Crystals in urine

flipgirl

Lexilu, I wonder why your vet wanted you to stay away from Innova...because then you wouldn't buy their prescription food or he or she has veritable knowledge of Innnova's ingredients and why they wouldn't be helpful? Only about one of the vets at the animal hospital where I work is vaguely aware of other premium foods.

Snuggles, RC Urinary SO does the job in terms of helping dissolve crystals but I was shocked that it had no meat in it. Ok, it has pork by-products but what is that? The rest is corn, corn gluten, brewers' rice etc. But many people buy it. And what kills me is, Royal Canin has raised the price of this food multiple times in the past few months. In three months, the price of a 4 kg bag went from $70 to $80! I guess corn and its gluten have gone up in price or you're paying for the two brand names, since Royal Canin and Medi-cal have merged.

MegaMuttMom

My vet told me to put Cherokee on this when he had struvite crystals in his urine, and he told me he would have to be on it FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE! Well, Cherokee itches when he eats corn so, I got a second opinion form another vet who said, not to worry, the crystals aren't hurting him. I was told to increase water, which I do by adding it to his kibble. The crystals went away on their own.

I think I already said all this earlier but, I often repeat myself LOL.

lexilu

FlipGirl - I don't really know - I had assumed it was because Lexi's been eating Innova for over a year, and it hasn't helped the crystals, so if it's not helping, switch foods. Don't think she's aware of premium foods, as she feeds Hills to her own dog.

So I've switched from Innova - now feeding Eagle Pack chicken (wet) and Orijen kibble. She's still not drinking but that wet food sure is wet, so with the antibiotics and this approach, I hope it works. Also, I'm under the impression that the crystals are common and may not be a cause for concern, but it does concern me cause I dont want them to turn to stones and require surgery.

LibertiSmith

My 9 year old cat had crystals in the urine, blockage. YES, the food really works and helps. Yes, it is a bit more expensive but it is worth it in the end. O'Ryan, my cat, wasnt put on any medication. What they did was go in, clean out his kidneys, flushed the crystals, and now he is on S&D diet food for blockage. The surgery was a bit expensive, $500.00, but I would so rather spend $30 on his cat food, then have to take him in constantly. And, if it is bad enough, or they cant catch it in time...it is very sad. I know O'Ryan is not a dog but I hope this helps!

StellaLucyDesi

Just remember that Orijen is pretty high in protein, so drinking water or using can food and water mixed in is important. Stella was eating Orijen Sr. dry only and not drinking enough (it didn't occur to me until she came down with a UTI ). Now she is getting Eagle Pack Holistic Select dry (sometimes I mix Orijen Sr. in with it), EPHS can chicken mixed with water. I also use Solid Gold Berry Balance. Maybe this is something you could try. Or some other cranberry supplement. IMO water is key! It's important to use either filtered or distilled water. After her round of antibiotics for the UTI, Stella's urine was retested and she had a neutral PH. She still had a few crystals, tho'. My vet said that this is okay if she isn't exhibiting symptoms (like straining, blood, dribbling etc.) I did buy a bag of the SO food, but decided not to feed it. Stella is doing fine now. I will continue to use the Berry Balance and I also have PH test strips that I ordered from Solid Gold. I test her urine often. She is maintaining a 6-7 PH with 7 being neutral. I've not noticed any symptoms either. I hope this helps!

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kerplunk105

I adopted my German Shorthaired Pointer puppy in January. She was around 11 weeks old when I got her. The place she came from was not very clean. Ever since I have had her, she's had urinary issues. At first, I just assumed it was b/c she was young. She is 6 months old now and still having issues.

She wants to drink of water, all the time. When I take her for a walk, either on or off lead, she pee's a lot-way more then a healthy dog should. She will go pee outside, I will bring her in and sometimes 15 minutes later she will either pee on the carpet or need to go out again. However, she can hold it from 11pm-7am out of her crate and never have an accident. I limit her water after 8pm.

She is crated during the day when I'm not home. I have family that is home, and they let her out during the day. Even then, she sometimes has accidents, though this has cut down a lot in the past month.

She has been to two vets. She got a culture and sensivity test done at the first one, and it came back that her ph was a little high. She was given a round of clavamox for 14 days. I decided to switch vets, the second vet noticed that her vulva was quite recessed and thinks this may be part of the issue. She is not spayed yet.

I guess I just want any suggestions or input about what might be going on with her.

