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.

**Sorry, I am a newbie here and posted this incorrectly in the wrong section initially.

Ed Bickel

[VTJess03]

Welcome to PT, and good luck finding out what's wrong. I have a cousin that had a Husky with a similar problem, but she had looootttts of other health issues too, so I know that's not helpful. She was spayed earlier than my cousin wanted, but it was for the better, in the long run.

[solares412]

When antibiotics fail to cure UTIs, it usually means that it has become antibiotic resistant. What causes UTIs is when bacteria attaches itself to the bladder walls. After awhile antibiotics can fail to kill that bacteria because the bacteria becomes resistant to antibiotics. Cranberry will kill that bacteria and cause it to slough off the bladder walls. Cranberry can be given as the pure unsweetened juice that you can get from a health food store. A couple of tablespoons a day mixed in a little canned milk to make it less bitter and given with an oral syringe. After this is under control, cranberry extract capsules can be given every couple of days or if it starts to flare up again. Giving alot cranberry over an extended period of time really is not necessary, just give it periodically as a preventative. Dry dog food can trigger this for some reason. Even prescription dog foods. Also tap water can do it in some areas, sometimes it can affect the ph balance of the urine. If you can find a dog food that has a lower magnesium and ash content ,eliminate fish completely from the diet and increase the amount of water your puppy drinks a little more it can all help.

[wolfsoul]

What kind of dog food do you feed? In order to boost her immune system it is recommended that you feed a high quality food. As well as cranberry, supplement with fresh parsley. Parsley is the absolute best thing you can feed for urinary tract infectons. Just blend it and mix with with fish oil to make it tasty. It's very healthy. Spaying her early is perfectly fine, if it's shown to help UTIs, I'd do it. Good luck!

[Ed Bickel]

Thanks everyone for your replies. There are some great suggestions.
We tried unsuccessfully to get her to drink cranberry juice but the oral syringe sounds like the way to go.

A sterile urine test showed that the Bladder urine did not have the UTI, thus the infection was downstream of the Bladder.

She has been on Baytril for the last 4 days and we are cauciously optimistic that there may be some improvement. I will let everyone know.

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 posts.

Ed

[wolfsoul]

Eukanuba is a very poor quality food. I would try switching her to something higher quality to boost her immune system, atleast until her infection has cleared. If she has loose stools, give her a tablespoon of canned pumpkin mixed with her food, it works very well, or try adding some digestive enzymes.