Medical Alert, Urinary Track Infection

When in pain, Emma's response seems to be to chew on her foot.

Emma has a urinary track infection (UTI)! What were her symptoms? How would a puppy contract such a thing? What we are doing to treat her condition and prevent another.

What was different? Emma, at 11 weeks old, soaked her crate bedding in the middle of the night, and didn’t know she had done it until she awakened in the morning. I let her out of the crate/kennel, took her outside to finish her chores, cleaned her up and cleaned up the mess. There was no particularly unusual odor, so I thought she just slept too hard after a hard play that evening. A couple of days later, it happened again. Again, she didn’t even know she was wet until she awakened in the morning. I spent time with her breeder, Lin Hainlen, who was troubled by the behavior. The crate is supposed to be a clean place, and animals strive to keep their bed clean. I contacted my veterinarian who requested a urine sample to rule out a UTI. Instead of ruling it out, Dr. Junger discovered rod shaped bacteria. Emma is now on antibiotics for the infection.

Female puppies squat when they urinate, and sometimes the little hairs around the vulva touch the ground. If this happens, bacteria can make their way up the hair and into the puppy’s urinary track. I don’t know if this happens with male puppies.

Preventing UTIs is simple, but not foolproof. Dr. Junger and Lin Hainlen both mentioned the hair touching the ground scenario, so Lin suggested gently trimming the hair so that nothing touches the ground when the puppy squats to urinate. Do not pluck the hairs, or shave the hairs, only trim them up close to the vulva.