Research on the incidence of infectious urocystitis in dogs and cats and their main causative agents

Abstract

Urocystitis is the most common disease of the urinary tract, which has different etiology and can be complicated by bacterial microflora. There are many factors that can contribute to the occurrence of bacterial urocystitis in small animals: chronic inflammatory processes of non-infectious origin, urolithiasis, localization of the bacterial focus in the organs and tissues adjacent to the urethra. Often, during the course of urocystitis, bacteria play the role of a complicating factor or are the main cause of infectious urocystitis in dogs and cats. Therefore, microorganisms that penetrate through the urethra into the bladder can be both gram-positive or gram-negative, highly pathogenic or conditionally pathogenic, which, under favorable conditions created during the course of inflammation, begin to pose a danger to a sick animal. Their identification and determination of resistance to antibiotics is the key to quality treatment and quick recovery during the course of bacterial urocystitis. While the differentiation of infectious from non-infectious urocystitis makes it possible to prevent the irrational use of antibiotics in veterinary practice and to prevent the formation of multiresistant bacterias to different groups of antibiotics. In order to find out the percentage ratio of infectious and non-infectious urocystitis, to determine the species composition of the microflora and its sensitivity to antibiotics of different groups, an aseptic urine sample was taken from animals with urocystitis. Initially, after obtaining the material for examination, urine was subjected to microscopy, followed by cultivation and determination of sensitivity to antibiotics of all obtained cultures of microorganisms. The study was conducted on 82 sick cats and dogs. Of all tested samples, 70.7 % had no growth on nutrient media during the cultivation, while 29.3 % had bacterial growth on meat peptone agar, meat peptone broth, and blood agar. This indicates that almost every third animal under study has bacterial urocystitis, which requires treatment with antibiotics. During cultivation was found the largest number of cultures of Enterococcus spp. and Escherichia coli, which show sensitivity to fluoroquinolone antibiotics (enrofloxacin, ofloxacin, ciprofloxacin) and cephalosporins (cefazalin, cephalexin, and ceftriaxone).