Snuggles

Yee gad. Now I am concerned. This dog we have is a very fussy eater. We tried every thing that was decent on the market for her to eat. Finally had to give her that food that the guy from "Family" started. It was soft and I hated it but it was all she would eat. Now for some crazy reason she eats this Royal Canin stuff. She had bladder stones and the biopsy showed vavious kinds of stuff in the stone. When he showed me it, I was shocked that something that big was in her tiny body. Anyway, this is what they put her on. I think it is under $20 for a smaller bag.

joyfulsoul50

Thank you all for your sharing of experiences and knowledge. I wish I'd read this awhile ago My 16 month old Bichon has had up and down urgencies and accidents for awhile--started peeing in her crate also. She doesn't drink much--unless she's been playing--then she has to go out often--or she has accidents. I see how upset she is about accidents--so, finally got urinalysis done a few weeks back--but no clear direction from the vet--yes, struvite crystals were present. Today we pushed for more of a plan and by ultrasound--she found there were a lot of crystals--no stones. So, I came home with a case of s/d--canned and 10 days of antibiotics. It sounds like she will need more antibiotics from what the postings indicate. I obviously will look for other foods, given what I've read here. I did get a tip from someone about cranberry pills not long ago--but they seemed to upset her stomach--even when I split the capsule into 2 (I put half into an empty capsule) and even into 3rds. (She didn't play much, wanted to be held and wouldn't eat for a long time). I've also started to wet her food to increase her water intake and will switch to filtered water (does anyone know if the Brita filter is adequate?) because we do have lots of minerals in the water here. I will make note of all the suggestions and begin to try them. I also had stopped the high protein treats (liver and peanut butter) mid-day when she wasn't drinking with them and then going back in her crate. Would love any feedback on the sensitivity to the cranberry capsules and the Brita filter. Thanks so much!

Hound

Finding crystals in your dog’s urine might just be a sign of canine urolithiasis. Observe other symptoms such as depression, loss of appetite, allusion to pain, vomiting, general weakness and bloody urine. This illness means that your dog is having problems in excreting urine due to irritants in the urinary tract. While there are other terms to describe this sickness, the general verdict should be to consult the vet as soon as possible.

boubou64

previous post:
Our 5 year old Sheltie was licking herself a lot. After close inspection, we decided to bring her to the vet ( with a urine sample). She was diagnosed with UTI, her urine contained a lot of crystal oxalate, white blood cells but no blood cell at all. She was put on antibiotics and Xrays where taken. The vet recommend that the stone be removed surgically as his suspicion is crystal oxalate stone according to the urinalysis. He also put her on Royal Canin urinary S/O diet.
Our concern is: Our sheltie has no other signs or symptoms. She drinks, eat, plays, urinate normally.
Do we really need to put her through major surgery or should we do the diet, and wait and see?

Follow up
we had another set of xrays taken and the vet recommended the removal of the stone ( he tought he saw a stone)There were NO stones in her bladder, what they thought was a stone on the xrays was a mucosal fold, like hyperplasia Vet says that the crystal caused that from all the irritation they were causing. He irrigated her bladder really well, and flushed all the crystals out of there. He said we did the right thing going ahead with surgery (if it had been his dog, that's what he would have done) because he got to flush the bladder getting rid of the crystals, something that might have not been entirely possible with diet alone. Now that she's on the diet, this will prevent any future formation of stones or further crystals hopefully With this surgery, we probably prevented stones.
He said if we didn't do the surgery we would have spent much more money chasing after something that wasn't even there in the first place. Even if we had done the ultrasound, and they wouldn't have seen a stone that wasn't there, his recommendation would still have been exploratory surgery.

bottom line, we could have not done it and she would have been fine except that the crystals irritating her vulva would have taken much much longer to flush or not flush at all.
After all this.... did we do the right thing? we only followed our vets trusted advice. I'm not at all sure about all of this now.

we wondered about the water behing the cause of our dog's crystal oxalate too. We give her softened water. could that contribute to it?
the well water without the softner is too hard. Should we just give her bottled water?

I live in Ontario Canada
which better food would you recommend for crystal oxalate?

lexilu

It's been awhile since we have all posted about this topic - just wanted to know how all was going with your pup's struvite crystals, and to give an update on Lexi. After two rounds of antibiotics, and a couple of food changes, I can finally say that she is crystal-free at our latest urinalysis. Here's what I am doing. Switched to Wellnes Core (low fat), and add about 1/8+ cup water and a couple tablespoons of Eagle Pack Holistic Select canned food (more moisture). Not sure if this is a permanent solution, but since Lexi doesn't drink water - at least I know she's getting some H2O this way

Kathyy

Glad she is doing fine. I found this little calculator online and make sure I put this much water in Sassy daily.http://www.mycockerspaniel.com/h2o.htm It helps a lot. I did have to move to three meals a day as she cannot hold all that water in her stomach in only two meals!

violadivah

Hi Everyone,
I am new to this forum so please excuse any ignorance. I have become worried for my Jack Russell as after urinating throughout the house, multiple times I took him to vet and it appears he has a UTI and crystals in his Urine!

He has a high number Calcium Phosphate & Calcium Oxalate crystals. I was told he must follow a regimented diet of Hill's S/D Prescription Food. I have been researching non-stop and many seem to disprove this type of food and use Wellness Core or similar.

He is on antibiotics now for the infection and I guess I will start to use this food unless I hear a similar experience that has improved.

I am new and any advice would be greatly appreciated...

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