Grace - Overnight peeing accidents

Gracesmum

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Hi, it's been a while since I've been here as we have been doing great.

However, just before Christmas Grace started having accidents overnight and peeing on the kitchen floor. We put up with it for a couple of days and then crated her, and she still pee'd so we took her to the vets. Took a water sample and she had a UTI. She also had an inflamed vulva and her lady parts were very smelly. She was put on antibiotics and given an anti-inflamatory. She stopped peeing the very next day. Problem solved. We finished her course of drugs except the anti-inflamatory which gave her the trots.

Roll forward to the end of Feb and she starts peeing overnight again. Straight to the vets the very next day. We were given another week's course of anti-biotics (a urine sample was not supplied at the time) and told to take a urine sample in 1 week after the course of anti-biotics finished. The peeing stopped the very first night after she took her meds. We finished the course, and took a sample back to the vets. The vets rang and said she had protein in her urine but not enough to cause concern.

Roll forward to yester, she starts peeing again overnight. Back to the vets today. We took a urine sample. The vet did not prescribe any meds saying they would analyse further than just a dipstick and then treat according to what the bacteria was.

Well vet has just rung and said there is no bacteria present. But she does have blood and protein in her urine again. They have suggested alternative anti-biotics. Or they can do a test where they take a urine sample direct from her bladder and see if that shows anything different. It will be a clearer sample. They can also ultrasound her to see if there any abnormalities and if that doesn't help then do x-rays.

I am starting to worry now as I hate to think there is something wrong with my baby. We have chosen different antibiotics but if they don't work or the problem recurs again, then we are going to have to take the further investigation route.

To add to the mix, Grace is an overweight Sheltie and we are currently trying to get her to lose weight. She weighed in today at 17.05kg. She was 17.35kg at her heaviest. She is fed Cesar trays x2 a day, plus 70g of either Wagg dry food or Wainwrights light dry food. (Wainwrights has been introduced since we have put her on a diet) She has 3 small treats a day plus a small kong of chicken at night. She has 2 x 30-40min walks a day.

Any advice or help with what we are dealing with would be really appreciated.
 
So sorry Grace is having reoccurring problems. At this point I would be very tempted to ask for a full blood work-up if that hasn't already been done and see if the results shed light on what is going on. If nothing abnormal is found on the blood work, ultrasound might be the next best step.

I hope you can get some definitive answers and that it is nothing serious.

Trini
 
How old is Grace? I only ask because as Hollie got older she had bladder issues only at night. Our vet put her on Proin and she never had another issue.

But the blood and protein are another concern. Shelby also has protein in her urine, as well as crystals. Our vet also thought UTI, stones, or kidney issues. We ended up doing the ultrasound and the vet obtained a sample with a needle into her bladder. The ultrasound showed nothing and the urine sample was normal. Our vet did tell us that the dip stick test for protein is not very accurate. So the only answer we came up with was that maybe the protein in her food was poor quality and she was excreting it. The crystal were probably because the vet left the sample sit too long.

I am hoping that Grace gets better soon and that you can get some better answers.
 
Has your vet done both a urinalysis and a urine culture? Lexi had several UTIs when she was younger and it wasn't until they identified which bacteria was affecting her were we able to get abx that really seemed to get rid of the infection for good.

Like your Grace, she had multiple infections in a row that would seem to get better but then come back soon thereafter.

I would also, as Trini suggested, have more tests done. A full blood work up and maybe I'd have them look at the kidneys specifically to be safe.

I found out through all of this that Lexi has a slightly recessed vulva (not enough to need episioplasty) and a small bladder. Good things to know--it helps me to remember to keep her clean down there and also not get frustrated when she asks to go out more than the other dogs :)
 
I guess the vet may have already told you this - but being overweight can cause recurrent bladder infections. The extra weight causes 'leakage' which in turn leads to infections. You may also want to test for diabetes if you haven't already. As Trini mentioned you may need an ultrasound if nothing else shows up to see if there are any physical abnormalities.

You obviously worked this out, but at 17kg, being a UK Sheltie, she's potentially double weight. You'll have to make some big changes to her food intake - it sounds like you are giving her 8 feeds a day with the treats and the dried and wet food, way too much. Start with cutting out all treats, she will get used to it. You may think they are small but most treats are high in calories and it's equivalent to you having 3 chocolate bars a day. The Kong should only be filled with part of one of her meals. It's also very hard to lose weight on dry food, swap the dried food for veggies. I suggest taking her off the Cesar (which is called My Dog here) and go to the pet store and ask for a good quality weight loss canned food. You can give her more of the canned food so she'll feel fuller. And you'll find that a tin of good food will actually work out cheaper than those small packets of Cesar.
 
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Thank you so much for the advice so far.

We started the next round of antibiotics last night and she was dry this morning. We have a ten day course this time so I hope it works. If not we will go for the direct to bladder needle test and ultrasound to see what else may be wrong. I will also ask them to do a full blood work up as suggested.

At the moment they have just done the dipstick and yesterday they checked the sediment? to try and trace the cause but find no bacteria.

Regarding the food, we are cutting back the treats gradually. She used to have 6 treats a day and a medium kong, I'm so reluctant to just go cold turkey. We've only been doing this for 4 weeks so there is still a way to go.

We are trying to get her off the Wagg onto the Wainwrights Dry Low Fat which is a good brand here. I thought Dry was better than wet, because we were going to cut out the wet food once we'd changed the dry over. Now I'm not so sure I'm doing it the right way.:confused2:
 
No wet food is better for weight loss. It fills them straight away so it's easier to cut back the total calories they take in. Use pumpkin as a filler to replace all food you cut back so she doesn't feel hungry. You can also add other veggies but dogs really love pumpkin and it's good for them.
 
Thanks Caro I will do that. What other veggies do they like. Grace likes carrot and I'll try her on pumpkin. Is there anything else?
 
Just updating here.

Grace had another urine infection that started on 8 June. Took her to the vets knowing they would want to do further tests. They booked her in for 11 June for x-rays, ultrasound and to take a urine sample direct from her bladder. Unfortunately they had to keep her in overnight as they couldn't get a sample or an ultrasound on a full bladder. She wouldn't play ball and kept emptying it before they could scan her. X-rays were clear for any stones. Ultrasound showed thickening of the bladder wall and blood clots. Managed to get a sample last Friday and the results came back today.

She has some pretty nasty bacterial infections and they are hitting her long and hard with a course of antibiotics. Starting with a four week course, taking back another urine sample at 3 weeks to judge whether to extend the course for another two or four weeks. Hopefully an 8 week course at the most will clear it up. They will do another direct sample from the bladder at the end of 8 weeks. If it hasn't cleared they mentioned taking a sample of the bladder itself, although I'm not sure why they would do that.

They did give her metacam for the inflamed bladder but she couldn't tolerate it, so we are just running with the anitibiotics for now.

Hopefully this will work and I will continue to keep you posted.
 
Poor little Grace! I can relate. My angel Asta had a kidney infection that took a long course of antibiotics to clear up. Sending you and Grace best wishes that her infection will be vanquished.
 
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