About Urinary Tract Infections

Urinary tract infections, also known as UTIs, bladder infections or cystitis, are fairly common in dogs. Bacterial infections, they can occur anywhere within the urinary tract. Most commonly though, they’re found in the bladder and invariably require some kind of dog UTI treatment.

While urinary tract infections are more common in female than male dogs, puppies and senior dogs also tend to be more prone to UTI’s. Particularly if forced to hold their bladder for extended periods of time. This unfortunate but sometimes necessary practice results in encouraging bacteria to grow.

Immunosuppressant drugs can also be a contributory factor in a dog developing a urinary tract infection. A drug-related compromised immune system is a prime target for any kind of bacterial infection.

Other Causes of Urinary Tract Infections

UTIs are invariably caused by other, underlying medical conditions. These can include:

• Incontinence (invariably age-related)
• Damage to the urinary tract
• Prostate problems
• Cushing’s Disease
• Diabetes
• Bladder stones
• Cancer
• Hyperthyroidism

Symptoms of a Urinary Tract Infection

Symptoms of a urinary tract infection commonly include:

• Fever
• Lethargy
• Loss of bladder control
• Back pain
• Excessive thirst

Commonly, a dog will show signs of increased and perhaps difficult urination, with sometimes cloudy or bloody, strong smelling urine.

Treatment for a Urinary Tract Infections

If you suspect your dog is suffering from a urinary tract infection, you will first naturally want to consult your vet. It’s important to understand the cause of your best friend’s UTI. Some kind of dog UTI treatment may be necessary.

Depending on its cause, your vet may well prescribe antibiotics and probably a further consultation to see how your dog is doing. This is likely to coincide with investigations as to the cause of your dog’s infection.

Thereafter though, please do not be persuaded to change your dog to a so-called prescription diet. This will not improve your dog’s health in the slightest.

Increasing water intake and changing your dog to a proper, fresh, wholefood diet will make a huge difference to your dog’s health. Yet another brand or variety of dry dog food will most likely simply cause the problem to reoccur.

A wholefood diet will greatly strengthen your dog’s immune system. The moisture contained in homemade dog food will help stop bacteria from forming again. From your dog’s point of view, providing proper healthy food is a win-win situation!

Diet

The cornerstone to having a healthy dog is good nutrition. You cannot expect your dog to enjoy good health unless you feed he or she a proper healthy diet which will help strengthen the immune system.

Commercial dog food is a relatively modern invention. It was devised little more than 150 years ago and has been mainstream for less than half of that. With it have come shorter life spans for dogs, commonplace illnesses that were once rare, and a general acceptance that regular trips to the vets are a fact of life.

People rarely ask themselves one particularly question. If a fresh food diet is considered the healthiest way to feed myself and my family, why should it not also be the healthiest way to feed my dog?

Your dog has a digestive system not so dissimilar to yours and mine. Yes, there are differences. But as with you and I, your dog’s digestive system is designed to benefit from a wide range of ingredients. Just think about how your dog would feed itself if it was living in the wild.

Logic dictates that your dog’s digestive system was not designed to eat nothing more than highly processed, nutritionally compromised dry dog biscuit for the entirety of its life!

Canine nutritionist consultation

My downloadable UTI feeding guide may be all you need to cure or managing your dog’s urinary tract infections. But if you want to be on the safe side, please contact me for a consultation.