Crystals in Urine

[sparks19]

I need some advice.

My moms dog has had some problems with crystals in her urine. this has been going on and off foer quite some time now.

Shelby (my moms dog) has had surgery once for it and it didn't do ANYTHING to help her. so my mom does NOT want to go this route again unless it's absolutely nessecary. Doesn't want to put shelby through a surgery that isn't going to work.

but she has talked to her vet and done a lot of research online and I told her I would ask here as well.

apparently diet can really help? I k now vets aren't always on the up and up with diet requirements and such so that's why I wanted to turn here.

My mom is considering innova and even feeding raw... whatEVER will help shelby with this problem but she doesn't have any experience with feeding raw.

So any advice? anything in particular she should be feeding shelby (pug/shih tzu mix) that might be more beneficial than others? should she go with a raw diet or should she go with innova... I'm not really sure what exactly to tell her with this particular problem.

for a while apple cider vinegar was really helping but now it's back again and getting worse.

[Moesha]

I am sorry, but I don't know much about crystals in urine and even less about crystals for dogs. My cat did have an issue a month or so ago. My vet did change Morgan's food for 4 weeks or so to change his PH and help dissolve the crystals. I've since switched his food to EVO by Innova. Morgan has an issue with diabetes, and goes to the vet in a week or two to see if the new food does ok his sugar and I'm going to see if they can do a crystal check too. I don't know if any of this helps with dogs or not, but here is a thread that is in Cat Health regarding this topic. Perhaps something can help you from here, or perhaps not, but it's all I've got. :)

http://petoftheday.com/talk/showthread.php?t=151655

[Catlady711]

There are two main types of crystals (struvite and oxilate). The struvite are manageable with diet the oxilates are not generally responsive to diet and surgery removes the stones that form.

Keeping an eye on the urine Ph balance is one way to help monitor the potential for crystals/stones. A very low Ph balance can lead to the oxilates and a high Ph can lead to struvites.

I'm certainly no expert on this, just what I know from seeing it at work, but I don't know much for detail beyond that.

Depending on what your mom's dog had for crystals would depend on which, if any, diet would help. Even with surgery if the dog has a tendancy towards developing stones then they may have to operate again. If a dog has a stone it's very painful, and crystals in the urine are like peeing shards of glass all the time. It's not something to mess around with waiting on.

If it's a diet issue there are some good diets for crystals/stones. At work we have prescribed Royal Canin S/O, and Hills C/D. Seems to me the Royal Canin is supposed to help with both types of crystals, I think the Hills is just for Struvites.

Has the dog had a recent urinalysis done? Do you know which type of stones/crystals were diagnosed previously?

[garebear544]

I would try the raw diet myself, at least as a supplement to other food. It's much more easily processed by dogs.

The prepared raw foods from pet stores are super-easy to feed. You keep it frozen, then take out what you'll need for the next day and let it defrost in the refrigerator overnight. I use a tupperware bowl with a lid for this. Then just serve it up the next day. It mixes in real well with canned food if you're skittish about feeding straight raw.

I know some folks that make their own raw food with raw chicken meat, hearts, and livers, and just run it thru a food processor. They get stuff real cheap from a butcher.

[Dal_Lover]

You should really change your dog's diet to a prescription diet. My son's dal is on Hill's Science Diet Prescription U/D. I had a Dal that also had cystals and he was placed on Hill's Science Diet Prescription K/D. Changing the diet can help. There is also a drug named Allopurinol the vet can prescribe that helps crystal/stone formers.