# Chronic Urinary Tract Infection in 12 Week Puppy?



## Rainheart

I would try a different antibiotic this time. It sounds like the clavamox isn't doing the job. She may need a month of antibiotics to get it cleared up.


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## Maxs Mom

I agree to try a different antibiotic. Clavamox is the drug of choice but it does not seem to be effective in your case. 

A few other thoughts, I have a dog who has been prone to UTI's since puppy hood. Knock on wood, we seem to have them under control. You have a female pup, watch her 'pee' style. Does she get really close to the ground? Does she pee and get it done, or does she seem to have a light slow stream? Most UTI's are from the outside in which is why female dogs are more prone than male. Get some baby wipes, keep them by the door, and help her clean herself when she comes in. We have done this. I think my dog is a 'dribbler' meaning she takes her time peeing. So she is at the ground longer than most. Also keep the hair clean around the area. We have gone so far as to trim it back. Had a professional groomer friend clip it back carefully with scissors. 

Also some female dogs have an (hope I get the terminology right) inverted vulva. It consists of an extra flap of skin that can also trap dirt and bacteria. My dog has this but I did not learn about it until after she was spayed. If I had known it is a simple surgical procedure they can fix at the same time, if you plan to spay. 

Lastly, your pup is young so I do not recommend this without the ok from a vet. Cranberry supplement. I bought some cranberry capsules at Costco, and I drop one in my girls food AM and PM she eats it right up. Knock on wood, since we started being regular with the cranberry we have not had a UTI. 

So those are some other thoughts to help prevent future UTI's. Pain in the back side I know. Good luck


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## lmsherm

Well, I just got back from the vet. She gave me an answer I wasn't expected. I was kind of expecting the inverted or recessed vulva to be the issue. The vet said that an inverted vulva would make Mitzi prone to getting UTIs but it wouldn't make her existing UTIs incurable. 

She is going in on Tuesday for a intravenous pyelogram test for ectopic ureters. Ectopic ureters would explain the frequent urination, but I don't understand how it explains the bacteria. 

Regardless of the diagnosis, the vet is confident that this is an internal, physical issue with her bladder/urethra and will require surgery. In the meantime before the test on Tuesday Mitzi is not on antibiotics. So it will be a long four days for the pup. 

I just want an answer and a solution


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## Maxs Mom

OMG I am so sorry. Will keep Mitzi in my thoughts, and you. 

Not that this is in anyway genetic, but have you contacted your breeder? Just my opinion, I call my breeder to let her know when something out of the ordinary is not right. Just to keep them in the loop. Perhaps she may have some insight. Just a thought. I have a great relationship with Gabby's breeder, and when she got sick with meningitis, the breeder was calling on me regularly checking in. It meant a lot to me to have her support. 

Give Mitzi a hug from me. Poor baby can't be comfortable.


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## lmsherm

Thank you so much for your thoughts. I emailed the breeder immediately to see if she has seen this with any of her dogs. Ectopic ureters actually appear to be congenital, so there is a small chance that she did inherit this from her mother. 

The good thing is that Mitzi is in good spirits and doesn't seem to notice this UTI at all. So I am thankful that she doesn't appear to be in any pain.


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## Mistyblue_68

Thanks for the info. I have a 12 week old female who has the vulva issue, she will have an episiotomy when she gets fixed. Vet said they will cut some of the fat out and when stitched and healed it will pop out. She has already been treated for a UTI at 9 weeks and I'm watching her now questioning if she is getting another one. This site is excellent filled with so much info and the vets at Banfield have been so through in explaining things about her issues.


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## Charliethree

My girl Kaya suffered from chronic UTI's as a pup, she also has an inverted vulva. Chronic infections can be food related, I switched Kaya to a new food, in her case chicken free, and gave her additional vitamin C and haven't had to deal with a uti in 3 1/2 years. An inverted vulva can be a contributing factor in uti's but is not a primary 'cause'. We did discuss surgery to fix the physical problem (before the food change) and I was warned that a) it likely would not cure the uti problem and b) if it is not done perfectly right and she could end up with problems with urinating on her legs or feet - not something I was willing to risk for her. 
Consider changing your pups food and see if it helps - it could.


