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When I was in practice I saw cystitis in the dog from time to time …

X-ray showing a bladder stone.

Veterinary advice from Scott Nimmo – Vetblog UK

When I was in practice I saw cystitis in the dog from time to time, usually female dogs in my experience, the word cystitis means sore bladder by the way. I have a suspicion that cystitis is commoner in female animals of all species than in the male. While I know nothing of human medicine my perusing of the articles and adverts of The Readers Digest while I am in the doctor’s or dentist’s waiting room has made me think that the same holds true for the human species. Why should this be? Well most acute cystitis episodes are ascending infections meaning that the offending bacteria rise from the intestinal tract and pass into the reproductive tract and then into the bladder. The anatomy of the female animal in particular the shorter tube from the bladder to the outside facilitates this transfer more than that of the male.

Cause: The main cause of true cystitis is as I have said above an ascending infection, more rarely it can be caused by a generalised infection elsewhere in the body. Cystitis can also occur secondary to stones in the bladder and also secondary to cancer of the bladder but I will cover those two as separate topics. There are also other things which can predispose to cystitis such as diabetes, glucocorticoid therapy, and chemotherapy to name a few.

Clinical Signs: There are three signs you might look for in a true cystitis, the first is increased frequency of urination, the second is dysuria meaning discomfort during urination, and the third is the presence of blood in the urine, sometimes this can be a little and sometimes a lot.

Treatment: Most cases of cystitis respond to a course of antibiotics, not all antibiotics reach high levels in the bladder so your vet will choose the right one. I always favour augmentin [Synulox] as a first line antibiotic for cystitis. If your first line antibiotic fails then you should carry out culture and sensitivity on a urine sample to determine if a bacterial infection is indeed present and what antibiotic will kill it best. Your vet may also use a urinary antiseptic for recurrent cases. If this also fails then further investigation is needed, an X-ray of the bladder [pneumocystogram] or an ultrasound would be logical next moves. As the owner it is good to persuade your dog to drink as much as possible during treatment which will have the effect of flushing the bladder through and cranberry juice is thought to effective in human cystitis so I doubt if you would do any harm by trying to persuade your pet to drink some of that as well.

Prevention: Some dogs get repeat attacks of cystitis and special diets such as some of the Hills Prescription Diet range can be used to reduce the likelihood of any future attacks occurring. Other dogs stay on low daily doses of antibiotics to reduce the frequency of attacks.

Cystitis is on the face of it an easy disease to treat, you just give the dog a course of antibiotics and it gets better, the trap for the unwary vet is that it might not be a simple cystitis but the signs you are seeing are in fact caused by a serious underlying secondary disease.

I hope this article has been of some interest to you but if you want to discuss cystitis in the dog with me then do not hesitate to get in touch.

Scott