Since getting Piper, we've had a passel of health troubles. I'll try to summarize them, and then have some questions!
The day we got her, we took her to the vet due to bloody gooey stool and she was diagnosed with a gastrointestinal infection. She had two weeks of antibiotics, which cleaned up the gastrointestinal infection, but she then had signs of a UTI (frequent urination, straining to pee but nothing comes out, etc). She had 2 weeks of antibiotics, but did'nt seem to help. We took her back for a second urinalysis and apparently she has another UTI (but a different one than the first; the bacteria were different). We got two weeks of antibiotics for that and instructions to take back a urine sample two days after the last pill to be sure that she was clear.
She was doing great until about two days before the end of the pills, and sure enough when we took her (3rd) sample back she still had an infection. The vet took a sample directly from her bladder on the 20th to see if perhaps the infection was there and gave us 5 days of antibiotics to hold us over the weekend/until the test results came back from the university. We got the results back yesterday and she does NOT have an infection in her bladder. The vet suggested we either take her in to the University for an ultrasound to see if perhaps there's an issue with her urinary connections (he used the correct words, I can't think of how to spell them or even try to look them up), or to sedate her and take some cultures from her urinary track to see what bugs we're dealing with.
She does have bacteria in her urine so there is obviously some underlying health issue, but I'm hesitant to choose an invasive procedure or an expensive ultrasound given the behavioral possibilities that the vet doesn't seem to take as seriously.
My concern is that while Piper does urinate frequently (usually in the house, despite my taking her out every hour and after she eats, wakes up, drinks, and plays), she hasn't been straining as much since finishing her 5 days of antibiotics and mostly importantly - she NEVER pees in her crate. Ever. She can hold it for the 8ish hours over night and has held it for up to 4 hours during the day while crated.
Shouldn't she be peeing in her crate if it's a UTI type issue?
Has anyone had experience with issues like this?
She's not fixed yet so it's not spay-related incontinence, which seems to be the second most common result after UTIs when i look up her symptoms.
My currently plan is to add some probiotics to her diet and to start treating her like an 8 week old puppy behaviorally in the hopes that perhaps peeing in the house is a learned behavior from her UTI days and she's peeing frequently simply because she thinks she can. I've got a short leash to tether her to me and am going to start setting a timer for every 30 minutes to take her outside (since every hour isn't working).
Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm open to anything that might help :confused3:
The day we got her, we took her to the vet due to bloody gooey stool and she was diagnosed with a gastrointestinal infection. She had two weeks of antibiotics, which cleaned up the gastrointestinal infection, but she then had signs of a UTI (frequent urination, straining to pee but nothing comes out, etc). She had 2 weeks of antibiotics, but did'nt seem to help. We took her back for a second urinalysis and apparently she has another UTI (but a different one than the first; the bacteria were different). We got two weeks of antibiotics for that and instructions to take back a urine sample two days after the last pill to be sure that she was clear.
She was doing great until about two days before the end of the pills, and sure enough when we took her (3rd) sample back she still had an infection. The vet took a sample directly from her bladder on the 20th to see if perhaps the infection was there and gave us 5 days of antibiotics to hold us over the weekend/until the test results came back from the university. We got the results back yesterday and she does NOT have an infection in her bladder. The vet suggested we either take her in to the University for an ultrasound to see if perhaps there's an issue with her urinary connections (he used the correct words, I can't think of how to spell them or even try to look them up), or to sedate her and take some cultures from her urinary track to see what bugs we're dealing with.
She does have bacteria in her urine so there is obviously some underlying health issue, but I'm hesitant to choose an invasive procedure or an expensive ultrasound given the behavioral possibilities that the vet doesn't seem to take as seriously.
My concern is that while Piper does urinate frequently (usually in the house, despite my taking her out every hour and after she eats, wakes up, drinks, and plays), she hasn't been straining as much since finishing her 5 days of antibiotics and mostly importantly - she NEVER pees in her crate. Ever. She can hold it for the 8ish hours over night and has held it for up to 4 hours during the day while crated.
Shouldn't she be peeing in her crate if it's a UTI type issue?
Has anyone had experience with issues like this?
She's not fixed yet so it's not spay-related incontinence, which seems to be the second most common result after UTIs when i look up her symptoms.
My currently plan is to add some probiotics to her diet and to start treating her like an 8 week old puppy behaviorally in the hopes that perhaps peeing in the house is a learned behavior from her UTI days and she's peeing frequently simply because she thinks she can. I've got a short leash to tether her to me and am going to start setting a timer for every 30 minutes to take her outside (since every hour isn't working).
Does anyone have any other suggestions? I'm open to anything that might help :confused3: