I thought it was a UTI....
 

I took my 6 mth old puppy to the vet today for what I thought was going to be a stubborn UTI. The poor girl has a large stone in her bladder! its about one third the size of her little bladder. I had to leave her. They are hoping to fit her in for surgery tomorrow morning and let me bring her home on Friday. I am so upset and worried about her. I should have brought her to the vet a lot sooner, but just reasoned away all of the little "signs". It wasn't until I was reading these posts last night that I thought i should have her checked out. I was really thinking it was going to be a worse case scenerio of her having crystals. I never thought it would be this bad. Has anyone else had a dog that needed this type of surgery??

I didn't realize how bad UTI's can get until Kaji had one. I thought at first he was just reverting to an unwanted behavior (him piddling on me) and it was just that. I was taking him to the vet for his annual anyway so I had them do a urinalysis just to be safe. The next day (Sunday) he started peeing blood. The vet on Monday called and explained how bad UTI's really are. First it's an infection, then crystals form, and as long the the bacteria is still in the bladder, it can give rise to more crystals. Have enough crystals and that creates a bladder stone. I'm so glad I accidentally caught it on time. Kaji had to be on antibiotics for a month since the infection was a nasty one. I had him rechecked twice, and the second time he was finally back to normal.

My friend fostered a little girl that was neglected for a long time. She had more than one stone and I think one was the size of a quarter. She was a tiny thing too!

Hugs to you! Your baby will be better after surgery.

So sorry to hear about your puppy. Hope she's feeling better soon.

Please be sure to have pre-op bloodwork done before her surgery...

Keeping your little one in my prayers...

:thumbup: Pre-op blood tests are excellent advice...I too am sorry to hear about your baby. She will be in our family prayers as well. Our little Gizmo had kidney disease at 14 and we learned a lot. There is quite a bit of information at www.Dogaware.com also including UTI's I believe. Educating yourself through research is how we managed to have Gi another 7 mos. after diagnosis and the site I mentioned helped immensely.

I do hope she is better soon ♥

I'm the one that fostered Katie who had four large stones in her bladder. her original owner did not give her proper medication when it was first a uti, and did not have her on a rx diet, she was feeding her Beneful! :thumbdown She was peeing straight red not even pink. The day after I picked her up I took her in to the vet. They had to have her on IVs and have her system flushed out for three days before they could operate, her white blood cell count was so high, and red down, she was anemic. She did great after her surgery, and she felt so great afterwards. Imagine living with that kind of pain for 2 years!

Having the stones or crystals in the bladder cut into the lining of the bladder, a perfect spot for bacteria to thrive. Which makes it practially impossible for the body to heal itself. Katie also developed a growth in her bladder, her body trying to cushion the stones from the bladder, kind of like how an oyster makes a pearl.

It's very important to feed a high quality too too. I'm sure it attributed to it. i had a cat when i was younger and I fed him cheap food and he always had uti problems.

since she is only 6 months and already has developed stones, you will need to have her checked every few months for crystals.

here is a pic of Katies stones.

eta: agree with the others, pre op bloodwork is not an option. that's how the dr found her WBC count so high and RBC so low, along with a lot of other things way out of whack and not in the normal range.

I'm glad you posted! When the vet was telling me about the crystal count being so high, and the danger of stones, that image jumped into my head. UTI's are serious!

yup, just bc they are common, does not make it any less serious.

oohhh i'm sorry i don't have much advice but wish you the best and will be praying for you and the vet's that work on her and the baby.

Thank you everyone. I just feel so horrible for not doing something sooner for my poor Bella. She had started peeing in her cage at night about a month or so ago. I had thought it was just a potty training thing. She was only about 5 months old, so I didnt pay too much attention to it. She never acted like she was in pain, or anything like that. When we first noticed the blood, the vet and I just thought she was going into heat for the first time. Again... didnt think too much of it. Then she was spayed. Thats when her peeing really kicked in. A week later she was peeing red. And it smelled bad!! I called the vet and got her on medication for a bladder infection. I had read that our babies can sometimes get them after getting fixed, so again, did not worry too much about it. It really was just as of last night reading these posts about crystals in urine that i decided to have her checked out. My poor baby.... she must have been bad for a while now :(

dont beat yourself up. it happens. At least you got her the care she needed. Although not impossible, 6 months is a little early for coming into heat though. I wonder why your vet didn\'t recommend other testing?

It is so hard not to beat myself up over it. We are, afterall, the ones that are here to love and protect our little ones. I never had a little girl before, so i didnt have anything to compare to. I am only thankful that she was not running a fever, so hopefully that means no horrible infection. I have my fingers crossed that they can operate on her in the morning. It\'s her first christmas with us and it would be so sad to not have her here with us.

I\'ll be thinking of your little one.

Thank you so much ... I will post again when I hear from the vet tomorrow.

UTIs can be tricky and sometimes the signs are not that obvious. I\'m glad that the posts about crystals got you to thinking and that you took action for her as soon as you realized something might not be right. I NEVER wait things out. That is the most important thing here - if something doesn\'t seem right, it is always better to let a vet check it out. I would find out what kind of stones she has and see what is recommended for her going forward. I hope the surgery goes well. Please come and update!

So sorry for your little one. I will say a prayer that she is ready for surgery and that it goes well. Give yourself a hug from me and Sophia.