I think that I have mentioned before that my cocker spaniel Bella has UTI's on a regular basis. No matter what type of medicine we try--homeopathic or antibiotic--they always come back. I even switched to an expensive, grain-free food for awhile after I read some research that said grains make the urine more alkaline and thus are more likely to lead to infections and struvite stones.
This last UTI just doesn't want to go away. The first time that I ever tried Tinkle Tonic, it worked like a charm, but this last time it didn't. I think or I'm hoping anyway that it's because I didn't give it to her three times a day like I was supposed to. Her new bottle came in yesterday. I'm determined this time to make sure she gets the proper dosage, even if that means I have to wake up at 3 a.m. to give her the third dose. If it doesn't work, we're going to have to go to the vet--the same vet that told me she was just fat when she was having a bad bout of pancreatitis, who said the same thing when she tore her ACL into, who thinks Purina Dog Chow is actually a good dog food, and who lets Bella's urine samples sit out for eight hours before testing it. The vet will probably just give her another round of one-size-fits-all antibiotics without doing a culture that would allow her to match the treatment to the particular type of bacteria in her urine. Even worse, she'll probably give Bella an antibiotic that has worse side effects than the UTI like she did last time, and that will just lead to even more vet visits.
Yeah, the more that I think about it, the more that going back to school to become a vet is looking better and better.