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## Mistyblue_68

Thank you for the information, I hadn't considered the urination angel. She has seen two vets and both said that it was one of the worst ones they had seen. I don't think it looks to bad and she has not had any more incidents since her first one. I may just hold off as you suggest and see if turns out to be as big an issue as they lead me to believe. So happy to hear your baby is well as this was the first time I ever heard about a ironical issue with a puppy.



Charliethree said:


> My girl Kaya suffered from chronic UTI's as a pup, she also has an inverted vulva. Chronic infections can be food related, I witched Kaya to a new food, in her case chicken free, and gave her additional vitamin C and haven't had to deal with a uti in 3 1/2 years. An inverted vulva can be a contributing factor in uti's but is not a primary 'cause'. We did discuss surgery to fix the physical problem (before the food change) and I was warned that a) it likely would not cure the uti problem and b) if it is not done perfectly right and she could end up with problems with urinating on her legs or feet - not something I was willing to risk for her.
> Consider changing your pups food and see if it helps - it could.


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## sophieschoice

I have an 11 week old golden female that was diagnosed with an involuted vulva and subsequently had a UTI at 9 weeks. I contacted the breeder and now am contemplating returning her tomorrow. I do have to wipe that area 5x per day to keep it clean. The vets that I have seen said that generally this condition will correct itself and if it doesn't after the 1st heat cycle, an episoplasty can be proformed. 

Has anybody had this surgery done on their golden and was it successful?


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## sophieschoice

*Vulvaplasty/Episioplasty results*

Hi,

My 11 week old golden female was diagnosed with an involuted vulva at 9 weeks and subsequently a UTI. She has been on amoxicillin the past 10 days. I do have to wipe her at least 5x per day. I contacted the breeder and they said they were not made aware by their vet at her check up of this vulva issue. My concern is that this has a 50/50 chance of correcting itself by her growing in the next 6 months AND letting her go thru her 1st heat cycle. If the heat cycle doesn't make the vulva "pop out" then an episoplasty could be performed and has a high success rate. I am contemplating returning her to the breeder, which makes me feel bad since I have had her for 3 weeks but I don't have a good feeling about this.

Has anybody had this surgery done on their dog and was it successful?


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## Skeene

sophieschoice said:


> Hi,
> 
> My 11 week old golden female was diagnosed with an involuted vulva at 9 weeks and subsequently a UTI. She has been on amoxicillin the past 10 days. I do have to wipe her at least 5x per day. I contacted the breeder and they said they were not made aware by their vet at her check up of this vulva issue. My concern is that this has a 50/50 chance of correcting itself by her growing in the next 6 months AND letting her go thru her 1st heat cycle. If the heat cycle doesn't make the vulva "pop out" then an episoplasty could be performed and has a high success rate. I am contemplating returning her to the breeder, which makes me feel bad since I have had her for 3 weeks but I don't have a good feeling about this.
> 
> Has anybody had this surgery done on their dog and was it successful?


What did you decide? We have the same issue with our 14 week old puppy.


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## Skeene

lmsherm said:


> I got my puppy about a month ago at 8 weeks and during the first week she was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. After her 10 days on an antibiotic (clavamox) were over, her symptoms came back. So she had a live culture tested and it showed E.coli. So the vet put her back on clavamox for another couple of weeks. Well, her antibiotics ran out on Wednesday and now, Friday, she is showing symptoms again.
> 
> Luckily I have an appointment with the vet today for her third round of distemper. So I can start treating this again right away.
> 
> I'm just getting frustrated because I don't know if there is something else I should know or should be doing. I am keeping the area around her vulva clean and trimmed. She doesn't have diarrhea at all, so she isn't contracting a new UTI each time. It is definitely the same UTI that just isn't going away.
> 
> Does anyone have any experience with this? Please tell me this isn't something that can be a constant health issue that will require daily medication for the rest of her life...? I just want my puppy to be healthy and so far the whole month I have had her I've been worried and taking care of this issue


We are going through this now. It has returned 4 times and each time the vet puts her on Clavamox. We are currently on round 4! I finally requested a culture on Friday so I am hoping to get the results today. He also noticed on Friday (after seeing her twice before) that she has an inverted vulva that is probably causing the problem. I am hoping that she will grow out of this after her first heat cycle. I can't deal with knowing she is uncomfortable after every round of meds and the peeing every 10 minutes.

How did this turn out for you?


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## w00f

If anyone is having recurrent problems, I would recommend seeing an internal medicine specialist if the vet is providing answers that are helping the dog get better.

