Is this a urine infection?

I have an appointment for Tia at the vets tomorrow afternoon but thought I would ask on here what you think?
She's a japanese chin x chihuahua and is spayed.

This has been going on for a very long time and I hadn't realised until yesterday and now I feel so guilty.

Tia is a year and a half and for as long as I can remember she has peed lots of times when out walking,more like a male than a female. I thought it was just because she was a dominant little madam and liked to mark her territory, as she also cocks her leg at the same time as squatting.

She's always looked a bit dark coloured around her 'girly bits'. I've always had males before so didn't think this was anything unusual. However when she rolled over yesterday the dark colour (browny/red) had spread and was into the hair on her tummy rather than just her bare skin. I cleaned her with baby wipes and it came off and appeared to possibly be blood so I made an appointment at the vets.She doesn't appear to be in any discomfort whatsoever which I would have thought she would be with a bladder/urine infection.

I've also read that it's possible for females to still have a season after they've been spayed if anything is left in which makes me think it could possibly be this.
My other dog Alfie who is neutered and not a dog for sniffing dogs rear ends has suddenly started taking an unusual interest in Tia and frequently sniffs her rear end and their play has changed in that sometimes it looks more sexual, if you know what I mean,it's hard to describe but just something in the way that Alfie moves and puts himself near her although he has never tried to mount her or anything.

I just wondered if anyone has experienced anything like this before. I'm off to work at 2.30 so will read any replies later tonight so please don't think I'm ignoring you.

Hello Lynn , there could be a number of reasons for Tia's problem so I will leave it to the vet rather than speculating about it.

Good luck at the vets , please let us know how you get on..

Ok thankyou Minihaha. I shall definitely let you know how I get on.
It is a bit of a worry though now that I've had more time to think about it. She was spayed, had an umbilical hernia and 2 quite large inguinal hernias all operated on at the same time, poor little mite.

mine (not spayed) is also marking around like mad!
sometimes she is even that crazy, that she cannot decicde which leg to lift for and makes handstand for seconds befor she gets back on any for do do "her job"

once I read, which did fit exactly to mine
that she would do that, because she is verrry insecure, shy, afraid...
so it's not her who can protect, defend me of "all of the bad things out there" (where she is afraid of)
I need to protect her of all of "this"

for to make it good again
she marks everything and if it's just a marten poo out in the green, for to tell everyone "Hey! fingers off my buddy! I'm there! I'll be watching you! "

just too sweet for not to believe in

so for the pee thing I wouldn't be worrying, as if it would be by any infection, why to lift her leg for like males do?

but as said, let the vet check it
I've no idea about that other
but maybe it's like you said, hopefully and nothing bad at

hope your vet can calm you down and give you the green card, that everything is fine with your sweetie
and that she is just a bit strange (special!!!) lady

It sounds like she could have vaginitis, one of our Boxers used to take it. Course of antibiotics will soon clear it. Good luck at the vets

Hard to say. It could be a urinary tract infection or vaginitis like Velvet said.

Not to give you a scare but I had a foster that urinated excessively and it turned out she had kidney disease. Maybe she's just lacking some sort of nutrient or something.

Have you noticed the colour of her urine?

Thanks everyone for your input.

@Malpeki. Hehe Tia is anything but insecure, she wants to say hello to everyone we meet, be it human or dog.
She weighs 3kgs and stands knee high to a grasshopper but she was even so excited to meet 2 beautiful big deerhounds last week and just wanted to give them kisses. She is very adventurous and outgoing so I don't think that's the reason she pees all the time. Now if it was Alfie I could understand as he is so nervous of everything including me moving his food bowl if he is near it.

@ Timber. She doesn't pee lots just lots of times and sometimes if she does it on a footpath there is no sign of even a drip. I've never noticed the colour because there is usually so little of it and it's usually on grass. She just likes to spread it around in lots of different places. The strange thing is she can go for 10 hours overnight and still be in no hurry to go out the next morning which I would have thought difficult if it was an infection.
I'm dreading the vet asking me to collect a urine sample from her as it would be impossible. She gives no indication of going to pee, just suddenly squats, pees and off again and she'll have finished before I even have time to bend down .

@Velvetboxers and Timber. Yes hopefully you're right and it is vaginitus and easily cured by antibiotics but I'll find out soon and will let you know.

Thanks again for your all your help

Good news thank goodness so I have nothing to worry about I can't remember what the name for it was but apparently it's very common in small bitches. The vet explained that because they have very small vulvas, they also tend to have deep folds at the base which can harbour bacteria and cause a yeast infection, I suppose a bit like thrush in humans.
The discolouration is from saliva when she cleans herself so wasn't blood at all although it looked very much like blood to me, but I suppose the fact that it is never on their blankets or me when she sits on my lap I should have realised. I wondered about that at first but because it wiped off I took it that it was blood

Anyway she had an anti inflammatory injection, has 10 days of antibiotics (Clavaseptin)and I have to bathe it with a salt solution twice a day, which I'm off to do once I finish this post.

Thankyou all anyway for your help. I'm just so relieved that it's nothing serious

Great to hear she's o.k

That's great news.

I too have a dawg that can go easily for 10 hrs overnight without needing to pee and in no hurry to get out in the morning either (usually dives back into bed while I am washing and dressing to take her out!)

However once out - well she pees for Europe! First the initial BIG pee and then a quick pee on ANYTHING on the path - I mean ANYTHING - scrap of tissue, old sweet wrappers (I am impressed how her aim is so precise when peeing on tiny things on the ground!)

Anyway about 20 mins into our walk when she has had a poo she ALWAYS has another BIG PEE not long afterwards. Then reverts to the peeing on everything all the way home!

I mean some of these 'pees' are not even a couple of millimetres in size and most of them are not visible to the naked eye! But she squats the same and looks just as serious even if NOTHING is emerging!

It's like 'sniff sniff sniff hmmm I better pee on that' and that could be a crack in paving, anything?

They only do it to annoy you know and to baffle us!