Another urinary question

[dogs4jen]

Roscoe has had several accidents in his crate lately. I tried to collect some urine from him a couple of months ago when it first started happening, but he was so uncooperative I gave up, and the vet thought maybe he was just overloaded from water after playing. He's not in his crate that much, just a few hours while I go run errands or take the other dogs for a walk, we don't take all three at once. It hasn't happened much since then, so I thought the vet's theory must be right, and he does pee a lot after he plays.
However, last week I took him in for a case of stud tail, and he was given cephelexon, and he's had a couple accidents just in the last couple of days. I looked up cephelexon and it's used for UTI's if he did have a UTI, it should clear it up. His tail is looking better at least. Anyone have any idea what could be going on?

[pblove]

Jen check out this link/ info re yeast (some symptoms are stud tail, uti )
http://www.nzymes.com/store/pc/symptomC ... on_id=1497

[dogs4jen]

Thanks Sharon. Now that you mention it, he did have yeast in his ears. I do give him a spoonful of yogurt every day with his dinner, but maybe that's not enough. I've been feeding them Acana for a few bags worth, just to rotate, and I've been wondering if maybe that could be part of the problem since a lot of the time issues with food cause skin problems.

[Misskiwi67]

I still think you should have his urine checked out. What is his urine specific gravity, pH etc?

[pblove]

I still think you should have his urine checked out. What is his urine specific gravity, pH etc?

I agree misskiwi
I didn't post the link as a cure or proper diagnosis, but had been reading today about yeast and all the symptoms it can present.

[Misskiwi67]

I didn't post the link as a cure or proper diagnosis, but had been reading today about yeast and all the symptoms it can present.

Yup, obnoxious little buggers... and almost always a secondary problem

[dogs4jen]

Okay, I will get his urine checked out. Thanks for the help!

[dogs4jen]

Well, I am back to square one. Both my husband and I have been trying all week to get pee-shy Roscoe to let us get a sample and have had no luck. I took him to the vet's today and they gave up too. They thought maybe the protein level in his food was too high, 34%, so I'll get different food next time and see if that's any help. I wonder if it would be worth getting one of those cheap spectrometers so if I could get a little bit of urine I could at least check the specific gravity.

[pblove]

how are you trying to catch the urine?
I had to catch a lot of urine before K.T passed from bladder cancer.
I would let her out first thing in morning, have a shallow plastic Stouffer pan(the premade lunch or dinners you buy in the frozen section of grocery store), stood near her and once she squated and started tp pee, I slid the pan under her back legs and bingo. If I tried before she started to pee, she woyld run off, so had to wait till she started the flow before I slid the plastic pan under her. She was a sheltiex, shrot girl so the Stouffers pans worked great for her becasue they weren't even an inch tall so the pan didn't even touch or bump her legs when I was sliding it under her.

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

Buddy had a lot of urine issues when she was on orijen (elevated renal lvels, inccontinence, etc).

Cephalexin isn't a great antibiotic for urine infections. Enzo developed a UTI shortly after finishing cephalexin for a skin infection and ended up on clavamox.

I tried damn hard to collect a urine sample on a crazy intact male lab yesterday with no luck. It was really important to get the sample so we ended up doing it via cysto, this should be an option for you too.

[dogs4jen]

I mentioned the cysto idea and they really didn't want to do it. I've been using a square food storage container, since my usual ladle wasn't working. I guess I'll just keep trying, and switch his food right away.
I am starting to realize my vet is not very well equiped, they don't even have a basic blood machine, even for pre-op bloodwork they have to send it out.

[Misskiwi67]

Roscoe is a boy, right? Why not use a catheter?? I can understand not wanting to do a cysto if you aren't familiar or don't have an ultrasound (really, they are super easy either way), but in a male dog, there's absolutely no excuse not to have a urine sample in a timely manner.

[Misskiwi67]

Cephalexin isn't a great antibiotic for urine infections. Enzo developed a UTI shortly after finishing cephalexin for a skin infection and ended up on clavamox.

Cephalexin is one of the first antibiotics of choice for UTI, particularly in large dogs. Its not the broadest spectrum, but it is concentrated in the urine and works quite well. I will grab clavamox for the smaller dogs because tablets are easier than capsules, but otherwise prefer cephalexin for first time UTI's.

[AllisonPibbleLvr]

Cephalexin isn't a great antibiotic for urine infections. Enzo developed a UTI shortly after finishing cephalexin for a skin infection and ended up on clavamox.

Cephalexin is one of the first antibiotics of choice for UTI, particularly in large dogs. Its not the broadest spectrum, but it is concentrated in the urine and works quite well. I will grab clavamox for the smaller dogs because tablets are easier than capsules, but otherwise prefer cephalexin for first time UTI's.

Really? We basically only use it for skin here.

[dogs4jen]

Thanks you guys. I will bug them about doing a catheter if changing the food doesn't help and I still can't get a sample from the little monster.