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My senior dog is peeing blood, and antibiotics aren't working. What's wrong?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Medium (23 - 60lb) | Male | neutered | 60 lbs

My husky/Shepherd mix is 14 yrs old, with hip dysplasia. Over the weekend he was dewormed. He is urinating blood. A lot of it. It appears to be mostly blood. We've had him on penicillin for two days, without change yet. How long until it should start working if it's a UTI?

3 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Emily, DVM

Veterinarian

Published on June 12th, 2017

Antibiotics typically improve UTI signs within 1-2 days so Bakka could have something else like a stone in his urinary tract or even an issue like a prostate gland infection or rarely cancer. As the antibiotics are not working and a stone could cause him to be unable to urinate and have kidney damage, Bakka should be seen by a veterinarian.

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    Answered By Jacqueline Nobles, DVM, DACVECC

    Veterinarian, Board-Certified Emergency/Critical Care Specialist

    Published on

    Typically, we begin to see improvement in symptoms within 24-48 hours if we are treating the urinary tract infection with the appropriate antibiotic. In cases that fail to respond to treatment, I strongly recommend re-evaluating the problem and ruling out other possibilities such as a low platelet count, bladder stones, resistant bacterial infection or a bladder mass. I would advise you to have Bakka examined by your veterinarian and discuss bloodwork, urinalysis with culture and abdominal ultrasound. If I had to prioritize diagnostics, I would recommend starting with a complete blood count and ultrasound. I hope he feels better soon!

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    Answered By Rebecca, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    If it is a UTI symptoms start to resolve within 1-2 days. If he is urinating a lot of blood I would recommend a veterinary exam. There's a good chance this is something more than just a urinary track infection bladder stones kidney disease or systemic bleeding disorders can cause urine in the blood and penicillin won't have any affect against those.

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