They may have to scope the bladder and the vagina to look for genetic defects if nothing is outwardly visible. For example, my girl had repeated urinary issues, and it turned out that she had remnant tissue in the vagina which had to be removed - it cause her to retain urine.

Definitely a culture should be requested for repeated problems, but you have to wait awhile for them to be off of abx. E coli often responds to cipro/baytril, but there is warranted caution in using this for a young dog. I would look into using cranberry and d-mannose, if they don't cause loose stools.


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## Charliethree

My girl has an inverted vulva, she suffered with chronic urinary tract infections for a good part of her first year. I changed her food at about 9 months of age after a good discussion with a new vet, and she has not had a urinary tract infection since then - she is now 5 yrs. old.
Before resorting to surgery suggest a food change to see if it helps.


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## floridakelsie

I've been reading and re-reading these e-mails regarding UTI's. Kelsey, our now 4 1/2 mo. old golden is now on her 4th round of antibiotics. We're hoping it's the inverted vulva problem and not ectopic ureter and plan to try to see her thru her first heat and then maybe it'll correct. Meanwhile, have any of you found solutions? Has anyone had experience with correcting an ectopic ureter? I know this is all very expensive, but would love to hear if anyone has had it successfully done. We are going to do whatever she needs as she needs it.
Thanks for all of the information. This site has been a Godsend!


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## GRluver

I would make sure they r obtaining the urine via cystocentesis, this will confirm if it is truly the urine or vulva. Puppy vaginitis can appear as a uti under the scope. Good luck


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## Ripley16

My girl started getting UTI's when she was about 12 weeks old, and it happened on about 3 separate occasions, where she would be okay after a round of antibiotics (Clavamox), then a few weeks later it would come back. She had an inverted vulva, and the vet and breeder told us to let her go through her 1st cycle, then spay. This corrected her issues completely and we haven't had problems for 1.5 years. Our vet put Ripley on Clavamox for 15 days each time as well as an antibiotic shot. Her urinalysis showed that she had crystallization in her urine, caused by the inverted vulva. I would suggest letting all dogs with this problem go through their first cycle before spaying. Therefore not requiring a surgery to correct.


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## Romeo1

lmsherm said:


> I got my puppy about a month ago at 8 weeks and during the first week she was diagnosed with a urinary tract infection. After her 10 days on an antibiotic (clavamox) were over, her symptoms came back. So she had a live culture tested and it showed E.coli. So the vet put her back on clavamox for another couple of weeks. Well, her antibiotics ran out on Wednesday and now, Friday, she is showing symptoms again.
> 
> Luckily I have an appointment with the vet today for her third round of distemper. So I can start treating this again right away.
> 
> I'm just getting frustrated because I don't know if there is something else I should know or should be doing. I am keeping the area around her vulva clean and trimmed. She doesn't have diarrhea at all, so she isn't contracting a new UTI each time. It is definitely the same UTI that just isn't going away.
> 
> Does anyone have any experience with this? Please tell me this isn't something that can be a constant health issue that will require daily medication for the rest of her life...? I just want my puppy to be healthy and so far the whole month I have had her I've been worried and taking care of this issue


I am in the same boat. My 14 week old puppy has an underdeveloped anatomy which caused a bladder infection. Had her on Clavamox, then it was switched to Simplicef. I'm taking a sample back for a test next week. The Vet says she will have to go into her first heat before she can be spayed. Apparently this will make her underdeveloped parts come out.


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## Tahnee GR

I cannot believe these vets! One of my puppies had the same problems. She does not have an inverted vulva, just a constant round of UTIs. The vet refused to put her on for longer than 10-14 days, so of course it kept coming back. I found her a new vet, who promptly put her on a six week round of antibiotics. It has been 3 weeks and the UTI has not returned. As a bonus, this vet is very open to holistic remedies and eastern medicine. Probably because so many show and competition people go to him.

This constant barrage of minimal dosing just makes the problem worse in my experience.

I am sorry but it just makes me so angry.

But at least the vet was right about waiting for a heat cycle with anatomical issues. And of course you would never spay while they have an infection.


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## sophieschoice

Sophie is now 1 years old and has a moderate inverted vulva. She has had 2 UTI's in the past year and had her 1st heat cycle at 6 months. Her 1st heat cycle did NOT fix her vulva, in fact, there was no swelling at all, just bleeding for 4 weeks. Sophie is due to be spayed tomorrow but I'm having second thoughts because maybe a 2nd heat cycle would help? My vet said not to wait, that there may not be swelling the 2nd time either.

