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Corso puppy UTI help

Jarena

Well-Known Member
Hello, I'm wondering if anyone here has been through what we are going through.
We brought our cane corso, Lettie, home at 8 weeks. She is 16 weeks old and now 3 vets have said they think she needs surgery. They say she has an extremely hooded vulva (that's what the surgery would be for) that's why she gets a UTI when she is off of antibiotics. She is almost through the 3rd round of antibiotics. She finishes the antibiotics tomorrow and goes to see the vet again on Tuesday. I'm pretty confident that she will have a UTI by Tuesday and the vet will say that she needs the surgery asap.
If she needs surgery, then we will of coarse do what ever is best for her. Butttttt we discussed the possibility of getting her spayed at the same time as the surgery. So my problem is that I want to wait to spay her until she is at least 12 months old. But I also really really want to have the two surgeries at the same time. I feel like it would be much less stressful for her to just have anesthesia once, and only one recovery time. Also, I could take a week or so off of work to keep an eye on her while she recovers.
So, I need to find a way to keep her UTI free for the next 8ish months. My plan is sensitive baby wipes to keep her clean, and I ordered "cranimals" cranberry stuff for dogs to sprinkle on her food.
Hopefully my plan works, any other suggestions? Has anyone else had to have the vulva surgery done? Any advice/suggestions/opinions is very much welcome and appreciated!
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
My girl also has a recessed vulva. I didn't choose to have the episioplasty when she was spayed - which we did at 4 years old - and I do sometimes regret that decision. I clean her frequently with unscented baby wipes, make sure she drinks plenty of water, and I use D-Mannose. (I use D-Mannose myself as I'm prone to urinary infections.) Your girl is very young to be spayed. I would do anything to try to make it to her first or second heat. Sometimes things "pop out" enough for it to be easier to control the UTIs with wipes and supplements until she's old enough to be altered.
 

marke

Well-Known Member
a conventional spay on an adult dog is a huge and dangerous surgery ......... personally i'd never do two surgeries at once , I know they do it , I know sometimes they suggest it ...... I've personally experienced the worst possible result after having two procedures done simultaneously , i'll never do it again , it doesn't save that much money , and anesthesia on a healthy dog poses very near 0 risk , from my personal experience it poses 0 risk , and that includes some very unhealthy dogs that I've had anesthetized .............. if you don't have a male dog around , or some other circumstance that would require a spay , I wouldn't spay her until after 2 yrs , myself I wait until at least 4 yrs , 3yrs on bitches that have lots of heats ............
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
a conventional spay on an adult dog is a huge and dangerous surgery ......... personally i'd never do two surgeries at once , I know they do it , I know sometimes they suggest it ...... I've personally experienced the worst possible result after having two procedures done simultaneously , i'll never do it again , it doesn't save that much money , and anesthesia on a healthy dog poses very near 0 risk , from my personal experience it poses 0 risk , and that includes some very unhealthy dogs that I've had anesthetized .............. if you don't have a male dog around , or some other circumstance that would require a spay , I wouldn't spay her until after 2 yrs , myself I wait until at least 4 yrs , 3yrs on bitches that have lots of heats ............

I agree with Marke. I should have said that I sometimes regret not having the episioplasty done, but I don't regret not doing at the same time as the spay. My girl had some complications with her spay surgery and her recovery was brutal. I wouldn't have wanted to deal with a large incision in the vulvar area on top of the spay. I think that if you can't control the UTIs, ultimately I would have the episioplasty done before the spay. Round after round of antibiotics is never a good thing.
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
Thank you both so much! I went to the health food store today and bought pure D-mannose powder. She is 16 weeks old and 50 pounds, how much powder should I give her? And how many times a day? How do you administer, in her water or food? We are going to wait to spay her and we will not be doing to 2 surgeries at once. I really love that I found this forum, so much helpful advice! I am just going to keep her clean with wipes and give her the D-mannose for as long as possible. Hopefully I can keep her UTI free until after at least her first heat with out any antibiotics. Thank you!
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
Ella weighs about the same as I do, around 127 pounds, and I use 1 tsp in water for both of us several times a day when we have the start of a UTI. For a smaller dog I would mix a smaller amount in water and pour over food to encourage fluid intake. Ella doesn't care for the sweetness, so if that's a problem for your girl maybe buying gel capsules and filling would work better.

