Dog cystitis is a condition of the bladder. A common disorder in dogs, cystitis is caused when there is an infection in the urinary tract or the bladder of the dog. This disorder is especially common in female dogs that are carrying a litter.
If the condition doesn’t receive timely treatment, it can spurn into a severe kidney disease. Therefore, it is recommended that the dog should be taken to a vet immediately as soon as the first symptoms appear, instead of being subjected to home remedies.
There are two characteristic symptoms of dog cystitis.
The first one is excessive urination. The dog may appear uncomfortable all the time and may want to relieve itself more often than normal. The dog may also experience urinary incontinence. In severe cases, there may be presence of blood in the urine. The blood may not be too apparent in the urine. Often, it only appears as if the urine is dark brown in color.
Some of the other symptoms of cystitis include straining to urinate and experiencing pain while urinating. The dog may drink water excessively and the fur near the vulva of the female dog may begin to appear dark or discolored. There are even cases of cystitis, where there are no symptoms in the dog.
If you see your dog feeling such kind of discomfort or showing the signs of cystitis, take it to the vet. The vet will most likely take a urine sample and perform urinalysis. A lab analysis of the urine can help detect the presence of bacteria in it. Such an analysis can also help determine the kind of bacteria present in the urine. Some times, some other disorders may exhibit similar symptoms like those of cystitis. Disorders like kidney stones and infections in the kidney may also have similar symptoms. A urinalysis is usually able to tell such disorders apart.
Dog cystitis causes include presence of stones in the kidney. These can cause infections to travel to the urinary tract. Tumors and diabetes mellitus are some of the other common causes of cystitis. If the dog is not able to empty the bladder completely, that too could be the cause of this infection. The vet prescribes antibiotics to treat the infection. Dog cystitis treatments usually continue for 10-14 days. The first step is usually an antibiotic shot, after which the dog has to be kept on medications for two weeks.
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