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Originally Posted by kjcmsw  Sorry didn't mean to sound rude...it's just you even stated there was no symptomology of a UTI, so naturally no one would treat it as such, and your dog was old with medical problems...big difference between all that and a young healthy dog showing signs of a UTI, which is reasonable to treat as such initially.
It's like having kids I'm sure, at some point (with an established relationship with your medical doctor) you're able to use your motherly experience and dx your child and simply confer with the doctor on the proper course of treatment, some things are not "brain surgery". |
Well thanks for saying that and if I sounded rude about old timer vets I also apologize.
I agree that not all things are brain surgery and that is why you need a vet that you can trust that you know is not milking you as a cash cow. I have had both experiences - the one you described where the vet treated a set of symptoms and was right -- and vets that treated symptoms and were wrong. Teddy is an example - as a 10 week old pup he was dribbling urine and seemingly straining. I brought him to the vet on the second day of owning him to address this. He was squirming and hyper as a puppy and they just could not get a sample via cysto for whatever reason. They gave him a course of antibiotics. The problem lingered. I wish they had gotten the sample or that maybe I took him somewhere else because the problem lingered....and as I said, his symptoms were more subtle and not so "duck" like. I was the only one thinking a problem was brewing. Thank god I'm amazingly annoying and persistent because finally finally they did a urinalysis when Teddy was neutered and there was no bacteria but there were crystals. Both problems lingered until I changed vets and insisted they get to the bottom of it. It cost me a lot of time and money and poor Teddy was uncomfortable.
We all have our experiences that shape our actions and I am strongly in favor of doing testing because it is objective not subjective. Teddy would have a bladder full of stones if I ignored his very minor and subtle urinary habits. Daisy might be in kidney failure if not for a routine UA. So I try to help others based on my experiences here and I do not appreciate implications that I engaged in overspending, my vet being inexperienced or milking me as a cash cow, or me or my vet being stupid. All of those things are not helpful to the OP who needs to be able to discuss info with her vet, and we should collectively give peole the tools to do that.
On this topics, I stand my ground that if a UA is done, and I think it should be done, that the best way to do it and obtain the most sterile sample is by a cheaply priced cystocentisis procedure.