I am soo upset right now, we are on a 21 day course of an antibiotic and maybe at day 15 and my poor girl while she seems BETTER, as in she seems comfortable at least (ie not squatting to pee so much that only drops come out) she is still going very often and having accidents here and there so it is not gone even though its better. we tested it a few days ago while on the antibiotic - bacteria still present. she is 8 months now and this has been going on for a couple months now I think. she's over 90 lbs now.
I am so upset and anxious about it not going away. This is the 4th round of antibiotics I believe. At this point we have done countless UA's, all w. bacteria... we have had it cultured twice (E. coli - so it's not an "antibiotic" resistant bacteria. Then we had a "sterile" sample cultured (where they draw the urine out with a needle directly from the bladder)... still just e coli.
We did a full blood/chem panel with an additional malabsorption panel (bc additionally it seems the constant antibiotics have given her serious poop issues/colitis) which all was good - except her eosinophils were "mildly" elevated - which my vet was not very concerned about all things considered I guess.
She has a hooded vulva (which I have been now relentlessly wiping and trying to keep dry much to her dismay... lol). I've seen much worse looking hooded vulvas in my research...which is not my favorite new hobby. However in trying to keep it clean I have noticed some skin squished under the fold that tends to get red & irritated at times despite me wiping her w wet wipes and pat drying w a clean towel. My vet says this is the likely cause of this but is not sold on it entirely as she mentioned there could be other reasons why e coli is making its way into her bladder.
Soo we are going to wait until she goes through a heat to see if that resolves it before doing the surgery - which I think the irritated squished part would DEFINITELY benefit from a heat cycle. she's still 8 months though so it could be a while before this happens...is it even a good idea to KEEP her on antibiotics that long?? I of course will to keep her comfortable but this is worrisome for me not to mention extremely expensive.
She has also been put on a veterinary diet to quell the diarrhea, which is costing $200 a month at 99$ per bag. The most irritating part of this is that IT HAS THE WORST ingredients of any dog food ive ever fed (purina pro plan gastroenteric fiber balance) I cringe feeding it to her but it is WORKING so god bless. Not going to mess with that right now I just cant believe they charge that much for it.
Anyway this is a desperate rant now so I will stop... but I really would love to hear any thoughts if anyone has had experience w the hooded vulvas or recurrent UTIs!!
Luckily she is still the happiest dog on the planet and STILL loves the vet somehow lol..
miss maple bacon, for reference
