why does my dog still have blood in the urin?

[pointoflightintime]

My dog seems healthy and happy, he has just finished a month of two different types of antibotics and he has been off of them only a couple of days and he has blood in the urin again.  He was also on a very expensive RX dog food diet.  This is just like throwing money in the toliet and my poor dog is still not well .  Help, I don't trust my vet after this.  Shouldn't a month of double antibotic and RX diet cure just about anything curable?   What can I do.  Could blood in the urin be a sign of cancer?

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

I am glad that your dog doesn't have stones in his bladder that would require surgery.

Causes of failure to respond to treatment may be due to:
1.  Wrong antibiotic.  A culture and sensitivity should be performed when the patient is not on any antibiotic for at least 3 days to insure accurate results.

2. Infection in the kidneys, prostrate or testicles (if the patient has not been neutered).

3. Not enough liquid intake to help flush the infection out.

4.  Incorrect diet.

5.  or a combination of the above.

Cancer of the bladder, kidneys, and other urogenital components can cause a bit of bleeding, but the sonogram should have helped to discover these abnormalities.  There is always a chance that the cancer is small and not yet detectable by any diagnostic means, however.

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

Hello,

The test is a Culture and Sensitivity of the urine and the urine must be taken directly from the bladder.

Cranberry capsules will help.  Also you should put him on a glucosamine  and Omega 3 fatty acids.  Both help the integrity of the bladder.
The dose for both is 1000mg of each twice daily.  Your vet may have these in stock, otherwise use a human formula.

Restore the Integrity by Kan Herbal Company (available online) may help with the urinary incontinence and uti.  

Also, ask your vet about Proin, or another brand of PPA.  This medication helps add tone to the urethral muscle and will may help your dog retain urine.

[pointoflightintime]

Hello Doctor Cheng,
   Thank you for your kind and concerned response about my dog Rockey.   I have had the Xray and the urin and the blood and the culture and sensitivity test ran and we still do not know what is exactly going on with him.  His BUN at 38 and cretinine at 2.1 and LY at 10.8 but nothing else out of norm range.  Culture and sensitivity test was neg for any type of growth or infection.  He had been off of the antibotics for at least a week, and was bleeding a lot.  I didn't think of it at the time but it sounds like accidental poisoning.  I do not know why the vet did not mention this posibility to me.  That is the only thing that showed up on the test, kidney failure.  Could the antibotic actually make it worse if is poisoning?  What can help to cleanse the body and the kidney besides flushing with water.  The vet seems uninterested in helping me because I don't have anymore money to spend right now.  I asked her to treat Rockey for poisoning but she said she could not unless I admitted Rockey to the hospital for intravenious fluids, at a cost of $200.00 to $400.00 per day.  And there is nothing else she can do except a $200.00 ultrasound.  I just do not have the money after spending well over $800.00 on test and medication, not to mention the RX diet food he probbly doesnt need.   What medication or treatments would you reccomend?

[pointoflightintime]

Thank you for your response.  Can you give me the name of the specific test that needs to be done for the culture and sensitivity, as my Vet is not real big on test.  He believes, as do I  that the bleeding in the urine is caused by some sort of infection, because the antibotics cured it up while my dog was on them.  I am just so frustrated that this infection came back so soon.  
   I am starting Rockey on cranberry tabs, I'm not sure how to get him to drink more water.  Rockey is a VERY GOOD dog.  He lives inside with no yard.  I live where I work so it is not usually a problem.  Rockey will not go inside the apartment, no matter what.  I have tried to get him to go on paper in the bathroom.  No matter what I try, he will not go in the apartment.  I have never even scolded Rockey for accidents, when he was younger.  I think that he holds it too long some times, he will not even whine to go out.  I just don't know if that could be a cause or a contributing factor for blood in the urine.  He has never had a problem untill a month and a half ago.  Could holding too much urine in the blatter stretch it to make it bleed and have trouble healing?
   I was not very impressed with the sonogram, It was very dark and hard to see anything.