Hi, we have an 8 month old female lab. We we're recently going to have her spayed at the vet and when they ran her blood work they didn't like some of her kidney levels. They gave us amoxicillin and did a urinalysis and had it cultured. The vet called my wife yesterday and said that the culture came back with e coli. He went on to talk to her in grave terms about kidney damage and changing diets, she got the feeling that this was extremely serious and could be deadly. He also mentioned that he has never seen this in a puppy. He wants to keep her on the AB and have us take her in for an ultrasound of her kidneys. I'm confused about a few things and want to give him a call later, trying to get as much information as I can before I talk to him. First: Our puppy has had no signs of any type of infection/bacteria/uti. 3 months ago she was wetting the bed but that went away and she is able to hold it all night, she has slightly bad breath sometimes. I get that there can be bacteria/infection now, it just feels weird for the situation to seem dire out of the blue w/ no symptoms. Second: Based on my understanding, e coli is very common among dogs, especially younger dogs, and is the cause of half of UTIs. So it seems strange that the vet thinks this is a very rare thing. Third: He wants to keep her on the amoxicillin, based on what I've read that is not a great AB for e coli. I don't want to be the person with no background that recommends a different AB to the vet, is it out of place for me to do this, or am I wrong here? Any information anyone has would be great, I have 2 other adult dogs male too, are there any concerns for them? thank you
Hi, I am sorry to hear that your pup is having problems. I'm afraid i don't have any experience to help you but wanted to reply to bump you up to the top of the posts on the hope that someone experienced will see your post. Good luck
I think you probably need to discuss this all further with your vet, as it sounds like you have a lot of questions for them. To me, it probably isn't the ecoli in the urinary culture which concerns them most, but the kidney values in the bloods....
