Quote: Mark Langr

. . . and a higher dose of antibiotics.

Since antibiotics kill both the good and bad bugs in the digestive system, it's often a good idea to give a Tsp. or two of plain yogurt daily to help get her digestive system back in balance. This should be given about an hour or so after an antibiotic dose. You can certainly run this by your vet for an opinion, but be advised that vets are not known for being on the cutting edge of nutritional information.

Mike

So, after the vet visit on Thursday, I was skeptical that the excessive urination would not get better. Friday morning, she must have peed three times in her crate but it went a totally different direction that day. Hardly any other accidents in the crate have occurred since Friday morning. I am still in shock because I had gotten to expect it. Thank you to everyones advice! Problem Solved!

Don't forget the plain live-culture yogurt and the re-test after the antibiotic regimen.

And I'm so glad. Poor pup -- a UTI can be very uncomfortable (or downright painful).

So Emmy, started getting better. She is 6 months now. I found watching how much water she was consuming helped control the frequencing she was going. I am arranging to get her spayed through a humane society (they do it for a reduced or free cost).

Well, her accidents started coming back. My fiance and I have been trying to introduce to her to the house but now that is going to have to be scaled back. She has had several accidents in the house as well as her crate. I am lucky, it was on the pergo so I could get it up easier than carpet. Her pee has the begun to smell really awful, somewhat fishy over the past month. We took Emmy to the vet to see if the UTI had returned so we are waiting on the results. No antibiotics prescribed yet. The vet said the smell could be partly from dehydration and that we should really try letting her have free reign of water. So, we are trying that and she still chugs her water. Her pee still has that funky smell. I am going to try to give her as much water over the weekend and hope that maybe she is just behind on her water. Otherwise, excessive water consumption and urination leads me to believe that there is some underlying problem. Any advice?

So, the vet brought something up to me that I have never heard of. That sometimes letting a female go through their first heat cycle can alleviate some of the problems she is having. She was NOT telling us we should do it but that there have been people that had similar problems that went away after the female's first heat cycle. She sort of left the interpretation up to us. NOW, I am a little scared to do that because I think that is potentially dangerous since we have no intention on breeding her. Has anyone heard of that before?

What is so strange about Emmy's excessing peeing is that her brother does not have that problem at all. We had gotten her fellow littermate for free because he had a birth defect. He is a champ when it comes to holding in his pee. So, I would think that if this is a breed specific thing, we could see it with the brother as well. Not the case. The only time he barks in his crate is when he needs to use the bathroom whereas his sister will just go.

Males have bigger bladders, and not just proportionately. In addition, females are far more susceptible to bladder infections because of the short straight urethra. Comparing her to a male, even a litter-mate, is apples and oranges. JMO.

You are doing the right things for smelly urine: culture it, give her free water.

Please let us know about the UTI. Here is something that I think is a big step with UTIs that is often overlooked: Testing at the end of the antibiotic protocol to make sure that the infection was really wiped out (mentioned earlier in this thread).

If there is no UTI (I'll bet there is), then the vet will do blood work for other possibilities like diabetes.

There is no harm in letting her go through one heat cycle before you spay.

I really believe that responsible (read: not letting their in-heat dog come into contact with males) dog owners should allow their females to have at least one heat. In the long run, it is much healthier.

 Quote: alyssa myracle

From talking to friends who have had larger breeds, ie, Danes, St Bernards and Mastiffs, the "jumbo" breeds tend to take a little longer to develop "bladder stamina".

I think it boils down to the dog growing so fast, that it's bladder just can't keep up.

I have a great dane, and also find this to be true. To break nighttime peeing, we went to a walk every two hours, then every week I got one more hour of sleep between walks. My husband comes to bed much later than I, and I get up earlier than he, so Maggie only has to hold it about 7 hours at night. We still (8 months old) have the occasional accident during the day, when our schedule gets a little off.

When she was a baby, her digestive system couldn't even hold a full meal at once. We fed her 3 times a day, and had to walk her in the middle of each meal to make room for the second half. They just grow so fast their organs can't keep up with their metabolic needs.