Bladder infection or starting to mark?

[ks-man]

Cannoli is 17 weeks and the past two days I've noticed he's been squatting more with only a few drops coming out.  His first pee after a decent wait has a pretty normal stream but then he continues to squat a few more times with often nothing coming out.  He doesn't cry when he's peeing and I don't think he is straining.  

This morning when he woke up he didn't seem to pee as much as he normally does after holding it all night but I'm not sure if I'm being overly sensitive to watching it.  

Does this sound like it could be the early stages of a bladder infection or is this what happens with male puppies as they get older in that they want to start marking territory more but don't have enough urine stored up to do it effectively?

Thanks!

[ks-man]

I should also add that he was diagnosed with giardia three weeks ago.  We dropped off a stool sample this morning and I'm guessing it will still come back positive.  He still poops between 3-5 times a day with the later poops being soft.  The vet only gave him packets of Panacur for a 10 lb dog despite him being 16-17 lbs when he was first diagnosed and currently weights 22 lbs.  

I'm not sure if part of him squatting and trying to pee is that he feels strange and doesn't really know what he needs to do.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

I'd be kind of upset about the underdosing on the Panacur. Giardia is such a nasty disease, you want to knock it out sooner rather than later. 
The repeated squatting attempts are a symptom of UTI. It's not that he doesn;t know what he needs to do. That comes pretty naturally without any thought on the dog's part, lol. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That's not marking. He's really too young to have started marking, but when they mark, they lift their leg and direct the urine at something, usually something that smells like another dog has gone there. Both of my males have squatted to actually pee, but hiked a leg when marking. Jasper started this quite early. Even females will attempt this by tilting to one side while squatting and lifting one leg as much as they can. 
To me this sounds like a possible bladder infection, unless he is dehydrated. Has his water consumption gone down recently? 
With a female, it's pretty common when there is giardia or some other kind of contamination in the feces for the bacteria to get into the urinary tract as well. That doesn't happen as often with males for obvious reasons, but I think it's possible, especially if when they lick themselves "down there". 
I'd have the vet check him out, just to be safe. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

Sounds like a UTI to me.  Poor guy.

[ks-man]

Just thought I'd report back.  The vet doesn't think this is a UTI based on what we are describing.  She said it sounds like behavioral because he isn't having accidents (or crying inside) and isn't "asking" to go outside right after he comes in.  She also said the fact that he was fine all night (about 9 hours) without an accident in his crate and without crying/whining leads her to believe he is OK.  She also said UTIs are rare in puppies and especially in male puppies.  She told us as long as he doesn't seem uncomfortable we should let it go a few days and see how he is doing.  If he start appearing to be uncomfortable we can bring him in for a test.  Makes sense to me to take a wait and see attitude as long as he isn't complaining.

Separately the giardia test came back negative which was a surprise.  I thought for sure it would come back positive.  She said while there can be a false positive she said it isn't very common.  She did say we may want to have a follow up stool sample in 1-2 weeks since it isn't that expensive but her thoughts are we should consider him giardia free and a follow-up test would just be a precaution.

All in all a good report!

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

That is good news! Very glad to hear it!