My male sable, Max, was about 3 mo's old when he got what was
apparently a urinary tract infection.  He peed on the floor, and it
looked like bacon grease.  He seemed otherwise normal, so I didn't
panic.  When he still had the problem the next day, my wife called the
vet (of course, it was the weekend and we got the on call service which
would have cost $$ if we took him in then).  The next day we took him to
our normal vet; she checked the urine and saw bacteria.  He went on
amoxycillin for ten days.  On day eight, his urine looked like the
excess juice from a thawed steak (very red).  We saw that twice in about
three hours, and were checking on places that could see him that night
when all of the sudden his urine looked normal.  We finished the course
of treatment, and he was fine.
 
    Items of note: if an antibiotic isn't effective w/in 10 days, the dose
is too weak or it is ineffective and needs to be changed.  There could be
another cause such as an internal semi-blockage (something stuck to the
wall of his colon) that might come free with twice daily laxatone for a few
days.  An antibiotic-free culture is a good next step, although three weeks
seems a little long to wait to try that.
 
    My (limited) experience is that a bladder infection is not overly
difficult to cure.  My advice is (in addition to fml), pick up the telephone
and talk to some other vets.  If you come across one with more experience in
the matter, good.  If not, hopefully the ones you talk to might start making
inquiries to expand their knowledge.  (sorry about the length!)
Steve, Dawn & fuzzies Max and Sophia
[Posted in FML issue 1307]