D-mannose is a simple sugar and works by preventing e-coli from adhering to the lining of the bladder, etc. which makes it easier to be flushed out of the system. Be aware that it may not work for all types of bacteria. The urinary tract in many dogs is short, so it's not a long distance to the kindeys. A kidney infection can get serious very quickly. If it doesn't help your girl, then you may consider having the episioplasty surgery done. Just be prepared for an argument with your vet about spaying at the same time, because I'd certainly expect them to push it. Unless your girl is super recessed, I would expect to see some improvement after her first heat. If you'd like to share a picture of her girly bits I'd be happy to tell you how they compare to my girl at the same age. None of us are particularly shy or squeamish around here.
 

DennasMom

Well-Known Member
Great info, above.
I haven't dealt with this one, so take this as just something to consider -

Our cat had one UTI, and we never wanted to go through that again. We had good luck with cranberry supplements and also forcing her to drink more water (filtered water) by adding it to her kibble at meal time. You could also add low-sodium or homemade broth, for added liquid to help flush the bladder more often.

Denna is pretty irregular about drinking water - not sure how your pup is, but if you want to be sure about the dose of any powdered supplements, I'd either add them to the meal and add water to make a gravy, or dissolve the supplement in a small amount of broth or yogurt or sour cream (Denna's favorite), and give that separately - so you know it was all taken as intended [make sure no xylitol is in any item... I hear some yogurts are using that now. Boo].

Denna gets a lot of powdered supplements (like Nupro or inClover's Connectin, for joint support), and they make a nice liver-flavored gravy, so I can add pretty much anything else to the dish and she never notices. :)

Just some thoughts.
Oh, and hopefully you're doubling up on the probiotics, too... our vet had us give probiotics opposite the antibiotics (morning/night), not even waiting until she was done with the rounds of anti's to start.
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
You guys really are the best <3 I bought probiotics when I bought the dmannose today. She drinks a lot of water, she demands it actually. One time I didn't see that she was out of water (first and last time) and she wouldn't budge until I filled her bowl lol. But she is a little dirt water so we have to change her mud water a thousand times a day. So I think mixing water and the D-M with her food is the way to go.
Her UTI was caused by e-coli, I asked for a urine culture the with the 3rd UTI. So hopefully the D-M will do the trick, fingers crossed!
I will definitely be prepared to stand my ground with the vet about the 2 surgeries but I don't think he will fight me. We started out with a vet that I would have had to fight, but found a new one that is much better :)
Here is a picture of her puppy bits:IMG_3522.JPG
And you can see her double nipples lol
And here is the reason we have to change the water every 5 minutes: IMG_3383.JPG
And here she is practicing "leave it" and being cute:
IMG_3346.JPG
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
She is a little dirt EATER (it won't let me edit the post) and here is another angle of her puppy bits. Just ignore my foot haha IMG_3527.JPG
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
Oh my gosh, she's adorable. I was expecting much worse than what the pictures show. Ella is significantly more recessed - even at 5 years old and after multiple heats. I think that if you keep cleaning her with wipes, encourage lots of fluid intake, and supplement with whatever you find works for her (there is a supplement with cranberry and d-mannose too) that you should be able to make it to her first or second heat. I think that after she swells from her first heat the issue may resolve itself. I don't have a picture of Ella, but she has a pretty large flap of skin that covers most of her vulva. Be gentle, but clean her thoroughly and pat her dry. That extra skin is a haven for bacteria. Also make sure she doesn't lick herself a lot and when you go through your first heat I would suggest not using a diaper. You want the air flow.
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
Good to hear that she isn't too bad, I was told it's bad but had nothing to compare her to. I'm feeling pretty relieved reading your response, thank you. She has been finished with her antibiotics since Friday and all is good so far. Last time she finished antibiotics, I could tell something was wrong within a few days so hopefully this is working! Thank you for all of your suggestions, we really appreciate hearing from people like you that have real experience :)
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
3 MONTHS WITH NO UTI!!!! Just wanted to update that because of all of the helpful advice I got from you all she is a healthy happy puppy.

I had to play around a little with the correct dosages but I now have her on 1/2 tsp of d-mannose twice a day (more gives her diarrhea) and she gets 1 tsp of “cranimals” twice a day. We encourage her to drink water and we wipe her lady bits once a day or more if needed.

We have had a few times where she started acting like she was getting a UTI, when that happens we just give her more d-mannose for a couple days to make sure she is all flushed out. We are still planning on waiting until she is at least 18 months before getting her spayed, and if she stays UTI free I will not put her through the episioplasty at all.

