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Old May 3rd, 2008, 02:04 PM
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pamha pamha is offline
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Good dog food to prevent urine crystals?

My mom`s dog was recently at the vet for teeth cleaning. They did some routine blood & urine analysis before putting her under & found crystals in her urine. An Xray didn`t find any stones, and she hasn`t had any symptoms, but they want her on a prescription diet to prevent anything further, I think its the C D diet. She had been on Nutro, and doing quite well with it, but apparently some of the ingrediants aren`t the best for dealing with urine crystals. I asked her to find out which ingrediants are problematic so we can look for a better food for her. Many of the foods I`ve read about here aren`t available in my neck of the woods (Wellness, Origin, Wolf King...I`ve looked). I`m hoping anyone with experience with urine crystal problems can tell me if she really does need to be on prescription food, and if she probably should just stay on it, or can be put back on something better after awhile. Molly is 4yo, spayed, beagle mix.
Thanks!
Pam
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Old May 3rd, 2008, 02:51 PM
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want4rain want4rain is offline
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wet food, raw or homemade. getting moisture into your dog is the most important thing. i would strongly suggest raw but if thats not acceptable go with homemade although raw is a little more fool proof than homemade.

what kind of crystals is it?

oh and for the love of dog dont feed your poor pooch prescription food. its first rate garbage.

-ash
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Old May 5th, 2008, 01:42 PM
SnowDancer SnowDancer is offline
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I would feed the C/D for X number of months - your vet would tell you how long. At the end of said period of time, I would have the pup X-Rayed to see if crystals are still present (or have turned into stones). If crystals and gone - and very important - if no new crystals have developed, perhaps then might be the time to search for a new brand of food. I have been through this with a mini Dachshund - a gourmet at that. He did in fact have 4 stones which we "adopted" with him - and which were removed during his back surgery. But he had to eat the C/D for 6 months and it wasn't pretty. Dachshunds love everything, but this white lard was awful. But this was several years ago - maybe it has improved a bit. At the end of the 6 months, there were no crystals and my darling was able to eat his preferred diet. I know a lot of people don't like Hill's (in Canada, you can only buy the Hill's C/D from a vet - Science Diet is sold at PetSmart etc., but not the Hill's prescription diets) - but heck, it worked and I have very good vets. We now have an American Eskimo - and surprise, this breed is prone to stones - so far so good and he is clear at age 4 of crystals - he had his teeth cleaned as well so they checked. I am very careful with the purines and oxalic acids in his food - I suffer from kidney stones and I can tell you that if I knew of a food that would fix them I would eat only it. I wish your pup luck and hopefully the crystals won't develop into stones.
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Old May 8th, 2008, 07:55 AM
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gypsy_girl gypsy_girl is offline
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To clarify, are these struvite ( I assume) or calcium oxylate?
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Old May 14th, 2008, 06:47 PM
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Goldens4Ever Goldens4Ever is offline
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One of my clients' dogs had crystals in the urine & her vet wanted to place the dog on the c/d prescription diet. Instead, she followed my advice & placed her dog on Nature's Variety Instinct Duck: CANNED. Within days, the crystals were completely gone.

The key is to add moisture & to reduce the amount of certain minerals within the diet. Raw or canned diets are ideal for dogs with various urinary related issues.
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Old May 30th, 2008, 11:57 AM
geisha geisha is offline
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My 4 year old female samoyed had struvite crystals in her urine. She also had a UTI and my guess it was all due to stress (from a boarding kennel) and a poor Nutro diet. This was 2 1/2 years ago. I've replaced her poor nutrition with currently a rotation of Go! Chicken Fruit & Veggie (it has cranberries in it) and Wellness Core (it also has fruits in it) and canned California Natural. Every so often I also give her Solid Gold Berry Blend. So far so good. What symptoms did your pup have? Geisha had urinary frequency, and blood in her urine. Interesting, the vet told me that if the clinic doesNOT get to the sample for several hours crystals do start to form in the sample. HMMM
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