Vol. 12, Issue 5 (2023)

Author(s):
Maryann Binoy Mathew, Sujata Turkar, Neetu Saini, Sushma Chhabra and Mudit Chandra

Abstract:
Bacterial urinary tract infection (UTI) is a common clinical condition in dogs and antimicrobial therapy is the cornerstone of its management. Increasing antimicrobial resistance in canine pathogens is of global concern as it increases morbidity, treatment failures and treatment cost. This study identified and quantified the aetiology of urinary tract infections (UTIs) by microbiological culture along with susceptibility testing and quantitative urinalysis in 35 affected dogs. Urine samples were obtained aseptically by cystocentesis from 35 dogs with UTIs. Aerobic urine culture was done by standards methods and bacterial isolates were identified by MALDI TOF. Quantitative urinalysis was done by calculating colony forming units (CFU) per ml of urine and more than 1000 CFU/ml of urine were considered as significant bacteriuria. The antimicrobial susceptibility testing was done using agar disk diffusion method. The 35 urine samples involved in the study on bacteriological evaluation yielded 32 (91.42%) pure culture isolates, whereas three (8.57%) samples indicated mixed growth. Among pure culture, E. coli was isolated in 42.85% samples, followed by Staphylococcus spp. (25.71%), Streptococcus (14.28%), Proteus-mirabilis (5.71%), and Klebsiella spp. (2.85%). In quantitative urinalysis, E. coli had highest CFU/mL of urine (16×10⁶) followed by Streptococcus spp. (14.9×10⁶ CFU/mL), Staphylococcus spp. (12.1×10⁶ CFU/mL), and least in Proteus and Klebsiella (10⁴ CFU/ml) of urine. Amoxicillin clavulanic acid had the highest sensitivity percentage (74.2%) in dogs with UTIs, followed by ampicillin (62.8%), amoxicillin sulbactam and trimethoprim sulfamethoxazole (60%) each, enrofloxacin and penicillin (51.4%) each, ceftriaxone and gentamycin (45.7%) each, and cefotaxime (40%). E. coli, the most prevalent cause of bacterial UTIs had the highest susceptibility to amoxicillin-clavulanic acid.