Crystals in urine

[martina mckeag]

Hi

I have a 3 year old bitch called Shannon, a few weeks ago i noticied that she had urinated on

the mat,which is totally out of character,i cleaned her up but she did again standing at the

back door. I took her to the vet she was given enrofloracin tablets they did not work.

Back to the vet got a urine sample it came back that she has crystals in her urine so the vet has

put her on Royal Canin urinary s/o .

Does any one else have this problem all fews and comments welcome.

[Howard Glansfield]

The food may help but antibiotics may also help as the underlying cause can be an infection.There is usually blood in the urine when a dog has crystals.George,our dog with liver failure, developed crystals and he would suddenly 'explode' urine.He had no control when that happened.This link might help you.I hope Shannon gets better soon.

http://vettechs.blogspot.com/2005/05/so-your-dog-has-struvites.html

 

[Michelle Walsh]

Hi Martina ! I'm very sorry to hear your lovely lady hasn't been well. Unfortunately I don't have any advice or info on this condition...not familiar with it at all but I hope it is something that will clear up very soon and Shannon will be back to full health.

~hugs to you both

[Val Martin]

One of my bitches years ago had the same problem.  The Vet told me it was diet related so I gave her a lot more fresh meat and vegetables in her diet and she never had any more problems.

[Cheryl Gorey]

Hi Martina

My male Irish, Monty had this problem years ago.  The vet thought it was from the bore water we had as our water supply.  He also sent on a special dry food diet and I changed his water (bought bottled water in for him).  The crystals cleared up after some weeks and I eventually went back to his previous diet and the crystals didn't return.  He was checked every 6 months or so for a couple of years, so it was a bit mystifying why? 

[Fran Griffin]

Have been there with one of my dogs, AND the vet tried to sell us one of those rubbish prescription diets. The only reason they appear to work is that they contain a vast amount of salt, which makes the dog drink more, which usually solves  the problem.  However, because of the type of salt it contains (which is highly processed) you are at risk of moving the problem elsewhere.

 

There are a number of causes of struvite crystals.  The main one is lack of proper hydration, which again is common with dehydrated foods!  Yes!  Dry foods cause dehydration (as well as a host of other problems).  Also feeding an inadequate raw food can create just as many problems.

 

The way I got my girls crystals under control, was to move her to a quality raw food.  I added himalayen rock salt, which contains all the minerals essential for life, and is unprocessed, hence it isn't merely processed sodium.  I also addede d-l methionine to her diet, and that was it - end of problem, and has never resurfaced.

 

However, her leaking continued completely unrelated to the crystals. This has subsequently been shown to have been caused by peripheral neuropathy setting in.  I was given the bad news that this is highly progressive and she will probably be completely off her hind legs within a year.  4 months down the road from the diagnosis, she is up - running around again, and even enjoying jumping full height in agility.  In fact  I am even considering entering her into a competition. What have I done?  I have added 1000mgs of high quality omega 3's to her diet in the form of krill oil.  I get these from

www.evolutionorganics.co.uk/dr-mercola-uk/category

 

Considering the almost miraculous progress she has been making on krill oil and the new raw food she is having, I am even more convinced that the manufactured foods are damming  our pets.  Even when they do add omega 3's into their products, they are usually laced with omega 6's and 9's with a small amount of 3 - which means more money down the drain, and more money for the vets when you present your dog for examination because of lack of performance.  At the end of the day, it's our pets who are suffering.

 

In conclusion.  A good species appropriate diet, along with good quality himalayen rock salt, and essentially GOOD QUALITY omega 3 (krill oil, because it is not contaminated with led), and if you don't get the krill in the caplique form which contains a good anti-oxidant - then antioxidants  are essential with omega 3's because they turn rancid very quickly,  which renders them ineffective,

 

Hope this  helps  your doggie.

 

 

 

[Michelle Webster]

I had this problem with Geordie when he was about 12 months old. The prescription diet made no difference to him at all and after several courses of antibiotics which eventually got rid of the crystals, the vet advised me to give him a cranberry tablet daily. I have done this ever since and he has not had crystals or any urinary infections since.

[martina mckeag]

Thank you to all for the information i was feeding shannon james wellbeloved white fish and rice i know she will never eat the food that the vet has given.She was on antibiotics for two weeks so far she has had no leaks for two days .

will try some of the things that you have suggested.  

[Jennifer S]

Hi! I know this is an old post but I figured I'd post my two cents anyway. My female puppy was mostly housetrained at two months old then started having "accidents" in the house that were very unusual for her. My first thought was UTI but turned out she had a super high crystal count. The vet wanted to put her on antibiotics and a prescription diet. I did some research and wanted to try something less drastic first. So I added a cranberry supplement to each meal of the food we had her on originally. Two weeks later we went back for a re-check and her crystal count was way down. I continued to add this to each meal for about 5 months and stopped when I ran out. She's been fine ever since and no recurrence in the last four months.