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Urination Issues...any Ideas


Guest akapaldo

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Guest akapaldo

Hey all - we are new to this forum and new to Greyhound ownership in general. We have had our grey for about 6 months now and from the get go had issues.

 

Our history:

-Nasty UTI lots of yucky bacteria - took care of this

-3-4 weeks later, UTI returned little bit of bacteria - decided to do vulvaplasty due to inverted lady parts hoping to eliminate this issue - also changed vets at this point

-Again 4-6 weeks later, UTI like symptoms returned, dropped urine, clear on bacteria but uratic crystals present

-dropped to a low purine diet/protien diet, gave filtered water given concern (2nd vet) over a metabolic disorder due to uratic crystals.

 

NOW: after 2 weeks of a modified diet were getting worse. She cannot seem to hold it beyond 2-3 hours sometimes max at 1.5 hours, will go in the car, house wherever and not give you one sign she has to go. She will gladly go in her crate and also lay in it - NOT NORMAL I know without little bother. In fact last night she went in the back of the van, and instead of laying in a spot that it wasnt dirty she laid right on top of it! She has retreated to her crate which is a good sign she is not feeling great. Normally at this point she increases her water intake but she actually has decreased.

 

I spoke with the vet today, she is concerned and also reviewed her labs from the previous vet, her Creatinine level was 1.8 combined with constant crytals in the urine from the beginning. Short term plan: Drop urine tomorrow morning, place her on a 12-17% protien diet with white rice, cranberry supplments, distilled water to help reduce crystal irritations. Its getting so bad the vet has agreed we need to diaper her. Were going to send her urine out for an extreme overview and then based on that do another lab possibly to see where her Creatinine blood level is as of now.

 

Has anyone had any similar instance or any idea what this is - I am fearful we are not looking positive but hoping this is not at all kidney related.

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Guest akapaldo

Yes - first vet did 1 out of house, with the UTIs and only made a mention of the bacteria that came up on it, outside of the crystals.

 

Our current vet has not done an extensive out of house culture, thats what were doing tomorrow.

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Culture or a urinalysis was done?? They both should Have been done. If a culture was truly done than you should be able to see what antibotic the bacteria was senstitive to. That way the appropriate antibotics could be dispensed. It sounds like the antibotics were doing their job- perhaps the course of the medication wasn't long enough.

Bring the lab report to your vet tomorrow.

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I'm sorry your girl has had problems. sad.gif Like tbhounds said, you should have a culture done. It has to be sent out & takes 3-7 days to get the results back. They get the critters to grow & can then determine which antibiotic is best. These UTI's can be very sneaky & hard to get rid of so a longer course of antibiotics is probably necessary at this point (4 weeks vs 10 days-2 weeks). Crystals in dogs are usually due to infection rather than diet (except in dalmations & cats wink.gif).

 

You're right, wanting to lay where she just peed isn't normal & neither is being unable to hold it - she doesn't feel good. Get her on some drugs for a good long time & knock it out for good. Best wishes for your girlie. kiss1.gif

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Deirdre with Conor (Daring Pocobueno), Keeva (Kiowa Mimi Mona), & kittehs Gemma & robthomas.

Our beloved angels Faolin & Liath, & kittehs Mona & Caesar. Remembering Bobby, Doc McCoy, & Chip McGrath.

"He feeds you, pets you, adores you, collects your poop in a bag. There's only one explanation: you are a hairy little god." Nick Galifinakis

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Guest BrianRke

I had this EXACT same issue with my bridge angel, Cleo. Her urine was way too alkaline and could not dissolve the crystals. We dealt with this for years with no resolution. She would get a UTI, then antibiotics and it would clear up for a few weeks or maybe a month then it would start all over. This continued for the rest of her life which was unfortunately cut short by cancer.

 

THis was back in the 90's so my memory is a little fuzzy and veterinary medicine has made many advances since then. I hope they can resolve this issue.

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Needs a culture and current bloodwork. On most lab's scales, 1.8 isn't a high creatinine for a greyhound and wouldn't be of concern unless the BUN was also high. Greyhounds can run slightly higher than normal range BUN and creatinine.

 

I wouldn't diaper her -- that would tend to trap more bacteria in the area and could cause worse problems.

 

When there's a problem with recurring UTIs, I like to recheck -- urinalysis AND culture -- @ 10 days after the antibiotics are finished. That way we know it's truly gone.

 

Best luck!

Star aka Starz Ovation (Ronco x Oneco Maggie*, litter #48538), Coco aka Low Key (Kiowa Mon Manny x Party Hardy, litter # 59881), and mom in Illinois
We miss Reko Batman (Trouper Zeke x Marque Louisiana), 11/15/95-6/29/06, Rocco the thistledown whippet, 04/29/93-10/14/08, Reko Zema (Mo Kick x Reko Princess), 8/16/98-4/18/10, the most beautiful girl in the whole USA, my good egg Joseph aka Won by a Nose (Oneco Cufflink x Buy Back), 09/22/2003-03/01/2013, and our gentle sweet Gidget (Digitizer, Dodgem by Design x Sobe Mulberry), 1/29/2006-11/22/2014, gone much too soon. Never forgetting CJC's Buckshot, 1/2/07-10/25/10.

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I agree with what has already been said - get a urine culture and make sure it is a first morning specimen (make sure to clean her first). I would NOT let them catheterize her to get it as this is a great way to catch an infection (almost guaranteed in my experience). The anitbiotic is not going to help if the bacteria is not sensitive to it.

 

What is the level of protein in the urine (if any) and what is the specific gravity of the first catch urine? You did not mention the BUN value in her blood - have they run that?

 

What has her temperature been?

 

By the way, it sounds like you have already started to do some great things to get this under control like filtered water, lowered protein (at least until you figure out what is going on), and cranberry supplements.

 

My girl had a UTI right at the beginning and I had to be pretty diligent in cleaning "her parts" at all times of the day to make sure she didn't get irritated. My girl also likes poop. :eek She would go out and get into poop and then came back in and "clean her female parts" so she was re-infecting herself. I also made sure to do two cultures - one to find out what she grew out and the antibiotics to use and the second to make sure the culture was clean, nothing growing out and the second culture was a few weeks after I finished the antibiotics.

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