Prescription dog food

[Mary Beahm]

Hi.

My 3 yrs old doodle, Trudie, has had an issue with bladder stones.  The lab results came back stating she could control this with dog food.  The vet placed an order for Hills prescription food.  I  have never been a fan of Hills.  Has anyone else had this issue?  Is there another brand out there?

Thanks, 

Mary & Trudie

[F, Calla & Luca]

One of Our member's dogs has had recurring issues with this and reluctantly, I think, she put her on rx food. You can search the site for several discussions on this. Here is Adrianne's page.
http://www.doodlekisses.com/profile/AdrianneMatzkin

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Mary, we have quite a bit of information about this in the Food group, and info about bladder stones in the Health group as well. 

Do you know what type of stones Trudie has? There are three kinds, and not all of them are affected by food. 

The Rx foods are truly garbage, but unfortunately, when there are certain types of health issues, your only alternative is to consult a canine nutritionist and consider a homemade diet. The Rx kidney diets contain certain proportions of minerals, which is their only benefit; the ingredients themselves are pure garbage, and you pay a fortune for it. The necessary vitamin & mineral content could be duplicated in a homemade diet, which would also be much healthier, but it needs to be formulated by a nutrition specialist.

There is also a very good line of Rx foods available from Rayne nutrition, but the cost may be prohibitive.

 http://www.raynenutrition.com/

But if this were my dog, the first thing I would try to determine is what the exact condition is and whether diet makes any difference for that condition. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Here's a past discussion that might be helpful: http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/thefoodgroup/forum/topics/bladder...