bladder stones

[Kim and Jaxson]

Hi everyone....I am posting this for my cousin. She was telling me about her dog, Major's bladder stones, so I told her about this wonderful group of dog lovers, she asked if I would ask you all...........Her 11 year old carin terrier was put on prescription food, urinary so by royal canin, due to small bladder stones detected on X-ray. She is hoping the stones dissolve after two months of strict diet of only this food. Are there natural foods which also can be used to reduce small stones or any concern from a strict diet of this kind of dog food. Any advice would be appreciated, thanks. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Unfortunately, the only thing your cousin can do in this case is consult a veterinary nutritionist for a homemade diet recipe. She can also have Rayne Clinical nutrition formulate a custom food for her, but that's going to be cost prohibitive.

There are no commercial diets sold with the kind of extremely low levels of certain nutrients (protein, purine & magnesium to name two) and the mineral balances that are in the Royal Canin SO, which is a good thing. The food is garbage; corn and brewer's rice are the first two ingredients. But it's not the ingredients themselves that may help, it's the nutrient balance and percentages. The only way to match those is to use a homemade recipe formulated by someone with a degree in clinical nutrition. 

It's also important for your cousin to know that there are different kinds of bladder stones, and some of them are not affected by diet at all. So I guess the first question would be, does she know what kind of stones they are? 

[Kim and Jaxson]

thank you so much for taking the time to answer us and for the info....I will pass it on to her 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

PS: Two months on the RC food shouldn't do any permanent harm. 

[Carla, Lucca and Izzy]

Ironically I have a dog park friend that this same thing just happened to her with her puggle. They put her dog on this Royal Canin diet also stating that it would dissolve the stones and it did!! Now she is transitioning her dog to a good quality food. She had her dog on Beneful (gag) until she listened to a food conversation we were having one day. She was concerned about the Royal Canin as well but as Karen said, a couple months shouldn't do harm

[Kim and Jaxson]

thats great news...glad her puggle is doing better!