Urinary problems and dog food

[Ann Morscher]

I am so confused and upset. Misty is 15 weeks old and we have been battling a UTI for over 2 weeks. At first she showed classic symptoms ( lots of peeing and frequently, some crying and accidents in the house), on antibiotics she seemed so much better. I had her in for a urine recheck and she still had lots of crystals, blood and white cells. So back on antibiotics. So after 5 days on the new antiobiotics and doing well, she starts to have accidents again and this morning she was not her usual perky self. Back to the vet and her urine is now crystalized. The vet believes they are the beginning stages of stones. I am beside myself. She recevied a penicillin injection and a course of a special Hills science diet uriniary food for 10 days. I had been feeding her Innova Puppy twice a day and Honest kitchen Embark once a day. When we got her from the breeder she was on a BARF diet.

I am so upset that this is happening. The vet wants to change her food once the crystallized urine is better. I have researched and researched high quality dog food and really do not want her on food that contains by products. The vet believes she cannot metabolize the high protein in her food. I would really like to find a high quality food. He is a holistic vet, yet very conventional when it comes to dog food. I really don't know what to do. I would prefer she stay on a better quality dog food, but do not want it to compromise her urinary health.

Any ideas or suggestions for a good dog food for puppies with urinary problems? I have looked at California Natural, LIfe's Abundance, Flint River, Nutro Natural, Solid Gold and Wysong.

Ann

[Grace Erick]

Ann, it's good you are only feeding your dog Science Diet as a temporary measure, because it's not good food at all. The puppy food has loads of rice and corn, and the adult food has corn as a second ingredient meaning it makes up a lot of what is in the food, plus it has by products and both puppy and adult have wheat which is not so digestable.

I did read an article on the net about some foods causing crystals and UTI, but I don't recall them saying what brands. I know Innova adult is good food so I'm guessing their puppy food is good too.

Maybe you can try doing internet seaches using words like: dog food urinary tract infections. If you use a google search, it helps to put a + sign right up against the word to help the search pick out only those words in what they find, ex. dog +food +urinary +tract +infections. Also try switching the words around to get different info and try adding the word "article" in there somewhere :) My librarian says it helps to use " marks around phrases too.

[Grace Erick]

Some foods have cranberry powder in them, but it is so far down on the ingredient list, I'm not sure it helps the dog at all, but looks good to the consumer. I wonder if you can buy cranberry powder? I'm thinking powder may not have the added sugar that the cranberry drink has. I think a holistic person would have to tell you how much to use in your dogs food.

I don't think it will cure the condition when your dog has it, but can be used to keep it from coming back.

[Ann Morscher]

I am looking into a supplement from Solid Gold that containes both cranberries and blueberries. I believe it is a powder, but not sure off the top of my head.

Misty goes back to the vet on Thursday and I am hoping and hoping the infection is cleared. We will go off the special dog food and I hope then to be able to use some sort of supplement to help prevent infections from coming back. She cannot be on any supplements as long as she is on the special prescription diet.

Ann