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Permalink Reply by Roger/Laurie on August 29, 2013 at 11:06am

I know nothing about UTIs in dogs but if this were a human patient I would suspect they are reoccurring from the original infection. Possibly a different antibiotic.

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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on August 29, 2013 at 5:47pm

She needs to go to the vet and get this infection treated. The infection is likely a re-occurrence from the original infection that was never cured. This can happen for a variety of reasons, the most common being the original infection was never cultured and the wrong antibiotic was given to begin with. All this stuff you are doing additionally is all fine and good but if she has an infection antibiotics are the only way to get rid of it. Cranberry does not cure UTIs and some people in the medical field will even go as far as saying it does nothing for UTIs and its just an old wives tale. I think it helps, but not if there is already an active infection.

Take her to the vet, get the urine cultured and get her on the appropriate antibiotics, give the antibiotics as prescribed for as long as prescribed, and most importantly re-culture the urine once the antibiotics are completed so you know the infection is gone. If you don't do a final culture after the antibiotics you won't know if you cured the infection or not and you may be dealing with another infection in a week or two or month. 

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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on August 29, 2013 at 7:05pm

First- did they do a sterile culture?  This is different than the urinalysis they run in the office.  They need to get a sterile specimen and send it off to see if it grows any bacteria.  Bacteria showing in the one run in the office can just be from skin bacteria.

Second- Are there crystals in the urine?  If so, then that can be an indicator of an infection, and she may need a different food, and an antibiotic.  Seanna has struuvites.

Third- my corgi went through this over and over.  A replacement vet found that she has an extra fold of skin on her vulva, and recommended surgery to remove it.  So far we are 6 years old, and keep everything managed with Royal Canin S/O food, baby wipes, and keeping the hair trimmed around her vulva really short.

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Permalink Reply by Angie on August 29, 2013 at 10:26pm

I ended up going to a more holisitic vet because I had this problem in my corgi puppy. After doing many tests on a sterile culture we learned that she did not have a UTI, but crystals in her urethra which I have learned to manage. But this was all months before she had bladder stones and needed to have them removed. If you haven't been to the vet and done xrays and a sterile culture I would do that. If your vet is still recomending antibiotics and they are certainly not working and there are no stones (which if there is alot of blood in the urine and it hurts alot to pee it may be stones) then I would recommend a holistic vet. They helped me find the solutions I needed. I still use cranberry extract and have now switched to freeze dried pure cranberry powder. I also switched her to a raw diet and I monitor the ph of her urine.

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Permalink Reply by susan on August 30, 2013 at 12:26pm

 I think the sterile sample will be next.  And I'll talk to my vet about the crystals, etc.  Yes, I do think that the origonal UTI may never have been completely cleared up and that is the reason for the reoccurance.  She also has the extra flap on her vulva, which may complicate the issue.  We keep the hair trimmed.  Thanks everyone for your information.  I will discuss the things you all mentioned with my vet.

 

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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on August 30, 2013 at 1:55pm

A urinalysis and culture will also test for crystals. Generally no need for an x-ray unless crystals are present. Good luck. 

Also, in the long run, sometimes surgery to remove the extra flap is the easier and cheaper route on a young dog. My friend's French Bulldog had re-occuring UTIs when she was about a year old, it was due to the extra flap.. She had it removed and has not had a UTI since and doesn't need to do any special maintenance (such as shaving, baby wipes, etc.), recovery time was very short as well and she has been happy and healthy ever since. 

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Permalink Reply by Julia on August 31, 2013 at 2:55am

Definitely check for crystal, and check the ph of the urine. The two are related, and keeping the urine at the proper ph level can help prevent crystals. Crystals can clump together to form stones (a very bad thing.) I believe they are also a surface that bacteria can cling to, aiding the infection.

There are two types of crystals, each associated with a ph at opposite ends of the scale. My vet and I worked out a diet for Lilliput to keep the crystals at bay, while avoiding the IMO awful prescription food. I would feed it if I had to, but I'm glad we found an alternative.

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Permalink Reply by E.B. on September 1, 2013 at 4:40pm

If this were my human patient I'd check them for diabetes. The bacteria feed on the sugar that is spilling from the kidney into the urine. It could also be that the initial infection never got completely taken care of. Good luck!

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Permalink Reply by susan on September 4, 2013 at 3:10pm

Jeli's Urinalysis came back and although it isn't clear of white cells, they haven't increased.  There are no crystals in her urine and no bacteria to culture, although it is not a sterile sample.  It could be that she simply has a higher than normal white cell count.  Apparently some dogs do?  To test that my vet wants her to take a stronger anitbiotic for a couple of weeks to see if the cell count goes down.  If it does, then maybe vaginitis or bladder infection is the culprit.  If it doesn't, then she just has a high white cell count.

 

I've also decided to switch her diet to a raw diet and see if that helps.  Almost everyone I've talked to has said that their UTI issues have dissappeared once the dog goes on this diet.  /fingers crossed!

 

Thanks again for all the input  corgi peeps- it helps educate me on what to talk to the vet about. 

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