Recurring Bladder infections in female dogs

[bormal]

Hi All- Does anyone have any ideas on how to eliminate recurrent bladder infections in female dogs? My last two female collies have died from the antibiotics used to treat recurrent bladder infections- they all seem to get these as they get older. My Roxie (not sure of her age) is on her 3rd bout of UTI as of today- and the second antibiotic used to treat it. It makes me sick to see this happen again.

I am careful with their diets- I feed both my girls a home cooked diet (not raw- so far can't do raw poultry), I keep Roxie clipped out underneath for sanitary reasons and clean her up twice a day generally with baby wipes or some other antiseptic wipe. She had two staph infections in Sept and October and now has E-Coli. I also have her on Standard Process Cranberry Complex- so this has not worked to stave off the e-coli as it should have done according to all I have read. (I have found that Cranberry has not worked in the past either)
Thanks in advance for any suggestions,
Laura

[Islander]

Bormal, I have nothing, but I wonder whether a search on mercola's site would turn up anything helpful. He has a veterinary side to the site which you can search, just as you search the health site for past topics.

[Islander]

Bormal, Maine public radio has a daily call-in show where they assemble a panel of experts on a given topic. As luck would have it, today's topic was pet health and they had three or four veterinarians to answer questions. I sent in an email where I copied your OP here, and halfway through the show they read it and the vets replied to it. Here's what they said — not a lot of help, I'm afraid.

This is a condition that is commonly seen daily. Females are more prone to it than males. The fact that it's recurrent suggests that there are underlying factors (anatomical, endocrine, immune system...) They did not address the antibiotic question specifically but said that they can culture sterile urine samples and use diagnostic techniques to help with treatment.

Sorry, that's all I got. Maybe someone else here can add to it.

[grulla]

I would suggest researching Pyometra, a UTI related infection in female dogs and cats that no longer reproduce, and consider having them spayed;

http://www.animalmedcenter.com/faqs/category/pyometra1

[bormal]

Thanks Islander! and Grulla as well. She was spayed in 2010- so this is not the problem.