Female dog with Urinary tract infection

My female dog who is about 7 years old is seeping urine when laying on the furniture. I noticed that it has a twinge of red and is kinda thick.  Is it a UTI or bladder infection.  What can I do to help her without going to the vet.  Money is an issue.

[Aleda M Cheng, D.V.M., C.V.A]

Your must first find out if your dog has a simple urinary tract infection or something more complicated.

Many veterinarians will do a urinalysis on your dog's urine without your having to pay for an office visit.  A Urinalysis at my clinic runs approximately $35.00 and includes an early renal disease profile, as well as checking for blood, white blood cells, crystals, etc.

I really suggest you have the urinalysis performed.  Blood in the urine is a sign of a urinary tract infection, or worse and can be treated with antibiotics if it is a simple infection.

If your dog shows crystaluria (crystals in the urine), it becomes more complex and a bladder X-Ray may be required to check for uroliths (bladder stones), which may require surgery.  A more serious bladder issue is bladder cancer, which can be detected with more sophisticated testing such as a bladder ultrasound.

If your dog is urinating on the couch or dribbling urine, she may also have urinary incontinence.  If the antibiotic treatment does not stop the dribbling than she may need another medication called PPA (phenylpropanolamine), which is effective in controlling the dribbling.

To help prevent urinary tract infections in the future get your dog to drink more water than she is currently drinking, by purchasing a pet water fountain which continuously circulates the water, or offer pedialyte, or, low sodium broth; as dogs get older the hypothalamus in their brains doesn

[Nebraska0204]

sounds like a bladder infection.  Our vet gave our dog antibiotics and told us to give her a human adult dose of cranberry capsuls.... our dog is 100lbs.  Hope this helps.