Unresponsive UTI

[Toby's Mom]

My 8 year old boy Toby was diagnosed in mid June with a reading of 516. Twice his reading has gone down to mid 300s but is usually in the 400s. So, it has never been regulated. Three weeks ago, my vet did a urine test and found that he had a severe UTI. After three weeks of Clavamox, we tested urine again and found that it has gotten worse instead of better. She changed the antibiotic to Baytril and Amoxil, and said we would check again in two weeks. She said that if this antibiotic didn't work that we need to see a specialist. We tried Novolin insulin for about 6 weeks and then switched to ProZinc. He is now on 6 units of ProZinc a day. Does anyone have any experience with UTIs?

 

[Lisa and Smoky]

You could also try posting in the prozinc forum, just to get more eyes on your post.
Did your vet check Toby for possible kidney issues?

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

The problem is probably the UTI.....it's important to have a Culture & Sensitivity done when you first suspect an infection so they can find out exactly which antibiotic will truly kill that particular bacteria

Just throwing antibiotics at it without knowing the strain of bacteria you're fighting and which one will kill it just develops "super-bugs" that won't be killed by anything.

The problem now is that you've already started AB's....to get a true C&S, you'd have to take him off ALL antibiotics for at least 7-10 days and then run the C&S

 

[Toby's Mom]

Thank you for your response. Will a regular vet perform a Culture & Sensitivity test or will this need to be done by an internist? I think I need to just go ahead and try and see a specialist, but I paid $80 for the meds today, so I hate not to at least give them a try.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

Your regular vet can do it.....it requires a thin needle to be put into the bladder (most cats tolerate this really well...it sounds worse than it is) so they get a sterile sample and then they send it off to "grow" ...usually for at least 3 days

The lab will grow the bacteria and then once they have a growing colony, they'll use different antibiotics on the bacteria to see which one kills it completely