People talk of stones and remedies in their dogs but do not say what type of stone it is. It makes a huge difference. You must know what you are dealing with. I have researched and know a little about it but have not found anything that is effective as yet.
I would greatly appreciate any info good or bad.
Thanks a lot.
Dietary Changes
I agree with you - the non-grain meat diet with all the protein is the way to go - JMHO.
Low protien diets in conjunction with antibiots help stones to dissolve but a low protien diet has not shown to prevent their formation.
Source: http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/issues/13_4/features/Detecting-Urinary-Stones-Dogs_16215-1.html
What can help is distilled water and wet food - or soaked kibble, and incentives to increase water intake such as bowls of flavored broths next to the water bowl.
Your girl's PH is in the good zone, but having ph test strips on hand can help alert you to problems as the ph changes when there is an infection which then allows the stones to grow larger.
The stones may well recur - some dogs are simply prone to this condition. Staying on top of things by checking the PH will help you keep your girl comfortable and as symptom free as possible.
Dietary Changes
I agree with your vet; your dog needs a special diet for life. Now, there is no saying it must be Prescription Hills or Royal Canin - but it does need to be designed to help dissolve and prevent crystals; consider daily supplementation with D manose powder to help prevent UTIs.
The Prescription Hills and other prescription diets that are so expensive actually do a good job at what they are formulated to do: while the OTC Hills diets are essentially crap, the prescription lines do a good job of keeping a pet with certain disorders alive. NO diet is fool proof - I have a friend with a pug with stones who has been feeding prescription Hills since day one who is now on the canned diet to dissolve stones: the reality is, if your pet is genetically predisposed to a disease condition there is no magic diet. All you can do is monitor your pet carefully, try to prevent the formation of stones or crystals and monitor your pet carefully to provide vet care or surgery if it comes to that point.
You mention crystals - did you get a diagnosis of struvite crystals for your dog? Adding ACV to your dog's diet may help to dissolve and prevent the formation of these crystals.
General Feedback
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
Ester C
i have tramadol for him but he smells that too.
Ester C
Gabapentin is used for pain relief from chronic pain.
Ester C
Gabapentin is used for pain relief from chronic pain.
Coconut Oil
★★★★★
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.
Dietary Changes
Multiple Remedies
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
