Bladder Infection & problems

[milwaukee_rott]

Hello! I've been lurking for a few months now and I've gotten some great information from searching for things. I guess I'm looking to vent, get advice, etc. We got our beautiful Rottie, Murphy, on Oct. 3rd. She was born 8/11 which made her 14 weeks old yesterday! We got her from someone who seems to be a reputable breeder. We were SO happy to get her and have fallen in love! Anyway, about 1 1/2 week after getting her, we took her to the vet and found she had coccidia (sp?). We gave her the prescribed antibiotics and it's gone as far as I know. Then, a couple of week ago, she started urinating uncontrollably. I did some research and took her to the vet and sure enough- bladder infection. She just finished her dose of pills monday and now we think it's come back. Since last night she's been peeing a lot again and going in her crate. (Which she's never done until this bladder infection stuff). I guess I'm just feeling frustrated, disappointed, and what not. I figured we got her from a good breeder and I wasn't expecting these kinds of issues. It's getting to be very expensive taking her to the vet all the time. We feed her Canidae which was given to us by the breeder. She's a pretty good girl all around, but I just don't know what to do. Do you have any advice or uplifting words? I feel like we are going to continue to have problems with her. Thanks guys! undefined

[frontierrots]

My first suggestion is to collect a urine sample from her am pee in a clean flat dish and then put it in a clean container and take to the vet for them to send out to a lab for a urine culture. This will allow the vet to know exactly which antibiotic willwork best on the type of infecion she has. Some very tough infections can takes several weeks on antibiotics to clear up

Many, many, many female puppies have urinary tract infections. You can help her by adding 1 cranberry capsule to her am and pm meals and by adding 500 mg vit C to her am & pm meals (start with just adding C to 1 meal as too much C too fast can cause diarrhea)

Also if you trim the long tuft of hair on her vulva so that it is not touching the ground when she pees that helps as does a weekly or twice a week sanitary washing with antibacterial hand or dish soap and a THOROUGH rinse and pat dry

It sounds like you are doing a good job so far, don't stress. She will be fine. This is quite common

[drolds66]

Hello,

Your story sounds like a duplicate copy of mine, please let me know how she is doing now.

Thanks

Mike

[rottnkidd]

Milwaukee - I'm sorry to hear about the problems with your young pup.
Have you contacted your breeder to find out if any of the other pups are ill?
Do you have a health guarantee? Perhaps she'll consider helping with some of the expense. Was this pup vaccinated recently?
Please check the recent posts for more info on bladder infections. It's VERY important that the proper testing is done to determine WHAT BACTERIA is causing the infection. Frontierrotts was right on with telling you to have a culture done. One way to insure a sterile sample is to have them draw the urine directly from the bladder. This is called cystocentesis. This process
will allow the lab to grow the bacteria and i.d. it, so the proper antibiotic can be prescribed. The pup may be on the rx for 2-3 wks or longer. Ideally another c&s should be done about midway through the rx to insure that the
infection is clearing. This can be costly, but proper testing is important.

Once you get this pup well, I'd like to suggest your consideration of some probiotics.
Has the pup been on Albon for the coccidia? The drawback of the Albon and an antibiotic being administered for the bladder infection, is that they deplete the beneficial bacteria in the gut. This sets up a breeding ground for other pathogens. Probiotics restore the good bacteria and help to prevent bad bacteria from taking hold. Talk to your vet, or do your own research. Be sure to give us an update to let us know how she heals up.
Best wishes -
kathy