Dog’s Urinary Tract Infection

A common cause for a dog’s urinary tract infection is a bacterial infection. Urinary tract infections often cause pain during urination and difficulty urinating.

Urinary tract infections are less common in male dogs than female dogs since the male dog’s urethra is longer which could prevent bacteria from infecting the bladder. For much the same reason, urinary tract infections is much more common in cats than dogs.

Urinary tract infections are most commonly caused by bacterial infections in the bladder. Bacteria enters the bladder through the dog’s urethra. The urethra is the tiny tube through which urine passes from the bladder when the dog urinates.

A dog’s urinary tract infection can cause the dog’s urine to contain pus, crystals, or blood. Some other symptoms of urinary tract infections include lower back pain, increased thirst, and increased volume and frequency in urination. A urinary tract infection may decrease the dog’s ability to hold its urine which can cause accidental urination in the house.

When diagnosing a urinary tract infection in dogs, the veterinarian may do a rectal exam. This allows the veterinarian to feel the dog’s urethra. The veterinarian is likely to press on the dog’s abdomen to feel the bladder and take a urine sample for analysis.

An upper urinary tract infection in dogs can negatively affect kidney functioning. Lower urinary tract infections do not affect the kidneys but still need to be treated.

A dog’s urinary tract infection is commonly treated with antibiotics. The analysis of the urine sample helps the veterinarian choose the best antibiotic to fight the infection.

If the antibiotic does not successfully eliminate the infection, it could be a sign that an underlying disease is causing the infection. In many cases, the failure of the antibiotic is due to the dog not receiving the entire course of the antibiotics.

Diabetes mellitus and Cushing’s disease are examples of diseases that can make a dog susceptible to developing urinary tract infections. If the dog is on medication for another condition or has a abnormality of its anatomy, the dog can be prone to urinary tract infections.

The symptoms of urinary tract infections can also because by other dog diseases. Bladder stones and bladder cancer can both mimic the symptoms of a urinary tract infection and can cause urinary tract infections.

Tagged with: dog health • Dogs • home • pets

Filed under: Dogs

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!