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Originally Posted by dwerten  ok that makes more sense as dd is on 18% protein but for 3 years prior to hat no issues other than when she was a puppy she had one uti |
UTIs won't always accompany LS/MVD. It all depends on how much liver function each dog has, the protein content of the food they are fed, and the general health of their intestinal tract. Just as many with LS/MVD are asymptomatic all together.
DD may have only had one UTI as a puppy, bc as a puppy their livers haven't fully developed or grown to full size. As DD grew, the liver grew and must have been functioning well enough to handle the protein load, so no more UTIs.
The day I first got Tinkerbell in April 09, we arrived home and got right out of the car for a walk. Well, she peed, and the ammonia that wafted up liked to knock me out. So to the vet we went. After meds for UTI, a BAT and a limited protein diet, it wasn't till 8 months later that she developed a UTI again. So her liver filters out a lot of the toxins, but over time, what doesn't get filtered out builds up, so you have increased amounts of ammonia producing bacteria and other toxins floating around in their system. This keeps increasing, which eventually gets to a level of toxicity that causes UTI and goofy neuro behaviors called Hepatic Encephalopathy, which, if left untreated, results in seizures and death. The treatment for HE is to get the toxins out of the body ASAP, which can be acheived by hourly doses of Lactulose, until she has blow out diarrhea, which takes most of the bacteria in her gut with it, thereby immediately limiting the load on the liver, and another course of Antibiotics to also decrease the bacteria in the gut.
In summary: clean dog, feed dog till she acts crazy, medicate dog to have clean dog again. How frequently this cycle repeats is how well her liver is functioning. She now eats L/D, which is 14% protein, 20% pork/chicken fat. No meat treats... cereal, whipped cream,cottage cheese, hard boiled egg whites, people crackers etc.