I haven't noticed anyone mention vitamin C. It's normally not good for dogs because they produce their own, but with a UTI, it's a natural anti-inflammatory and it helps create the acidic environment in the bladder to ward off the bacteria. My baby was crying with her first one, and the Vitamin C helped within 20 minutes. Now, I use ACV when she gets one but if she has pain and cries, I give the vit. C.
Also I noticed some people talking about drinking a lot - I don't think that is a sign of UTI. That is usually more serious like diabetes or kidney probs. and need to go to the vet.
Ideally, we'd go to the vet everytime regardless of what it looks like. If we're wrong and it's crystals or stones the dog could die.
Even if we choose to treat with ACV instead of drugs, a vet confirmation is ideal.
We can't all always do that, but please at least look online and make sure to the best of your ability that you are treating the right thing.
Ester C
Would you tell me what brand of Ester C did you purchase? My Duke takes Gabapentin 100 MG twice daily; I will have to search the Internet to try and find outhe if there would be drug interactions. Any idea if maybe the ACT would be okay to give him?
Ester C
Can y'all please tell me why a dog would take gabapentin? my 12 yr old JR Shortbread has a recurring stone and we got the "special food" which he does not like-forget about 'leave the food out til he eats it'! He's already stuck in place for 2+ minutes trying to push this thing out. I'm taking notes on all the comments-thanks! ACV though, he smells it a mile away lol
i have tramadol for him but he smells that too.
Ester C
Hey NanaTracey,
Gabapentin is used for pain relief from chronic pain.
Ester C
Hey NanaTracey,
Gabapentin is used for pain relief from chronic pain.
Cranberry
★★★★★
I know that cranberry juice is belived to be most effective as form of UTI prevention. However; I would like to know if pets taking cranberry juice are more prone to develop crystal and stones such us oxalate stones? My cocker spaniel takes cranberry juice daily 1 cap. a day, she has not been sick since last year. The last time she had UTI the vet said that she has high level of crystals, could she get them form cranberry juice?
My 2-1-2 year old female lab had bladder stone surgery on July 16. She had been on Earthborn Holistic grain free bison food for 2 years with no problems. I would give her a little plain yogurt and a drizzle of molasses too. Now the vet put her on Royal Canin which she promptly threw up in chunks every night at 3am. I read the ingredients, chicken byproducts and corn. Yuck! So my vet told me to put her back on the Earthborn and gradually introduce her to Hills prescription for struvite and oxalate stones. She has had it three days now and threw up last night at 3am but primarily just phlegm. She is starving on this low protein crappy food! The vet hasn't gotten the stone results back yet. Her PH urine is 6.5. The grass is killed everywhere she urinates too. I wish I could just give her a good quality, grain free, holistic food like chicken food and try adding some potassium citrate or ACV in it. I was told the stones could come back.
I gave Sophie a tiny bit of food before she went to bed and she kept it down. I just think that low protein prescription food is not filling her up. She is starving!
Coconut Oil
★★★★★
Willa; I have lightened up some on ACV and changed over to coconut oil organic and virgin or extra virgin if any available, it has helped my very sick cat 100% she was vomiting constantly until she was spitting up blood, I took her to the vets, costing me $150.00 and I could not see any results, so the coconut oil has done wonders for my cat, because she was a dumpster diver(stray) her immune system was damaged to almost no repairing .I cook her chicken and mix coconut oil in with her food every time she eats (3 or more times a day)and she seems to stay stable & she just loves the taste. Another thing every one should remember or know is tha t"All"animals eat grass because it's their form of medicine, if cats are held inside for the duration they crave this fresh grass like I crave sweets etc..
If any one cares to do a web search on the remedies for coconut oil, it has a huge amount of help and remedies.
Grass can be found at most leading stores or in a garden center or in my back yard where it needs mowing LOL.Good Luck.
Multiple Remedies
Hey Louhandy!
This is Ted's advice on dosing sea salt:
Use a quality sea salt - the aquarium stores tend to sell the best.
A crisis dose is 1 teaspoon of sea salt into a litre of pure, non-chlorinated water, for 1-2 days [play it by ear; you *should* see a rather immediate resolution to the symptoms in that time frame, but if not go for 3 days and consider adding cranberry juice to the water if you are not already dosing the cranberry in conjunction with this therapy]
A maintenance dose after the crisis resolves is 1/4 teaspoon sea salt into 1 liter of water
Ted also adds: "As to the apple cider vinegar for UTI, I do not think it to be as effective as a sea salt remedy. However if ACV is used then it is likely to be mixed with a pinch of baking soda."
As for the powdered cranberry dosage, some contributors have used 2 capsules [Cranactin brand] diluted in 1 oz water for a cat, while others have used 1 capsule for a 65 pound dog. This is something you will have to compare brands and potencies and work out for your dog, but it makes sense to me to start out with 2 capsules with food am and pm during a crisis and then scale back to 1 capsule am and pm for maintenance.
As for the yogurt and ACV - many mix the two together and feed with the am and pm meals. 1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons of raw, unpasturized, unfiltered, "with the mother" ACV into wet food or yogurt. If you are looking for probiotics from the yogurt, it may be easier to simply buy the probiotics in powder form and add to the diet, as some dogs don't do well with dairy.
The ACV can be used as a maintenance dose with the food; if you dose a probiotic as well its a good idea to switch brands every couple of weeks to rotate the species of probiotic for proper balance in the gut.
Now, balancing out your dog's PH is critical in addressing crytals in the urine [aka Crystalluria] but crystalluria represents a risk factor for kidney stones so you should continue to work with your vet to monitor if the crystals resolve or continue to be present, and to be on the lookout for potential complications of urinary obstruction or kidney stones.
Read all about it here:
http://www.petmd.com/dog/conditions/urinary/c_multi_crystalluria
