[jones]

Cookie, my American cocker spaniel, is 2 months plus one week old. When she got her last shots the doctor put her on an antibiotic, Clavamox, for a suspected bladder infection. I had only mentioned the fact that she pees a lot producing a small amount of urine at a time. I took her back to the vet yesterday for a follow up, and her urine test was great except for a trace of protein in her urine. The vet again put Cookie on Clavamox for another week & told me to bring her back for another urine test in one week. She said if she still has a trace amount of protein in her next urine test she was going to do a "clean urine" test and stick a needle into her to get a "clean sample." She then went into the worse case scenario & scared me to death saying Cookie may need surgery, & Cookie could have some abnormal congenial defect in her urinary track.
How worried should I be? Is a trace amount of protein in puppy urine a serious medical condition?

Thanks in advance for helping me.

 

[Shell]

Umm, pretty much all 9 week old puppies pee often and not always a full bladder emptying kind of pee either. Obviously I can't see what your puppy is actually doing and I am not a vet, but I would definitely get another vet opinion if I were you.

If her urine was fine except a trace of protein, then why another round of antibiotics if there is no infection?

 

[jones]

Now I know a lot more, but it's not good news. My puppy went for her second urine test today after her second round of antibiotics. Now she has blood and crystals in her urine. The vet let me go in the back to look through the microscope to see them for myself. There are a lot of crystals and blood, but no stones. The vet did an xray too, just to make sure. I scheduled Cookie for her clean urine test next Monday. We have to wait until the antibiotics are out of her system first.

They do the clean urine test to get a culture to see what kind of antibiotic she needs to take to get rid of this infection. I hate all of this waiting, and I just hope my puppy doesn't get even worse before we find out how to treat her problem. They can't give a puppy her age just any antibiotic. I'll keep you posted when I know more.

 

[jones]

Update on my sweet little Cookie dog. She will be 3 months old tomorrow. We did the clean urine test (the one where the vet sticks the needle into her to get a clean urine sample). We waited a week for the culture to grow and her test came back negative for infection. The vet sounded confused, & said she wanted to consult some other doctors about what to do next. She then suggested an ultrasound. She said it may or may not show anything, & we'd have to go out of state to a specialist. I'd do anything for my puppy, but she is fearful now, & I don't want to put her through another test she may not really need.
I started Cookie on Solid Gold Berry Balance to try to make her urine ph more acidic. I begged my vet to give Cookie some of that special food for dogs with urinary problems, but she refused. She said she cannot recommend special food to a puppy, because they're not old enough!! Is that correct? Is there no special food for a puppy with bladder (crystals) problems?
In two weeks we will have Cookie's urine checked again, & tomorrow I'm going to pick up some pills for Cookie the vet has to protect the bladder lining. If her next urine test in a couple of weeks still shows crystals we will revisit the idea of the ultrasound, but for now I'd like to see if we can help her with diet. Any suggestions? I'm also trying to get Cookie to drink a lot more water. She's usually having so much fun playing and running around she won't stop to drink a lot of water. I know she needs to drink more water to flush out her bladder. She does not act sick or like she is any pain at all. Thank you for any help or suggestions for Cookie's diet.

 

[Shell]

When my dog had a UTI with crystals, my vet first suggested the special urinary diet which is very low protein (much lower than the AAFCO standard for puppy food for example). The low protein is related to protecting kidney function IF that is part of the problem. So I asked her to test his kidneys which were just fine and she said that my normal food would be fine for that but that the urinary diet was supposed to encourage them to drink more water. I asked her what was in it that would encourage water drinking so together we examined the ingredient list carefully..... the ingredient to encourage drinking? A higher sodium level than normal foods. Yeah, not worth paying triple the price for added salt.

My said said that the infection could cause the crystals or vice versa (and there are two kinds of urinary crystals and I am not well informed on the difference) so the key was seeing if there were crystals after the antibiotics were complete (he had two rounds worth). She was correct in his case that once the infection cleared, he had no issue with crystals (apparently some level of them is normal).

You may look for a food that is low in ash. Ash is the minerals in food-- calcium, phosphorus etc. Typically foods with more bone have higher ash contents, so lamb based foods for example tend to have higher ash than fish based. Not all food websites specify ash content but you can email the manufacturer plus there is a list somewhere around here for low ash foods. It MAY be something to help urinary issues.

I have added a bit of homemade chicken broth (not the store bought kind filled with sodium and herbs and onions, just plain old chicken parts simmered in water) to the water bowl to encourage drinking. You can soak her food too. Some dogs like ice cubes in their water bowls

 

[jones]

Thank you for the ice cube suggestion. It really has helped, & I'll try the broth out, too. I did join the Dog Food Adviser, too. I'm trying to find the perfect food for Cookie. There are so many different opinions, and a lot of people think wet food is better than dry food. My vet is all about the dry. Now, I'm using both mixed together. Her next check up is next week. She does seem to be thriving, but I guess I'll see next week.