UTI continuous...+ crystals again?....
Sigh... DouBao is with the vet right now... because of UTI...She needs x-ray this afternoon...
DouBao is 7 months old now. She was diagnoset UTI about two months ago and finished her third round of antibiotics recently. There was crystals in her urinary when we first visited the vet on this but was eliminated after the first round of antibiotics, and the PH is really low from the first pee in the morning. I cut back her treats during this period, especially liver and chicken stripe...
After the second round, the bad materials in the urinary was much less and the ph got higher from the middle-day pee (the first morning pee's PH was still low, that's why we took the middle day pee to compare). During this time, she had the spay operation.
Since she still had a bit of licking down-there, the vet put her on the third round of antibiotics. Now she finished the third round but still had it. Therefore, the vet suggested to take her for a visit so they could get the urinary directly from the bladder with a needle, so they can determine if the source of her infection is the bladder itself or her vulva. I took her to the vet this morning, but DouBao decided to pee at the moment the needle touched her after holding 3 hours....(and she was upside down... the vet told me...I could only picture what was going on... any way...)
The vet did collect some urinary even though it was not directly from the bladder (they are going to try again this afternoon). The crystals are back and a lot of bad materials are in it, even though she just finished the third round. She is going to have a X-ray this afternoon to see whether there is crystal in her bladder (no ultrasound at this point). And the sample to be collected is gong to be sent for further test to confirm what specific material is and the medicine will be given accordingly....
Maybe some of you could provide some ideas:
Why she will have this at this early age?
How I could prevent this?
Is it anything to do with the treats or things she eats on the street? (Treats: liver, chicken strips, dry cheese, zukes....)
I feel really bad that she has to go through this...
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on
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Hi Nora,
The causes of UTI can be:
- Stones, crystals or debris accumulation in the bladder or urethra
- Bladder inflammation or infection
- Trauma
- Cancer
- Congenital abnormality
You'll need to wait for the test result to determine the exact cause.
If it's not congenital, you can prevent it from diet alone. Different type of stones require a different diet, so lets wait for the result and then look at your options.
Yes, everything DouBao ingest have direct contribution to crystal formation.
It's a common problem, no need to worry too much, once the cause is narrowed down, you'll be able to treat it properly.
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Markley on
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My Seanna has always had issues with her pee. Same story. Her pH is always high (urine is 8.0), and she too had frequent bladder infections with tons of struuvite crystals. After multiple rounds of antibiotics over the years, we had to put her on Royal Canin S/O diet, and she has done wonderfully since. She also has an extra fold of skin over her vulva, so we keep her hair shaved down really good (the vet techs say she's getting her brazilian wax), and between these two interventions we haven't had any more issues.
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Permalink Reply by Melissa and Franklin! on
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I just have to say, if you are looking for a UTI you NEVER want to do free catch. They should ALWAYS get it directly from the bladder with a needle. Also, once they get a sterile sample they need to send it in for a culture and sensitivity. This really should have been done when the 1st course of antibiotics didn't fix the issue. The only way to know which antibiotics are appropriate and how long to give the antibioitics is to do a culture and sensitivity and see exactly what kind of infection she has and what it is suceptable to. My initial thought is that you never adequately diagnosed the infection to begin with if the urine was never collected as a sterile sample straight from her bladder so really you don't know exactly what you are dealing with. I know its too late now but really before doing an x-ray they should have sent a urinalysis and culture to a lab and collected the sample from the bladder with a needle. It is not painful and most pets do just fine with the collection. The worst part is they have to be on their back.
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Permalink Reply by Nora on
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Thanks for the information Melissa!
I think maybe because the first round antibiotics cleaned the crystals and a lot of the bad things. They thought another round would do the rest of the work. Plus, DouBao didn't lick her vulva a lot, only after the morning pee.
Anyway, they took the x-ray this afternoon and everything is fine, no crystals in the bladder (but then I wonder where the crystal comes from...). They successful collected the sample directly from the bladder and has been sent for culture and sensitivity.
Will the test result tell what cause the UTI, or just tell what kind of bacterial we are dealing with so that they could give medicine accordingly?
