Almost three month long bladder infection? Good food to prevent them?

[HeatherJS]

Hello! My my three-year-old boxer female has a bladder infection that won't go away and I've hit a breaking point. In early January she peed in the house four times in one day and I could see blood in it, so I called the vet and they just gave me a week of Clavamox because she's been in for bladder infections before.

A week later, she was still having accidents so we took her in to see the vet. They couldn't get a sample so they sent us home with another week of Clavamox. Another week went by and still was having accidents. They were mainly at night or while we were at work, so we started putting a baby gate up at night so she couldn't leave our room (she'd wake us up if she had to go then) or crating her during the day. We took a sample into the vet and they found lots of white blood cells but no blood and no crystals. She was put on another week of Clavamox and Science Diet c/d.

About two weeks ago I took her in for her rabies shot and the vet asked how she was doing. I said she'd had an accident over the weekend, but she was doing better, but they did another urine sample just to make sure it was gone. This one showed lots of red blood cells, no blood, no crystals, and some bacteria. Since it was a free catch outside, though, they couldn't say for 100% that the bacteria was from her and not something that floated into the sample outside. So they took some x-rays to look for bladder stones and found nothing.

She's on another week of Clavamox and still on the Science Diet c/d, which they said she will be on forever. First of all, does anyone know of a better food for prevention of UTIs? I really really do not like the ingredients in this stuff!! I did some research and noticed Royal Canin had a line, but it's for prevention of struvite crystals, which she doesn't have and has never had.

Has anyone else had this severe of a problem with bladder infections? I did a search on here and found a few posts, but none really mentioned food as a solution. The inconsistent urine samples just seem odd to me. The next step they want to take is an ultrasound and a needle into the bladder to get a clean sample. I'm just afraid that'll be outrageous in cost and still won't find anything. Maybe it's time for a new vet...

[gmacleod]

Food isn't a cure for bladder infections I guess in some cases it could be a contributor, but there's no food out there that's going to cure the problem on it's own.

More often than not in the case of recurrent bladder infections, the biggest problem or contributory factor is lifestyle. Just like us people, a healthy bladder and urinary system is reliant upon taking in plenty of water and urinating frequently. That is, flushing the body of toxins on a frequent basis and NOT holding those toxins and bacteria in the bladder for long periods. Unfortunately, that particular basic principle doesn't work too well with pets and modern lifestyles. Most of us have to work, so that means our dogs are confined indoors all day long without the opportunity to urinate. Aside from then taking in far less water, it also means that - rather than flushing taoxins and bacteria from their bodies every 2-3 hours as they're designed to, they often don't get the opportunity to urinate more often than every 4, 6 even 8 hours. Well, that sort of thing has a cost. Holding the toxins in the body for so long, day in and day out, stresses the other internal organs. And not flushing the requisite amounts of water through the bladder every 2-3 hours means that the bladder doesn't get to rid itself of bacteria, but rather, the bacteria are given ample opportunity to breed... And for some dogs, chronic bladder infections is the result.

I have no idea how long you need to leave your dog during the day. Does the above apply in your case? If it does, then you really would need to look at the possibilities for an alternative arrangement (dog walkers, day care, etc) so that your girl isn't ever (or at least, is rarely) in the position of holding her bladder for long periods of time.

Another lifestyle thing that impacts the likelihood of bladder infections is the type of food fed. That is, dry food. And that's because it's dehydrating. Feeding a wet food diet (be it canned, homecooked or raw) is far better for urinary health.

Other things that can help a bit with creating unfavourable conditions for bacterial growth in the bladder are apple cider vinegar (the natural type - cloudy, not clear), plain natural yoghurt (probiotics) and cranberry extract. But those are preventative aids, rather than cures. You would still need meds to get the current infection under control - and if clavamox isn't helping, it could be a good idea for your vets to take a culture of the bacteria affecting her and find out which antibiotic the bacteria is sensitive to. Then at least an effective drug can be prescribed.

[HeatherJS]

Thanks for the response! I figured food wasn't the total cure for it, but last time at the vet they kept asking if I was feeding her the c/d and only the c/d and if she was getting anything else. They said that any other thing I fed her could affect it and not let the food work. Sometimes I wonder how much they try and shove the Science Diet down my throat, though! I do feed her organic, plain fat free yogurt, but I've been doing that for almost a year because she has a sensitive stomach and the probiotics really helped. She won a photo contest for the yogurt company and got a free year of it, so that was awesome!

As far as her lifestyle goes, I work 50 miles away from home so I can't get there every day to let her out, but my fiance works nearby and goes home once or twice during the day and lets them out (I say them because we also have a male boxer). However, even with that, there could be a span of five hours from when we leave the house until he can stop by on his lunch.

I think I was just confused because the vet really seemed to be pushing the c/d as a cure. They told me only the Science Diet c/d forever and "nothing else!" I hate the ingredients in it (ground whole grain corn, pork fat, and chicken by-product meal as the top threeingredients? yeah no thanks!) so I was almost feeling guilty about wanting to take her off of it, like I was doing something bad for her health. Thanks for the advice!

[gmacleod]

Well, the C/D is aimed at changing urinary pH so as to help prevent the formation of struuvite crystals. But you can achieve the same thing with the apple cider vinegar No need to feed the crappy food.

And it may help to some degree. I know she hasn't actually got bladder crystals - but she does (obviously) have bladder conditions that encourage bacterial growth. The reasons for that could be a whole combination of things, of course - physical, lifestyle, etc. But the ACV and cranberry extract may well be helpful - and often are for dogs (and people!) who get recurrent bladder infections.