I do give Sophie WholeCran Intense by Wholistic to keep the UTIs at bay. I scoop every other day with warm water.

Has anybody read any threads or articles on 2nd heat cycles and Inverted vulvas?

Thanks


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## floridakelsie

*Kelsey's Mom*

Hi, We've had the UTI problem since we got our baby. She's now 4 1/2 months. She's now on her 4th round up antibiotics and we requested continuing this latest Rx for an extra 10 days. Please keep us posted on how your gal is doing. We still fear it's ectopic ureter but we are hopeful it will clear after her first heat and then spaying.
Thanks


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## Alaska7133

Tahnee, 
You are so right. When I have a pup with a UTI, I ask for cystocentesis (needle into the abdominal wall into the bladder) to get a true sample and pay for a culture to make sure we are using the correct antibiotic. I also return to the vet after the drugs are done for a second cystocentesis and culture to make sure the antibiotics have worked. Accurate diagnostics and accurate treatment are necessary, I don't cut corners on UTIs.


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## Romeo1

Does anyone know what age Goldens go into heat? I've heard it can be as early as six months but someone else said with bigger dogs it can happen later.


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## Alaska7133

5 months to 24 months. Somewhere in between. You can ask your girl's breeder. Your pup's mom probably went into heat about the same time as your pup will. If you don't have a way to talk to the owner of her mom, then you will just have to check every day.


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## Altairss

Sophie may have had what is called a puppy heat and not a real good heat. I had several dogs that did this back in my show days, I waited two heats with Tink, part of her inverted vulva resolved just as she grew up and the rest went away with her first real heat cycle. She is now completely normal and both vets were impressed and glad I waited. 





sophieschoice said:


> Sophie is now 1 years old and has a moderate inverted vulva. She has had 2 UTI's in the past year and had her 1st heat cycle at 6 months. Her 1st heat cycle did NOT fix her vulva, in fact, there was no swelling at all, just bleeding for 4 weeks. Sophie is due to be spayed tomorrow but I'm having second thoughts because maybe a 2nd heat cycle would help? My vet said not to wait, that there may not be swelling the 2nd time either.
> 
> I do give Sophie WholeCran Intense by Wholistic to keep the UTIs at bay. I scoop every other day with warm water.
> 
> Has anybody read any threads or articles on 2nd heat cycles and Inverted vulvas?
> 
> Thanks


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## Romeo1

Alaska7133 said:


> 5 months to 24 months. Somewhere in between. You can ask your girl's breeder. Your pup's mom probably went into heat about the same time as your pup will. If you don't have a way to talk to the owner of her mom, then you will just have to check every day.


Thanks. I will contact the breeder.


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## Kaysie

My 13 week old puppy has a UTI, my vet told me it was his urine was a PH 9 level. She gave me 28 tablets of 125mg Clavamox. 3 weeks ago when we went to get his third round of shots, he had a skin infection she said, and gave me 20 tablets of 125mg Clavamox. I guess what I should do is switch vets. Also I hate seeing my little guy in pain. Have any of your dogs or puppies gotten better with the UTIs?


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## chiggins

Charliethree said:


> My girl Kaya suffered from chronic UTI's as a pup, she also has an inverted vulva. Chronic infections can be food related, I switched Kaya to a new food, in her case chicken free, and gave her additional vitamin C and haven't had to deal with a uti in 3 1/2 years. An inverted vulva can be a contributing factor in uti's but is not a primary 'cause'. We did discuss surgery to fix the physical problem (before the food change) and I was warned that a) it likely would not cure the uti problem and b) if it is not done perfectly right and she could end up with problems with urinating on her legs or feet - not something I was willing to risk for her.
> Consider changing your pups food and see if it helps - it could.


My Chloe is 7 1/2 months old pooshon and has had a UTI since i got her at 12 weeks. She has been on several antibiotic and i have been giving her cranberry supplements purchased from the vet. Now she has lost some control and is urinating while she sleeps. not everyday but several occasions. I am so worried I can't stand even thinking about it. I am taking her back to the vet today for a 2nd needle extraction of urine now that she has finished 4 more weeks of antibiotics. I am going to try changing her food as suggested in some of the comments. I have been in contact with my breeder since I got her about this problem but she has cut me off communication because i asked for my money back last week. i thought i had a health guarantee. She said Chloe would have to have a life threatening issue and pass away before I could be entitled to a refund. She said she isnt in the market to pay vet bills for people. I just want her to be healthy and happy. Its so scary when everything you have tried isnt working.


