Alright Struvite Crystals...

[Chelsea and Bailey]

Thanks for all the advice to join the food group and problem solve with you guys.  My problem is struvite crystal, Bailey is 11 1/2 weeks and has had them since we got her. She was on Purina, changed to TOTW fish and then vet recommended Hills, which just started changing to last night.. well after finding out that was the wrong choice I would LOVE to know what is good. Ive tried searching the site and resorted to Google which has told me conflicting things already.  Some say wet food, some say raw food, some say very low protein (like Hills) and some said no grains. UGH!

 

I read a forum on orijen for urinary health, a couple people said that was helpful, but still I am not convinced. If TOTW didnt help, then I'm not sure what will?

[Linda and Murphy]

Thanks, F.  Good article.

[Chelsea and Bailey]

Thanks all for the help! The article was a really good help with breaking it down, although now I am a little confused as to the difference between stones and crystals for treatments sake.  Bailey has the crystals, not the stones, her WBC count is normal and there were no bacteria found in her urine, just lots of struvite crystals. The only thing that is suggestive of an infection is that she double squats.  She does one big pee then about a minute later squats again, vet said this is not normal and usually is a sign of retention and the feeling of having to go all the time, aka. UTI. So... That is where I stand, basically im going to throw out the Hill diet (big waste of 40 bucks) and stick with TOTW salmon and I bought The Good Kitchen dehydrated food to use as a gravy to give moisture to the food.  Hopefully something works there...

 

The thing I dont understand the most is that lots of the research and just random blogs I have been reading have testimonials of people who use Hills and their urinary problems are now solved, but I guess it could be the company posting stuff to make it seem like its good....

 

This really is exhausting reading and researching when there are so many different views and no definitive answers! The vet couldnt even give an answer on how to go about treating Bailey... maybe time to find another vet..? Hmph

[Leslie J]

Chelsea, I think that almost any vet would hold the same position regarding food as your vet.  I use my vet's knowledge for most health issues, but I realize that he is probably useless when it comes to dog food choices.  I look to The Food Group and people like Karen (and Jack) for food research.  I often feel that I have a doggie nutritionist on retainer when I read their posts.

 

I think you could check with 5 different local vets and all of them would recommend something like the Hill or Science diet for any digestive or urinary tract problem.  When Cocoa was recovering from toxicity the animal hospital recommended... guess what... Science Diet bland formula- and Cocoa wouldn't even dignify it with a sniff. 

[Bonnie and Kona]

Our Cavalier had struvite crystals and was not inclined to drink very often. I added water to his dry kibble and it worked.