Cronic Bladder Infections

[Nikki Milonas]

My 10mo old pup Ruby has had several bladder infections.  This last bout the vet suggested I have her get looked at internally.  I had some extensive test done and everything checked out normal.  I was told she most likely was born with a weakend immune system and will need to stay on a low grade antibiotic for 6 mo and hopefully she will grow out of this. 

 

Does anybody have experience with this?  Any suggestions?  I'm thinking about visiting a holistic vet to perhaps get advice on herbs to strengthen her immune system.

 

Thanks,

Nikki and Ruby

[Lori]

My Bichon was on an antibiotic for a REALLY long time for UTI'S (?) hard to remember...poor thing. He would get infection after infection & would pee red blood! So to prevent them, they put him on SEVERAL rounds of antibiotics. (This was the least of his problems) Can't hurt to try it...it did eventually go away. At one point they found that he had E coli in his urine...go figure!
Good luck - FEEL BETTER RUBY!!!! Let us know how she does : )

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

If your vet feels that Ruby's immune system is not able to fight off infections sufficiently without the use of antibiotics, I would follow his advice. "Holistic" simply means "whole", as in looking at the whole picture and trying to get to the root of the problem rather than just treating symptoms. Any vet can be a 'holistic" vet. By ordering the tests, it seems your vet tried to do that. Finding nothing amiss, he is now being proactive and trying to protect her from developing more infections and possible complications until she is older and her body can hopefully do a better job of fighting things off. If there were any kind of herbs that could improve the function of Ruby's white blood cells, I think we can rest assured that veterinary science would know about that, the information would be available to all vets, and some company would be trying to get rich marketing it to the vets, lol.
People are often afraid of using antibiotics, but antibiotics have saved millions of lives and prevent minor issues from becoming major issues. Used properly, there is little need to be concerned. It's a good idea to add some plain low-fat yogurt (not vanilla, not Fortiflora, Activia, etc. but just plain old yogurt) to Ruby's diet. Try giving her a tablespoon with each meal, it will help put some good bacteria back into her digestive system to replace what the antibiotics take away.
It's your choice, but I would not risk using anything that has not been proven in clinical peer-reviewed studies to be effective for something as serious as infections of the bladder, especially in a 6-month-old puppy.
Did your vet suggest any dietary changes or fluid increase?

[Nikki Milonas]

Lori, Ruby has the same thing - blood in her urine when she gets an infection. Upon extensive analysis internally it is caused by bladder irritation from the UTI - which is good news actually. She also had E-Coli in her urine at one point and a different bacteria another time. We haven't gotten these new results back yet since it was just yesterday.

Karen, I do believe in antibiotics. Ruby has been on them almost 4 months continuous. I do not plan to take her off yet, but being a former cancer survivor myself, I do believe in integrative therapy of Western and Eastern medicine and people are often afraid of using alternative medicine when it has been proven to be beneficial. I believe there are some good vets out there that have helped dogs with herbal type remedies for allergies and it was only a thought I had. As a side note, I do give her PLAIN yogurt to help replace good bacteria destroyed by the antibiotics.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Severe allergies are what I am dealing with, and to my knowledge and the knowledge of Jack's board-certified immunology specialist, there are no herbs that have been shown to do a thing for allergies of any kind; it was my frustration with that type of thing that turned me off completely to "alternative" medicine.
One book I purchased on the subject of "natural" allergy treatments ended up saying that these herbs, etc. are meant to compliment conventional treatment, but cannot replace it, and the reason there are no studies on the efficacy of these herbal "treaments" is that they have no funding from the "big drug companies". This in itself is absurd, as virtually every single drug out there started out as an OTC plant-based "remedy" which when it showed some promise, was studied by the drug companies. When something appears to work, they are the first to jump on the research and funding. Look what happened with red rice yeast to lower cholesterol; people used to buy it OTC. Then the drug companies got wind of it, funded research, developed the drugs based on the active ingredients in the red rice yeast, and got the original "natural" version of the product removed from the shelves by the FDA, lol!
That said, Jack is on an immunotherapy treatment which involves not drugs, but an antigen made from the very substances that trigger his allergy symptoms, which is a homeopathic idea designed to strengthen his immune system's tolerance of these everyday pollens, molds, etc. To me, this is the very best example of holistic medicine, and I am extremely happy to say that since starting the treatment 18 months ago, Jack has not had to take one single steroid, antibiotic, or any other prescription drug!
I don't mean to be contentious, and I so appreciate your participation here as well as greatly respect your views. And I am thrilled that whatever research & treatments you have used have helped you to be a cancer survivor. Nothing is more important than that!
I think I am just a little reactive to much of the alternative medicine claims since Jack and I were so badly harmed, mislead, and persuaded to delay the treatments that did help as a result.