[Melissa D]

Oh also, yes it was very easy to get it done – I caught his urine in a clean, dry tupperware and brought it in. But they also will do it at the vet with their own container and whatever other tricks they may have up their sleeves.

[Melissa D]

It was very easy! The lead up was what was difficult. Once he FINALLY peed blood, a classic straightforward UTI symptom, I called my vet and she asked me to bring in a sample. They read it very quickly and told me he had a severe UTI and started him on antibiotics immediately. He is currently on them and improving, but the infection is still present (just lessened) so it may be a while. Or he may need another kind of antibiotics after this one. We have to see.

So my advice is to ask them to both read it AND send out/start a culture from that sample if he does have an infection. The reason being if he does have an infection, the culture tells you exactly what bacteria it is. That needs to be done when the dog is not already on antibiotics. In my case, if we cannot get this infection under control, we will need to stop his meds for a week in order to culture, something I am worried about doing. Could have been avoided with a culture in the first place.

Either way, the test is vey simple and they should be agreeable to doing one even if just to rule out the UTI. If they don’t want to, I’d find another vet.

[Melissa D]

You may have already tested for this, but has a urinalysis been done to check for a UTI? I say this because my dog went undiagnosed for months – he had/has many of the same symptoms yours does. Blood in vomit, lethargy, up all night in pain/distress, etc. Did do better on sucralfate. It was a UTI the whole time, he just didn’t show any of the classic symptoms like straining or dribbling pee/having accidents in the house. All other tests were normal. No one thought to do a urinalysis until he finally peed a bit of blood. (Yes, I am kicking myself.)

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