Thank you all so much! :)
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
Good news! I'll try to get a picture of Ella's lady bits tomorrow. I wish now that I'd done the episioplasty when we did the spay. I didn't realize that her nipples and her vulva would shrink, for lack of a better word, after her spay. I'm having a pretty hard time keeping her UTI and rash free now that things are so much more tucked in again. But as I said before, Ella is more recessed than your Lettie.
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
Good news! I'll try to get a picture of Ella's lady bits tomorrow. I wish now that I'd done the episioplasty when we did the spay. I didn't realize that her nipples and her vulva would shrink, for lack of a better word, after her spay. I'm having a pretty hard time keeping her UTI and rash free now that things are so much more tucked in again. But as I said before, Ella is more recessed than your Lettie.

Kahlua's lady bits didn't shrink a whole lot when we fixed her. I didn't even know that was a "thing"! There is always something new to learn. I do know that prior to being fixed Kahlua had the largest vulva I had ever seen. It is still probably the largest I have seen after being fixed but it was even bigger before. It actually bounces when she runs. It's like this tiny little muff (is that where that term comes from maybe... from pups with large vulvas?) Her nipples have shrunk a tad but they are still giant. I am more used to seeing that size nipple on a dog who had at one time been a mom.

Is the giant vulva and nipple thing a boxer thing?

Anyways sorry to hijack the thread here but that just caught my attention.

Jarena - I am so very happy to hear that the UTIs have cleared up! That is fantastic news! :)
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
Haha, Nik. I've only had one female boxer and she was spayed at the required 6 month mark 23 years ago, so I don't really have anything to compare to. Ella was spayed at four years old last September. Her nipples were huge and everyone thought she'd had several litters. A year later and they're pretty darn small.

Okay. So here are the best pictures I could get. Ella is a modest lass and she wasn't at all thrilled with me taking these pictures. The standing up picture looks like she just has a lot of hair, which she does. But the area around her vulva is just a big flap of hair covered skin, the feathers on her legs are deceiving. The other two pictures are with her on her side and me holding her leg up. So imagine how closed and covered everything is when her leg isn't being held up. There's no air flow down there. You can see that she has a sore on her vulva. She gets them frequently and I've stopped taking her to the vet and giving her antibiotics. I just keep her clean and discourage licking which is what seems to cause the problem. It should clear up in several days.

IMG_5905.JPG
IMG_5907.JPG
IMG_5908.JPG
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
What looks like a vulva in the standing picture is her chest hair. You can't actually see any of her vulva at all.
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
Boxergirl- thanks for the pictures! She does look worse than Lettie. It’s nice to have the comparison :) now I just need pictures of her other end ;)

Nik- you can “hijack” my threads anytime! I enjoy reading about all things doggy :) maybe I’m weird but I wouldn’t mind seeing a picture of your girls lady bits too haha. I just know when Lettie has her first heat, my boyfriend (Matt) and I are going to be freaking out over the size of Lettie’s vulva. I keep reading about how swollen they get but she is like our first daughter so we tend to over-react to most things.
 

Boxergirl

Well-Known Member
Oh, that first heat they get huge. Poor Ella leaked urine too because she was so swollen. Here. This is the other end of my baby. October 2017 089.JPG
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
Jarena -

I will see if I can get some pics when I get home from work today. :)

Maybe i even have some pics from when she was in heat that I can dig up. The size of it when she was in heat was alarming. I really was a little concerned and was ready to go see the vet until I did some research and saw it wasn't abnormal. lol
 
I agree with Marke. I should have said that I sometimes regret not having the episioplasty done, but I don't regret not doing at the same time as the spay. My girl had some complications with her spay surgery and her recovery was brutal. I wouldn't have wanted to deal with a large incision in the vulvar area on top of the spay. I think that if you can't control the UTIs, ultimately I would have the episioplasty done before the spay. Round after round of antibiotics is never a good thing.
What looks like a vulva in the standing picture is her chest hair. You can't actually see any of her vulva at all.
My 5 1/2 month old cane corso has surgery this morning. When standing you can't even see her vulva its so hooded and inverted. My poor baby is having the epioplasty,spay and 2 cherry eyes tacked today I was reluctant to get it all done at 1 time, but the vet said it would be less stress on her. I have managed to keep her UTI free for 6 weeks i have her on D mannose. However, the epioplasty is necessary in her situation. Has anyone had all these things done at once, I'm so stressed out and worried for my baby who btw weighs 78lbs already.