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It should tell you the bacteria but that will also help determine the cause. One big thing about UTIs is sometimmes it can take 3-4 weeks straight of antibiotics to completely clear the infection. Another thing to know, a free catch sample may show crystals that are not actually from the urine but from outside causes. For example, when we were doing Urinalyses in school I got a free catch sample from Franklin and brought it in to do the urinalysis on. He had SOOOOOOOOOOO many struvite crystals and gross stuff! Well I decided to have a urinalysis run to verify if he has a really bad infection and how to treat it and it came back perfectly normal. Sometimes just having the urine sit in the collection container can cause crystals to form. Hopefully you will have some answers after this U/A and culture comes back. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Julia on
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I've managed Lilli's recurrent crystals with diet alone. The diet affects the PH, and that is what I have tested regularly, as well as having the urine checked for crystals, concentration, etc. Getting her to drink a lot of water is also a big piece of the puzzle. Once you know what type of crystals, and therefore what type of diet, then you can control her treats as well. Every bit does count.
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Permalink Reply by Jeanne & Baylee May on
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Hi Nora,
My Baylee May(she's 4 yrs old) had bladder stones,they removed them with surgery, now she is on a special dog food, need to watch her water intake and output, I didn't know anything about this subject untill she was diagonsed by vet....went on web and goggled it and read a lot of articles, that would be my suggestion to you, the more you know about it the better you will be able to care for DouBao, I know some of the info is scary and they really can't give you a answer as to why they get badder infections, or stones, but the sooner you know the test results the sooner you will be able to take postive action to keeping your pet healthly. Good luck , and also if you have questions write them down and make sure you ask your vet next visit seeing that he/she should be able to give you the best answer.....
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The culture and sensitivity test result came out CLEAN...... But the vet said some bacteria are hard to grow...so couldn't find and suggested to finish the current antibiotics...then go from there...
Will there be nothing going on? 'Cause, except for licking her vulva after the first morning pee, DouBao seems quite normal to me. She licks less after being on the current antibiotics. Should I ask the vet for a copy of the test result? (Not sure I could read it though...)
Any other possibilities I need to worry?
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So if the culture is clean I would guess that she is not having an actual bladder/urinary tract infection but rather has an issue with her vulva. I would probably guess 9 times out of 10 the culture will grow if bacteria is present. Since in the past the "icky stuff" in the urine was seen by a sample that was free catch, all of that debris and gunk could have easily come from her vulva and not been in her urine at all. There are many dogs that need a hygiene clip and that can take care of the problem or I know some breeds (like french bulldogs) actually have a surgical procedure to remove the extra flaps of skin folds around the vulva that cause infection. My guess for DouBao would be getting that area well clipped on a regular basis and that may be enough to get rid of whatever is irritating her. Also, crystals in the urine, especially struvite crystals, can be a normal thing so just because they are present doesn't automatically mean a dog has an infection. Crystals can form from a free catch sample that has been sitting around before its spun and looked at as well. Sounds like your girl is ok! Finishing the antibiotics should take care of the infection around her vulva and just make sure to keep it clean and maybe use baby wipes in that area after her morning pee. Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by Gail Phillips on
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I had a Pembroke that started having UT infections at a young age. It was guaranteed she would come down with one during the rainy months.I guess squatting in the wet area of the yard didn't help. My vet put her on antibiotics and everything was fine till the next one.After a while my vet decided to put her on the Hills Precription diet C/D to keep the urine acidic.We never had a problem after that.When she got to be around middle age we noticed she was gaining weight in spite of controlling the quantity (1/4 cup 2x a day) My vet discovered that the Hills Prescription weight control food had the same stuff in it that the C/D had so we switched to that.So two problems solved!
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Thanks for all the advises!!! REALLY APPRECIATED!
I don't think I will change the diet at this time --- since the culture and sensitivity is clean, but I will keep that option in mind if the problem became more frequently.
Look like my girl is fine (YAHOO!!!) and just need some cleaning down-there,,, --- If you could free catch your dog's pee ON THE STREET, you certainly could wipe her vulva with no problem. :-)
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Nora,
Glad to hear that the test results were good.....I have asked for copies of all Baylee's test results so I can keep them in her file at home, not that I don't trust the vet's office but there always can be human error involved when you see such a high volume of pets....And I did have to take Bay to the Emer Vet one weekend when my vet was closed so I was able to have her info with me to show emer vet,seeing that I was upset and not able to think real clear the vet was able to look at her test results himself and read them....she ended up with a second surgery because she had another infection, this time MRSA...now that I've spent over $5000.00 dollars I don't ever want to go thru that again, was so afraid I was going to lose my baby, will have to keep eye on her in the future for reacurring infections. I was told you can buy PH test strips so you can test levels of PH at home will be doing that today, take care Jeanne
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