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## puddles everywhere

My girl came with a UTI so understand what you are going through. Much of the problem was the vet care. 1st vet said to keep it clean and basically did nothing. Vet #2 put on usual meds for 10 days. I returned in 10 days and demanded blood work as it was obvious things were not getting better. He agreed to blood work but would not do a culture. So we did another 2 wks on a multitude of medications and at the end of the 2 weeks it was obvious things were not improving. Vet #3... 2 hrs away! she redid the blood work & did a culture. By this time she was almost 4 months. Turns out she had two different types of bacteria and they were antibiotic resistant. New meds and more wipes. It took 6 weeks of medication but started to see improvement about 3 weeks into the process. We returned after the 6 weeks and had additional blood work & another culture to be sure everything had cleared up. If this had not worked her next step was to do the scope to see if there was a bigger problem. I am happy to say the 6 weeks of the correct medication cleared it up and hasn't had another problem, she was 6 months when infection was cleared.

Because this pup also had parasites, coccidia and eye issues the breeder offered to take the puppy back and give a full refund. I didn't think a UTI was reason enough to return a pup but would have appreciated some help on the vet bills... this of course didn't happen :frown2:

Here is my girl, so glad I did not return her. She is the sweetest, smartest and most loving girl ever.


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## jeknudson

My pup is now at 4 mos old and she still has her UTI. Started as soon as we got her at 8 wks. Did the Clavamox and it helped but UTI came right back. Then vet put her on Royal Canin UTI SO food (but no more than 6 weeks) and Cranandin which is a cranberry supplement https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004H22KZK/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER and it really seemed to help but I'm afraid her frequent urination is back but may be due to other reasons, e.g. we had to board her for a week due to a pre-booked family vaca. Now I am trying to get her back on track after our trip and see how she does on this stuff.. I do think it helped though prior to us leaving her...


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## Alaska7133

Those products will not get rid of a UTI. 

The only thing that will get rid of a UTI is an antibiotic. Your pup should be treated for weeks and possibly a month or more. To determine if they have a UTI have a needle used to remove urine. Pay for the full lab work on the sample to see what kind of infection and exactly which antibiotic will work on that bacteria. If you think the infection is gone, pay for another needle type test. It's the only way to make sure a UTI is gone. 

You can wish it gone with that over the counter hocus pocus stuff, or you can get rid of the infection.


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## Altairss

While the cranberry does help to balance their system and help prevent the UTI's if it seems like it keeps coming back it is more likely it never went fully away. Short term antibiotic under two weeks will often only temporally suppress the UTI symptoms ask me I know. I felt I was a revolving door at the vet with Tink after I got her. 
I had to force the issue with my old vet (Why they are no longer my vet) to do the sterile draw sent out for culture to find out the infection was not sensitive to the antibiotic that I kept being given. A lot of research and talking with another vet let me know that Tink needed a long term course. Tink did six weeks on her antibiotics and that finally got rid of the UTI. To keep them from coming back we did the cranberry used the wipes kept the hair trimmed and let her go thru a full heat as she did have an inverted vulva.


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## jeknudson

Good info. Thank you all!


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## 3 goldens

Four years ago come Sept my kidneys went into total failure due tone of my diabetic meds. I was taken to the hospital with blood pressure of 7o/40,. temp of 96 and no sense of balance or strength--all happened in one day it seemed. All these test were run and my kidney failure was found and a specialist was called in.


He started me on dialysis. My function numbers startee coming up--was 8 when put in hospital-- and he had a biopsy done and it turned out the part of my kidneys that failed was the part that will regenerate and mine were doing that. I remained on dialysis in the hospital until my number came up to 26 and then I was allowed to get of dialysis and come home--was in hospital 12 days. My number has increased into the 40's, which is stage 3 failure and it will never be any better. But 45% function sure beats 8%.


I take no meds for kidneys EXCEPT he has me taking cranberry caps. I would love to drink juice and he would like for me to drink it except it has to much sugar. So I take the caps every day.


