Peeing Blood - Page 2

Best Wishes, you & Mr. GL will be in my prayers tonight...he sure is a sweetie-pie! jh

Hi sweety,any news yet on your little guy?Hope all goes well,it would be nice to hear of  a happy ending.

Any updates???? jh

Well, I called the vet, they said at this point in time, because he isn't passing much blood, only a few drops per urination, they are treating him for Urinary Tract Infection.

They want to keep another day or two, and then they are going to allow me to come take him home. I called several other vets for opinions, and they said the same thing, that it sounded like a UTI.

Thank you for all of your kind thoughts and prayers, I can't thank you enough for praying for my baby boy.

Never heard of a vet hospitalizing a dog for a UTI. No special treatment needed, only meds. Interesting.......

They aren't 100% positive it's a UTI, so they want to keep him for future observations. They said the amount of blood he's discharging is that of a UTI, but the way he's acting is that of bladder stones...For now, they are saying that its a UTI, but they want to keep him a little longer, and frankly, I don't care how long they keep him, as long as they figure out whats wrong with him.

How was the urine collected on your dog--via a fresh catch or urinary catheter? The only way for a sterile check for UTI is via cystocentesis (placing a needle attached to a 12 ml syringe through the abdominal wall directly in to the bladder).  No, this is not painful--I've performed it on dogs/cats many times. Actually, placing a urinary catheter through the urethra may tend to introduce bacteria into the bladder.

The tech first does a "dip stick" test on the sterilely collected urine before centrifuging it and staining the sediment to microscopically determine the presence of casts, crystals, and/or bacteria). If bacteria are seen, the tech can do a quick Gram's stain to determine if the bacteria are Gram positive or negative, if they exist in long/short or chains, if they exist singly or in clusters, if they are rods or cocci, etc.

Otherwise, if bacteria are seen, the urine is generally submitted to a lab for culture and sensivity (this typically takes 48 hours). In the meantime, the dog is empirically placed (based on what was found in the sediment) on an antibiotic pending positive identification of the bacterium.

Antibiotic treatment for a UTI is usually for a minimum of 2 weeks--at which time another cystocentesis is performed to determine the efficacy of the antibiotic used. If there are no bacteria read in the urine sediment, the dog remains on the antibiotic for another week. If bacteria are still present, another culture and sensitivity is done and tha antibiotic may be changed/

However, if your dog is suspected to have bladder stones, the vet needs to do a contrast pneumo-cystogram. IOW, he will inject some Renographin(a radiological contrast medium--typically given IV when kidney stones are suspected--for a pyelogram)  into a Foley cattheter placed into the urethra and extending into the bladder. Then he will inject some air through the catheter into the bladder and quickly clamp off the catherter before taking radiographs.

In real life, at a busy practice, the vet asks a qualified, licensed vet tech to do all the above and reads the xray himself. In this age of digital xrays, this procedure is fairly uncomplicated.

A final part of the differential diagnosis is that (barring a UTI, bladder stones, or kidney stones) your dog is checked for prostatitis.

Id be curious to know what antibiotic the vet puts this dog on???????????

All it takes to identify bladder stones in most dogs is an xray.

Louise,

They used the needle, to collect from him. I've yet to ask them about Prostatisis.

I went to visit him today, he seemed more up-beat, that could be because he missed me, but I think he's in good hands.

Thanks again for the prayers, everyone!