Interrelations of organism prevalence, specimen collection method, and host age, sex, and breed among 8,354 canine urinary tract infections (1969-1995)

Selected information was compiled from canine urinalyses and urine cultures conducted between January 1969 and December 1995. Eight thousand three hun dred fifty-four microbial isolates (bacteria and fungi) included 4,873 isol ates from females and 3,481 from males. Ten bacterial genera accounted for 96.3% of the urinary isolates, including Escherichia coli (44.1%), Staphylo coccus spp. (11.6%), Proteus spp. (9.3%), Klebsiella spp. (9.1%), Enterococ cus spp. (8.0%), and Streptococcus spp. (5.4%) as the 6 most common isolate s in both genders of dogs. Among these 6 genera, female dogs were generally predisposed over males, although males had more urinary tract infections ( UTIs) caused by Klebsiella spp. Distributions of ages at UTI diagnosis tend ed to be similar between genders. Infection with a single microbial species was responsible for > 72% of UTIs in both genders. Among females, 40 breed s and a mixed-breed group represented 90.2% of all positive urine cultures, 58.4% of the individual dogs with UTIs, and 88.2% of the microbial isolati ons. Among males, these same 41 breed groups represented 87.9% of ail posit ive urine cultures, 87.6% of the individual dogs, and 88.2% of the microbia l isolations.