Several years ago our golden, Buck, got a bad UTI and was on antibiotics for about a month and I gave him cranberry caps. He never had another infection and my vet said he had never thought about giving the cranberry caps, but he was going to start telling people whose dogs had UTI trouble to use them. It isn't it a cure, but does help clean out the tract after it is cured.


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## Nikki E

My golden pup is 6 months old. She has had what the vet seems to believe is a UTI . My girl peed on me on our 5 hour trip home from picking her up at 8 weeks and it smelled like nothing I have ever smelt before. My pup has had 24 days of antibiotics in total and the problem has yet to go away. It has calmed down and the bad cells have decreased but has not gone away. It came back three days ago and the vet is telling me it is just her going into heat. I did.not feel right about that so I took another pee sample in ($250 now in pee samples ) and sure enough the UTI is back. I called my breeder for advice and he insists it is not a UTI. He says by what I am describing it is an infection higher up, he thinks in her uterus. He is offering to bring her down to where they are and get her looked at there. She will be fixed and he thinks that will take care of the problem. I have reserched this infection online but cant see anything about puppys having it. It seems tonoccur in middle age dogs who have not been foxed. My vet here will not spay her right now because they say she might be in heat. We have an appt this week with our vet for an ultrasound and a procedure where they take a sample straight from her bladder and possibly blood cultures. I see a few similar stories on here so can someone help me with advice. We just put our 15 month old pit bull pup down exactly a year ago. We adopted her at a year old and apparently she had both hips going and one knee already gone. She was treated from day 1 at the same vet so I'm struggling with what decision is right. Do I put more money into my vet or do I give her to her breeder to take care of her for a week, get her fixed and solve what he is convinced is the problem.


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## puddles everywhere

Doing the sterile culture (urine sample removed straight from the bladder) is exactly what you need. This will show the correct medication to give for the infection. We had to take the meds for 6 weeks to kill the bacteria and did a 2nd culture to ensure it was completely gone. 
If the meds had not worked the next step was to scope it out... insert a tube with a camera on it, to see if there were more serious problems going on. Really glad this wasn't necessary. We are now at 16 months and haven't had any more problems.

Just me but I wouldn't spay her until 18mths to 2yrs as she is not thru growing yet and needs those hormones. Besides, you don't want to do surgery when a dog has an infection.

I'm very sorry for the loss of you pit pup, my situation was very similar. I had just lost a dog prior to getting my pup and then had 4 months of vet visits because of UTI. It gets easier, just take it one day at a time.


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## Prism Goldens

Nikki E said:


> My golden pup is 6 months old. She has had what the vet seems to believe is a UTI . My girl peed on me on our 5 hour trip home from picking her up at 8 weeks and it smelled like nothing I have ever smelt before. My pup has had 24 days of antibiotics in total and the problem has yet to go away. It has calmed down and the bad cells have decreased but has not gone away. It came back three days ago and the vet is telling me it is just her going into heat. I did.not feel right about that so I took another pee sample in ($250 now in pee samples ) and sure enough the UTI is back. I called my breeder for advice and he insists it is not a UTI. He says by what I am describing it is an infection higher up, he thinks in her uterus. He is offering to bring her down to where they are and get her looked at there. She will be fixed and he thinks that will take care of the problem. I have reserched this infection online but cant see anything about puppys having it. It seems tonoccur in middle age dogs who have not been foxed. My vet here will not spay her right now because they say she might be in heat. We have an appt this week with our vet for an ultrasound and a procedure where they take a sample straight from her bladder and possibly blood cultures. I see a few similar stories on here so can someone help me with advice. We just put our 15 month old pit bull pup down exactly a year ago. We adopted her at a year old and apparently she had both hips going and one knee already gone. She was treated from day 1 at the same vet so I'm struggling with what decision is right. Do I put more money into my vet or do I give her to her breeder to take care of her for a week, get her fixed and solve what he is convinced is the problem.


