Puppy Problems - Crystals in her urine. Any advice?

[Swetha & Elsa]

We brought Elsa home from the breeder at 8 weeks.  A week later she started peeing a lot and straining at the very end to get some drops out.  Took her to the vet, they took a sample and we started her on Clavamox.  Urine was negative for bacteria but they found a lot of crystals in it.  The issue continued and we were terrified when the drops at the end were pink/reddish.  The vet asked us to give her Vitamin C 500mg twice a day for 2 weeks because the pH in her urine was really high.  So we started that and after one week she was peeing normally again. 

Week 2 of Vitamin C - imagine my terror when, yesterday, I see her straining and peeing a lot and the pink/reddish drops were back again.  Took her to the vet.  They say she might have some physical abnormality with her bladder/urachus and they will be able to fix it when spaying her.  She is 12 weeks old now.

I asked if they can do an ultrasound to see if the abnormality can be detected, so we scheduled an ultrasound for her tomorrow.  I guess we'll go from there.

 

Has anyone else had such an experience? Any advice/suggestions would be very much appreciated!  Please share.

 

Swetha

[Brittney & Cally]

Swetha, post this in the Health group here is a link http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/healthandmedicalissues. I think some more people will be able to help you with this since not all are in this group! I have no advice or answers but I hope you find some soon. Elsa is very cute!

[Swetha & Elsa]

Thanks Brittney!  Just posted it there.

[Brittney & Cally]

No problem! I know F and Karen have been very helpful with my questions about health and they do no have puppies so they would not be in this group! Also you will get a wider selection of responses! Good luck!

[Leslie, Yogi & Maci Bear]

Don't know anything about the urine problem, but boy she has a beautiful coat, and I don't mean the pink one :-)

[Swetha & Elsa]

:) Thanks!

[Jennifer Szulinski]

Hi Swetha,

We had the same experience the day we picked up Bella from the breeders.  She was peeing dozens of times a day - we didn't see any pink in her urine, but the vet saw crystals in her urine.  She was put on clavamox for 2 weeks which seemed to help, but as soon as she was off the peeing returned.  She went for 2 more weeks on clavamox and still showed symptoms after finishing.  She had a sterile culture done and it showed ecoli which the clavamox should have resolved.   She was put on a 3rd round of antibiotics (different one) for 3 weeks.  Seemed to help, but she started peeing again after finishing.  The 2nd sterile culture showed a staph infection which the antibiotic she was taking should have resolved.  At that point the vet recommended a antibiotic shot to rule out any absorbtion issues.  The antibiotic shot worked.  At the same time we started her on Berry Balance which is primarily cranberry powder.  We started giving that to her twice a day sprinkled over her food.  That seemed to work very well.   She has not had any issues since August of last year (she turns 1 March 11). 

The interesting thing about the Berry Balance is that we have tried to cut back to once a day a few times.  Each time we do, she starts peeing frequently again after a few days of being on the powder once a day.  So, we continue to give the powder to her twice a day.

The vet said one of the causes of her frequent infections, MAY be that she has a tucked vulva.  So, the other decision we made was to wait until her first heat cycle finished before we get her spay.  We did some reading up on it and it made sense to us (our vet didn't necessarily agree).  So, she finished her heat cycle a few weeks ago and we will schedule her spay for next month. 

I am so empathetic to what you are going through, it is so frustrating.  Hope my experience helps. 

[Swetha & Elsa]

Thank you Jennifer!  This is very helpful.  I will definitely bring this information to the vet.