What are other causes of bladder infection in dogs?

Answer 1

Bladder infections can be caused by a number of things, but typically they are due to the build up of bacteria in the bladder after the dog doesn't urinate fully or frequently enough. Excessive containment without opportunity to urinate can trigger a UTI, as can persistent lack of adequate water (dehydration). Certain poorer quality dogfoods are thought to contribute to urinary tract inflammation, as well as environmental exposure (e-coli related enzymes), and these are aggravating factors.

Overly harsh or unreasonable house training practices can predispose certain canines to bladder infection tendencies. For instance, a pup that is harshly punished for an inside accident will learn to associate urinating with punishment. The result is an animal that fears urinating and that hastily urinates without ever fully emptying the bladder. Think about attempting to urinate while a drill sgnt. barks orders in your ear...

A clue that you may be setting your pup up for this is that it squats and only briefly eliminates, or eliminates on the run, looking back to observe your reaction.

As a small animal veterinary care specialist in private practice, I strongly recommend several of the following practices to help prevent bladder infection tendencies:

1. Always provide your dog with access to adequate fresh water. Always.

2. Always feed your dog high quality dogfood. It will save you health-related trips to see me that are much more costly than the food, and your dog will be healthier for it.

3. Do NOT contain your dog for more than 2-3 hours at a time without an opportunity to relieve itself. (Every time you use the restroom, think about whether your dog likely needs to go and cannot!) If you're thinking about crating for longer periods due to work or school schedules, consider waiting to get a dog until a later date when someone can be with it during other times of the day. Or better yet, consider a cat. Dogs are social animals, and regularly crating for long hours is a miserable way of life.

4. If housetraining, remember that pups can take a year or more to fully train. Be patient! Give the pup lots of opportunities to void appropriately, including patiently waiting and demonstrating exuberant praise when the pup finally eliminates. Make that a positive learning experience of trust!

5. Do not loudly scold or punish the pup (rub its nose in it, swat) for accidents.

6. If you catch the pup "in the act," simply pick it up swiftly and transport it outside as you use a consistent training phrase to associate the act with going outside. Resist the urge to yet, put on your "Poker face" and remember that pups are babies, too.

7. If you find evidence of an accident after the fact, simply clean it up and treat the spot with an enzyme product (e.g. Nature's Miracle) to remove all scent. Punishing a pup for an accident simply teaches the pup to fear you, and once the pup has finished urinating or defecating, it's "forgotten" the event.

Answer 2

Common causes include dehydration, insufficient drainage of the bladder while urinating, lack of opportunities to urinate, etc. Dogs kept inside for too long without opportunities to void and without access to water are prone to this painful type of infection.

Answer 3

Your veterinarian will place the dog on antibiotics for about 10 days

Answer 4

Yes. See the Related Link below.