We have a 8 1/2 year old male rottweiler and he keeps having a water infection which causes him to dribble blood. The vets have checked him all over to make sure there's nothing serious - he's been sedated and x-rayed etc and there's nothing serious.

The problem is that he keeps getting it. It lasts a few days and then goes again. We thought it was related to his food (different flavours of meat etc) and there was a couple of flavours that gave him diarrha which we have stopped using. The vets will give anti biotics but nothing else.

Does anyone know of anything else we can do for him? It must be hard for him to keep getting it. A friend of ours had a rottweiler who also had problems in this area and he said that the breed are prone to this.

Any advice would be great. I'm ringing the vets tomorrow to try and push for something else but if anyone knows of anything we can do to help him please let me know.

Is he neutered?
When my old dog started dribbling blood (scared the life out of me) it was caused by an enlarged prostate. He couldn't be neutered because of a severe heart murmur, so he had to have regular injections of a 'chemical castration' called Tardak instead, which helped shrink his prostate.

I would imagine the vet would have checked for that already anyway, but I thought it was worth a mention just in case.

I can't really think of anything to help prevent water infections, but hopefully someone with experience of that will be along soon. Good luck and I really hope you can get him sorted and back to full health soon.

Thanks for that. I know they checked his prostrate when they sedated him but maybe it needs checking again.

What a shame for the poor lad, it can't be pleasant for him. With recurring water infections there is something that can be given that will maintain the right PH in the urinary tract, maybe a thought. The right PH will readjust the urea in his urine and zap away any infection. Plus, has his wee been checked for crystals because stones in the bladder or kidneys can also cause blood in his urine?
Hope he is alright.

The vets asked if we could get a sample of wee but we weren't able too. We have a very shy dog when it comes to wee and he wont go if being watched or if anyone is too close!!

I'm sure they checked his kidneys for anything serious. All they said was that his bladder was full of gunk - cant remember what the term was they used but basically meant build up of blood.

I would get him referred to a specialist. It can't be very comfortable for him, and you don't know if there is any long term damage being done. I'm surprised your vet hasn't referred him anyway.

Have kidney/bladder stones been ruled out. Presumably they'd show up on an xray but I'm not sure of that?

Have they checked for diabetes?