I'm not sure your choice is truly what your last sentence asks as the choice to make. If you could post a photo of your puppy's vulva, that may have a piece of your problem for if she has an inverted or hooded vulva, you will absolutely want to leave her intact until she has a heat. 
The way a dog's anatomy is set up is the exit for urine is inside the vagina. When you take a urine sample from a catch scenario, you are allowing all the vaginal bacteria to contaminate the urine sample. You need to do a sampling from the bladder as your vet is suggesting- it's not traumatic, and is the only way to grow out what is growing inside her bladder. From that, your vet will give her the correct antibiotics to rid her of the UTI. To determine this, he will have to send the clean sample in for a determination of what antibiotics will work on the particular bacteria growing in her bladder. He may start her on one to go home on, and then call and change it once the pathology is back on her infection. That's normal and is not any reflection on his skill or knowledge if it changes to a different antibiotic once the culture is done. 
Nor am I sure what your breeder is suggesting is her problem- he is saying she has a pyometria? That is extremely unlikely in a puppy. But if she has a vulva issue causing the UTI, spaying her now would certainly cause her to spend her life dealing with UTIs.... so that is not your solution.


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## Nikki E

Thank you . The vet has checked her vulva so we know it is normal. The breeder has not contacted me yet so I'm planning on putting him off as long as I can. We are taking her in Tuesday for ultrasound and her bladder test. I did some research on that uterus issue and I could not find one thing on it in puppies. He has admitted that they are watching another pup from her same litter (I am unknown of the problem) and my pups mom's sister just had a litter that he said were to small . She is very tired and lazy the last couple days, she will follow me around as I do my house work but she lays down and goes to sleep until I move rooms again. We have seen one little blood clot and dome yellowish discharge twice in the last week so I'm hoping this is heat but I have never had a pup that has gotten to their heat! In addition I would never allow a surgery to be done on her while she has an infection, he said something about putting her on IV to white the infection first. We should know Tuesday supper time what is causing this and I will talk to my vet about the breeder is saying and go from there. Thank you everyone.


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## Prism Goldens

Hi Nikki, 
the infection the breeder is referring to is called pyometria. It is NOT an infection that you would put off for later, as it can kill your girl. It is rare in puppies, and usually hits 4-10 weeks after a heat cycle but absolutely can come at a different time. The pieces of your post that are indicative of this are the tiredness and yellowish discharge- and the 'cure' for it in your girl's case would be spaying. If you have never seen a normal heat, it may be that you could miss it. If she were mine, I would take her to the vet, ask them to culture the yellowish material that she's discharging, and react depending on what it is. They may need to do radiographs, or an ultrasound to give you a definitive diagnosis. They may need to do a progesterone test to determine if she is in season or not.


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## Nikki E

She goes in to the vet in the morning. I called my vet today and told her about what the breeder and other vet are saying. She said she has never heard of it in a puppy before but that she would take a look at her uterus when she has the ultrasound machine on her tomorrow. I tried to call the breeders vet 4 times today and was told she would call me back in 20 minutes and then when I called 2 hours later she was gone but was coming back for a couple late apps. She was busy at 7 when I called and they told me she would call me later. It is now 10 pm. The breeder wants me to send her to them and said he will take care of it all and charge us half of the cost but I don't feel right about sending my girl away. We should no tomorrow what is causing this and if it is something terrible I will contact the breeder again. If it is something we can manage we will move forward and hopefully get her fixed ASAP.


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## Nikki E

We received our results yesterday from her cultures and it is a strong case of e coli in her bladder. The vet has started her on a new string of antibiotics for 14 days ! The vet said they old cause problems to her kidneys but that we don't have many other options at this point


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## puddles everywhere

Thanks for the update!! I'm sorry you both are having to go through all this. I hope 14 days of meds is enough.. we had to do 6 weeks. Returned for a 2nd sterile culture before we received an all clear. I'm glad they found the problem and hope this is the last of it!

Any reason you are in a hurry to have her spayed? Most breeders prefer you wait until 18 months to 2 yrs so they can finish growing.


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## 3 goldens

I hope the 14 days does the trick. I know some antibiotics can be rough on dogs and humans., Bless her little heart, I hope this is the end of her trouble. My vet says at 9 months to a year old.


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## Nikki E

She seems to be taking it well . I hope 24 days is enough because these particular meds can be very hard on her kidneys so I don't think much loner would be an option. No particular reason, we have always just had all the pups in our family fixed before their first heat . My vet was saying there is new research that they should be fixed after their first heat but she still said she recommends to do it before. No breeder I have ever spoken to has ever recommended two years nor have I ever heard it done. Maybe things are just different where I'm from ! Her health is our main priority and we are praying these meds help her . She will have more tests when we are finished out 14 days to check on her kidneys. What med did you have your pup on for 6 weeks ? I asked about putting her on the clavamox longer and my vet said absolutely not.


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