Puppy UTI's-help!

[Kerrie]

Well, after getting Elly and having her for about a week, I noticed her urethra area was red and irritated so I took her to the vet to get checked out. Poor girl ended up having a UTI and there were crystals found in the urinalysis; my vet said this is not uncommon in puppies and gave me two weeks of clavamox twice  day to clear it up. I had her second round of shots today and they did another urinalysis to check if the antibiotics did their job. Elly still has a little bit of a UTI infection--the vet said she was hoping Elly wouldn't but wasn't surprised as she has gained about 6 lbs in the last 3 weeks so the dosage may not have killed the infection off entirely or it may be something else. So now, Elly is on Clavamox again for a week and a culture was sent out for testing. Has anyone else had experience with this??? Was it necessary to do a culture at this point?? The culture in and of itself was $101.00. YIKESSS.....

[Misti]

Awe, poor Elly! Hope she feels better! :(

[Laura & Mike ~Maggie & Rugby~]

UTIs are common, a culture is recommended to make sure the infection hasn't progressed. You can give small amounts of orange juice to help as well, and it works pretty much like cranberry juice for humans with UTIs, and also helps with the burning sensation.   :(       Good luck!

[Cherri Lynn Kading]

My Jacki just experienced this! She is 10 months old. I noticed she was whining a lot one day and the next day she was peeing every 5 minutes and then she was peeing blood. It all came about very quickly. I took her to the vet right away and he gave her a shot of an antibiotic along with some pills (antibiotic and anti-inflammatory). It went away very quickly...I hope it doesn't happen again!!

[Whitney Addington]

My dogs first Uti was treated with just oral antibiotics, but the second time because she had gotten so bad so fast, we got an antibiotic shot and antibiotic pills too. I could tell my furry girl felt better in a matter of hours!

[Whitney Addington]

I have had the same problem! My goldendoodle, Murphy, had 3 Uti's by the time she was 3.5 months. The vet told me to keep her privates shaved very closely because urine that is sometimes left on the hair can travel back into the urethra and cause a Uti. My Murphy is now 6 months and still hasn't had a hair cut but I will shave her privates myself and get her bathed at the groomer every now and again and let them do a sanitary clip. It is also a precaution for females because they can get yeast infections as well.

I read online about the orange juice and asked the vet and he said not to do that because of all the sugar. 

I also read online about plain, low-fat yogurt(plain, low-fat because of the sugar in flavored yogurt)...my dog loves it! I add some craisins (dried cranberries) to the yogurt and she is crazy over it! Cranberries are also in Blue Buffalo food! I had read somewhere about a dog that kept getting Uti's and since eating the yogurt everyday, the dog never got another. I have been giving my girl the yogurt everyday as well and she hasn't had one since she starting eating it either. Recommended amount of yogurt per day is around 2 tablespoons. I give her about 2 in the morning and 2 at night. If given too much at once it can cause them to get an upset stomach (aka diarrhea).

You can apply neosporin to the urethra and it will help ease the pain, and it's okay if they lick it off, but try not to let her lick, it makes it worse. 

As far as the culture, if a Uti is left untreated, it can turn into bladder stones, which is very dangerous! After our first Uti, another was back in about 2 weeks, but Murphy was so small at that time, her dosage was so little too. After she gained weight, her dosage was more than doubled and was prescribed for a longer time, and that seemed to help as well.

Hope this all helps!! We have been Uti free for 3 months now! Hope Elly gets some relief soon!!

[Kerrie]

Thanks for the responses! I'm definitely going to try the yogurt and try to shave her down there-- it makes sense because her hair is longer there and the urine is on it after she pees. I knew about the "sanitary clip" but didn't think as a puppy she would need one just yet...-- in Elly's case I should do it and keep her as clean as possible because it seems like shes more susceptible thus far. . I've given her a couple baths myself already so maybe it'd be a good idea to do that again as well.