5.5 month old question

[erniesmom]

Hi Everyone,
My Betsy is now 5.5 months old. She has had three utis so far. We just did the needle bladder test after a 3 week round of antibotics and it came out clean. We waited 12 days after the last pill to take the test. My question is this....I am not sure what is normal. She sleeps 8 hours in our bed without accident. I have never had her crated more than 4 hours during the day due to the utis and she has always been able to hold that. When we are home, it seems that she has to pee still every 1-2 hours. Sometimes she will go 3 hours if she is sleeping. She seems to do a full pee at each time and does not always pee when I take her out(I was worried I had trained her to pee every hour). Is this a bit too short of a length of time for this age?

 

[2BullyMama]

She should be able to hold (guideline) for 6.5 hours at this point, but they are all different. But, how much exercise is she getting and water intake is it normal? does she squat low to the ground... do you wipe the area after she goes?

Banks needed me to wipe the area especially in the summer/fall months due to her allergies

 

[erniesmom]

I feel she drinks more than my other one. She does squat...I do not wipe her. Why would the wiping cause her to go less? I was actually shocked that she did not have an infection because I feel she goes a lot.

 

[Enjoimangos]

My pup is 7 months and he can hold his pee for about 5-6 hours. I believe when he was 5 months it was about 1-3 hours between each pee session.

I had to limit Boris's water intake cause he would drink so much and pee every hour. Now he just gets water with his meals and right before we go outside and it resolved the constant peeing.

 

[erniesmom]

Thank you Enjoimangos! I was trying to figure out if she was just going way too much and if I had conditioned her to do that by taking her out every 1-2 hours. I am trying to stretch her time while I am home to three hours....if things are quiet she does it otherwise she is still more of a 2.5 hour girl!

 

[Vikinggirl]

Hi, the rule of thumb for potty training, is they should be able to hold their bladder for 1 hour for every month of age, so by 5 months they should be able to hold for 6 hours. Like Christine already mentioned that is a guideline and every dog is different. She should be able to hold for 3 hours for sure. The reason Christine asked you if she squats when she pees or if you wipe her after is because if your dog squats low to the ground when she pees, she could be picking up bacteria from the grass, or ground which can travel up the urethra and cause a bladder infection, by wiping her girly parts after a pee you will wipe the bacteria and reduce the risk for a UTI. Has your vet checked her to see if their are any medical reasons or he repeated UTIs? Things like crystals or stones in the bladder? I wouldn't restrict her water at all, she should always have access to clean water throughout the day. Restricting her water to avoid her going pee more often can actually cause more UTIs because by the water helps clean out the bladder and kidneys by flushing them out. I give our guys 2 Tbsps of plain yogurt on their morning kibble for the probiotic, which boost the immune system, this helps with fighting infections. There are a lot of other benefits to yogurt, you can also add 1 Tbsp of apple cider vinegar to the drinking water everyday, there are a lot of health benefits to ACV, and I also break a cranberry pill to their kibble as a prcautionary measure to reduce the risk.

Here are a couple of links you can read.


English Bulldog News Forums - How to Successfully Treat a UTI (Urinary Tract Infection)

http://www.englishbulldognews.com/f...-cider-vinegar.html?highlight=Singing+praises