly swollen. He had sandy sediment and kidney stones that weren't showing up on the x-rays. When he couldn't pee I would rush him in and they would put a catheter in and it would push the sediment back up and Jimmy could pee normally, but this was just a temporary fix. Dogs don't pass stones like humans. Finally one morning he couldn't pee at all. Zero. The vet gave him emergency bladder surgery and removed 8 large stones! I saw them and they would have been near impossible, if possible at all, for even a human to pass. He got his stitches out yesterday and we are still waiting on the stone analysis.

It's possible your dog has been misdiagnosed just like Jimmy. Females don't have a prostate, so that is out as a problem, but they can get stones. Maybe ask your vet if it's possible.

[My Peanuts]

Side note, Jimmy was an un-neutered rescue. He had heartworms and MANY other problems so we were waiting on those things to clear up before neutering him. All his problems are gone now and we just pray the stones don’t return. When the doctor thought it was his prostate he too told me neutering would fix it. Un-fixed animals are prone to UTIs as well. Jimmy got neutered 4 days before his emergency bladder surgery, poor guy, two surgeries in 4 days! However, he's doing VERY well now.

[lv4dogs]

Just wondering what type of food you are feeding?
I had the same problem with Raustyk, except hers went n for years and was also accompanied by a few other symptoms. Even allergy tests & the like dhowed nothing related to diet but I changed her to Butro and all the problems went away. A few years later I ran out of food & could not get to the store so my mother picked up a bag of Maximum Nutrition (walmarts food, based on purina as well, yet I did not know that at the time otherwise I would not of fed it) and within a few days all the symptoms returned. I did a study on it a few years back & come to find out it is a VERY common thing with Purina diets. But even if you are not feeding purina it may be worth a shot to try a different food.

I would also suggest a second opinion and possibly some blood work.
As far as the early spaying goes I have also heard that they sometimes cure unexplained UTI's and at 5 months of age I don't think it's too terribly early to spay her.

I wish you the best of luck, from personal experience I know UTI's are not fun, dog nor human. lol

[Ed Bickel]

Part of the problem is that she urinates very frequently, sometimes 20 times per day. Frequent sqatting, sometimes only a few drops, sometimes a more normal urination.

She has had at least three urinalysis tests done, all confirming the UTI and showing no improvement. We had a sterile urine sample taken directly from the Bladder which did not grow a culture, indicating that there was no infection in the Bladder. Thus the UTI is downstream of the Bladder.
A blood test, indicated that there was no damage to the Liver or Kidneys, at least at that time.

She is being fed Eukanuba. At one point we switched to Inova then California Natural since we understand that Eukanuba contains Yeast. They didn't help but caused her to have loose stools.

Thanks again for your replies.