Bladder Problems in Dogs

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Dr. Bob Pane with South Kendall Animal Clinic. Let's talk a little bit about bladder problems in dogs. Bladder problems in dogs are very common in my office. We see a lot of people coming in with bloody urine, increase in urination, drinking a lot of water. The first thing people think is that they have diabetes or stones or something and usually we find bacteria We take the urine, we spin it down, we look for blood in the urine. We look for a high PH. We look for bacteria. Sometimes we see crystals which could indicate kidney problems so you have bladder problems that can ascend into the kidneys which is very serious so we look for bacteria. If we find bacteria we culture it and we find out what the antibiotic of choice is and we use that antibiotic for several weeks and then we repeat a urinalysis but the first thing one sees at home is an increase in thirst, an increase in frequency of urination. They may lick their vulva or the penis. They can have stones concurrently because bladder infections can cause stone formation, struvite stones. So your veterinarian may need to X-ray the bladder and the urethra to see if there is any small stones. I'm doing surgery on Wednesday to take stones out because this dog had chronic problems. It also had a prostate problem because it wasn't neutered so prostate problems can cause bladder problems. So if it is an un-neutered male you may have more of a predilection towards bladder infections and therefore bladder stones so watch for increase in urinations, watch for blood in the urine, if you see any of that please bring a urine sample fresh to your veterinarian. It can't be stored over night. It has to be looked at fresh because sometimes you'll get artificial results with long term urine that sits for a long term at your house and so watch it is very important to catch it early so they don't develop a kidney infection on top of a bladder infection."