hope someone can help :(  my friends bitch is large breed, had pyometra 3 years ago, which resulted in emergency spay. Became over weight so hydro pool advised, she has had two knee operations in the last year due to strain on the knee.  Now since the knee op she has been suffering with cystitis on and off. She is on her 3 different type of antibiotics, internal bladder swab taken which was normal, and ultrasound normal. But she still strains for wee and has some blood in urine? The vet wants to put her under GA and have a look inside but her owners are worried about the amount of ops she has had already and as scan and swab are normal, wonder if it is required anyway? She is insured and she is 6 years old large breed, if anyone can help with experience or advice please, x

I think if your friends vet has exhausted all other tests other than an internal examination, it seems thats going to be the way she will have to go :(

TBH though, I'd have thought even though she will need a GA, for that procedure she won't be under for long.

It could maybe be something like bladder stones/crystals causing the trouble, but it needs investigating. 

Hope she gets on ok.

the treatment for crystals is usually change of diet, I thought> I may be wrong< that crystals can be diagnosed from removing urine direct from the bladder ....one of my bitches had this done while she was in whelp without sedation as it was just putting a small tube into the euretha . I also thought crystals or stones could be seen from a scan.
I would imagine he wants to knock her out to make sure nothing went wrong during the spay as it is easy to damage the bladder or euretha(sp)

I've only experience of a male dog with cystitis, which responded to AB's and didn't re-occur.

If it were my dog, before ruling out the GA I would need to know the risks of NOT finding out the cause.

For some things, treating the syptoms can be fine, but for others, the cause needs sorting out.

My bitch was thought to have cystitis and was treated for it for about 6 months on & off. It was then decided to have a look to see why she was constantly having cystitis but before going down the route of an operation she was scanned to see if that would show anything up. It did show something and that was a tumour :(
She was then operated on to see if it could be removed but none of it could due to its location so I had 6 further happy months with her.

Her symptoms were classic cystitis symptoms. Can your friends vet not scan first?

>My bitch was thought to have cystitis and was treated for it for about 6 months on & off. It was then decided to have a look to see why she was constantly having cystitis but before going down the route of an operation she was scanned to see if that would show anything up. It did show something and that was a tumour :-(

She was then operated on to see if it could be removed but none of it could due to its location so I had 6 further happy months with her.

Her symptoms were classic cystitis symptoms. Can your friends vet not scan first?>

Hi Weima, thanks for your post, sorry to here about your bitch, as far as I know my friends have had her scanned and nothing showed up on the scan, she has also had an internal bladder swob taken and that has come back normal too, I am hoping to talk to them tonight and see how she is doing and whether any decisions have been made,

update and more advice please :(  my friends bernese is now on 3 different antibiotics, has blood still in her urine, has no crystals in her bladder, x ray has shown nothing :( now the vet wants to refer her to another specialist where it will cost £750 for appointment and scan! Her owners have been told it is possibily a tumar that can not be treated :(. I have advised her owners to get her notes from current vets and take them to my vet for a second opinion as my vet does scans and i trust him on his decisions. My friends are willing to do anything to help their girl, but i feel paying a very large amount of money to have her scanned when my vet could scan her is the way forward? Please any advice or experience would be great.

forgot to add she has a high level of alkaline too, she is on vitamin D tablets to help this.

her owner has spoken to my vet, and booked appointment tomorrow, my vet is stunned at the price my friend was told he would have to pay by his own vet!