Turbo (Story One) (Story Two) came back today. Turbo had been doing wonderfully, but less than a week after ending his antibiotic therapy he began to complain when he urinated. His owners described his response as if he had a burning sensation. As I reported earlier about Turbo, he had a terrible E. coli bacterial infection during his life-threatening bout.
Microscopic and chemical urinalysis performed today showed that he has two shapes of bacteria: round and rod-shaped. These are broadly classified as cocci and bacilli, respectively. Bacilli, which includes E. coli, typically are the more serious kinds of infections to get, whether in the urinary tract or elsewhere.
We have also submitted urine to a laboratory for culture and sensitivity so that the lab can identify the bacteria and tell us what antibiotics will work best to kill them. Symptomatically we have begun antibiotic therapy to give him a head start while waiting for the culture results.
We will keep you posted.
See you tomorrow, Dr. Randolph.
