Strong urine odor.

Dr. Marie replied:

This is an unusual problem!

First of all, are you absolutely sure that the smell is coming from her urine? It's possible that what you are smelling is coming from her anal glands. Dogs have a gland on either side of the anus that can fill up with debris. Sometimes if they get really full, some of the debris leaks out and causes a fishy smell. If the smell is really bad it could mean that there is an infection in the glands. An infection is either treated with oral antibiotics or sometimes we will infuse antibiotics into the gland.

You mentioned that her urine test was normal. Do you know if the vet cultured her urine? This would be a test where they send the urine to the lab to determine if there is any bacteria. Sometimes, it can look like there is no infection on our in clinic test, but the culture can tell us the true story.

The smell is not likely to be because of her food.

If this was my case, I would likely be trying her on some antibiotics. Some may consider it irresponsible to use antibiotics when there is no obvious infection. However, when there is a smell like this the chances of there being an infection somewhere are high.

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