pug UTI

Question
Hi, I have a 1-year old, black, female pug named onyx. She's wonderful except for the fact that she keeps getting urinary tract infections. She's been on and off antibiotics for 6 months now (mostly clavamox) and i have an appt to have her urine cultured in about a week...she shows no other signs of illness other than frequent urination and blood urine. Are UTI's common in female pugs? If so, how common and how do I stop them? (I feel like my vet is trying to take me for all my worth!)

Answer
Does she have crystals in her urine? Does she have stones? If she has a lot of UTI's, it has been my experience that she probably has crystals in her urine and will develop stones.

Right now, we are feeding our girls who have problems with UTI's, and yes, they have all been female, Science Diet CD...only! NO treats, table scraps...NOTHING but CD. But these same girls all have had crystals and or bladder stones and two of them have had surgery to remove the stones. Once on Science Diet CD, they pretty much have never had a problem. We are checking into another brand of food but at this point I don't know if it will work for these girls as well as CD.

Also, really push the fluids down her to help keep her urine flushed. Put water in her food to help increase fluid intake and always keep fresh water available. Also, we have purchased distilled water from our local Health food store for the pugs.

Checking the urine for crystals should be one of the first things done. Then you also need to do a culture and sensitivity to make sure the antibiotic is the correct one for this type of infection.

Thanks and good luck.