odd dog problem

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akane

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The dogs are always so helpful when we are low on money. Haru has had some issues peeing on the floor lately. She goes through these stages of seeming incontinence when stressed sometimes. The past 2 days though her accidents have smelled like feces. She has been getting into the garbage as we clean the condo to sell. Josh his not good at tying things up or putting them out of reach. Google says it could just be a bad UTI. She has no other symptoms so far. Is there anything we can do to delay or lessen the problem until we can go to the vet? Google also says it could be a fistula connecting urinary tract and intestines which we probably can't do anything about but she's not showing pain or anything else concerning.
 
Increasing her water intake and acidifying with vinegar, lemon juice or disolved vitamin C, will help make the bladder less habitable to bacteria but will increase her urination and if you dont even know if its an infection it might be a waste of effort.

Can you get a hold of those pee test strips ? - you can't get them in Ontario without a script but the USA seems to have more meds available over the counter.
 
Are you sure she isn't responding to something when peeing? Some dogs pee when they are trying to show submission, are scared, ect. You said she did this when she was stressed.
Her getting into garbage, or maybe intense submission/fear would cause the smell? I'm not sure.
 
What Dood said is what I do if I see any of my dogs showing signs of uti. To flush their kidneys and bladders out, I put a scoop of wet cat food into more than a pint of water stir it all up. They drink the whole thing.
I do this too if I need a urine sample. Feed them the cat food/pint of water keep them in the house for 1/2 hour until they are just busting for a wee, then take them outside and they squat as soon as the get to the grass, and all I have to do is hold a sauce pan under them and I have my urine sample.
 
My mom gives her great dane cranberry pills regularly because she gets uti a lot. It seems to help her.
 
I have an emergency bottle of organic ACV but it won't last long in the several gallon dog bucket. I guess I will have to do the trick of seeding a cheap bottle of acv with the organic, unfiltered acv and just acidify further with citrus juice for now. Josh is taking her out more often and mostly avoiding accidents. Both her major accidents happened when people came to the condo to help clean. Excitement and stress such as vaccines causes her to start having accidents. The problem is when we start taking her out every time she says she wants out she will never stop even when she no longer has to pee frequently. Last time Josh lost tons of sleep taking her out every few hours for several weeks and it seemed suspicious to me so I told him to leave her in her crate. She cried for 2 nights and then went back to her usual schedule of 3-4 times a day with sleeping all night.
 
umm, folks, "acidifying" the urine will only cause damage to the linings of the urinary tract! It also interferes with other systems, like reproductive.. The way cranberries work-- the active ingredient alters the 'surface' of cells, making it hard for bacteria to 'hold on" to cell walls. (think teflon on a frying pan)

INcreasing dietary fiber will help prevent any further tearing/rupturing between intestinal and urinary systems. Do not let the gut get overloaded- smaller, more frequent meals, extra water, and perhaps, an injection of a broad spectrum antibiotic just to help known down any infection if there is a tear that may be causing an infection issue.
 
umm, folks, "acidifying" the urine will only cause damage to the linings of the urinary tract!
Were not talking about making it a pH of 2 ! the normal range of urine pH is 5 to 7, bacteria usually increase the pH since one of their by products is ammonia, but decreasing the pH back to NORMAL levels or to the lower range you are making the bladder less hospitable to bacteria and giving the body a chance to fight them off.

However without a proper diagnosis you could make matters worse.
 
Haru seems to have once again recovered from this bout of urinary problem. It remains a mystery. It didn't start again after a vet appointment but they didn't do much because she got her shots earlier in the year from the other vet. This was just an exam, nail trim, and vaccinating my other dog. They did do better at the new vet. Haru only did some minor, typical shiba screaming and Zami was really good. There was no growling and only mild attempts to escape. What I don't like about this vet though is that they run off with my animals to do stuff in the back. I told them that would not work for Zami. She will not leave me without a fight and if she's not muzzled you will receive a minor bite. She tries not to break skin but she'll leave some good bruises with her front teeth to get her point across. Akitas are bred to be guard dogs and she's from imported Japanese stock who take that job very seriously.
 
akane":3cqyioh7 said:
I told them that would not work for Zami. She will not leave me without a fight and if she's not muzzled you will receive a minor bite. She tries not to break skin but she'll leave some good bruises with her front teeth to get her point across.

I have the same issue with my most laid back Pyr/Catahoula girl, she feels a bit too strongly toward me I suppose as last we went to the vet they were forced to muzzle her and remove her to a quieter room away from me for a blood draw. The dorky thing is the floppiest dog at home, but in public she is all work no play, glued to my side and displeased with all who approach.
 
akane":diwyje7i said:
What I don't like about this vet though is that they run off with my animals to do stuff in the back. y.

I refuse to use a vet who does things in this manner... Would you permit a doctor to examine your child in the same manner?
 
It's not really a big deal with Haru. She likes everyone and will follow anyone, anywhere. She is a drama queen though so you will hear the famous shiba screaming over everything. Once she even screamed about them looking in her ears when there was nothing wrong with her ears. She recovers in like 30 seconds. We let the petstore groomers take off with her for toenail trimming and defluffing when we don't get her brushed enough.

Zami will do damage if there is not someone she knows telling her she is supposed to tolerate things. I don't even let a vet trim her nails. I would prefer they didn't draw her blood at all. I keep debating just using 1% ivermectin solution for heartworms instead of the premeasured stuff that requires a prescription. They'd still want to draw her blood everytime I took her in for a vaccine though. If I only took her in every 3 years for rabies they'd freak over the lack of other vaccines when I don't think she needs them at this point.

This vet is less obsessed with vaccines and tests. The other vet was about to not let me out the door with Haru if I didn't make an appointment to have every vaccine listed done. It got too annoying. Zami hated them as well even though they didn't try to take her away from me. She just didn't like how fast they moved for her and how they surrounded her sometimes when having difficulty getting something done. The dogs behaved much better at the new vet. There was minimal shiba screaming and Zami did not growl at anyone. I just refused to let them take Zami out the door.
 
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