Hello, my dog has bin peeing in the house and noticed blood. Took to vet, she has crystals, struvite. Shes on some meds, and is supposed to eat s/d, a medi-cal diet to dissolve the crystals. They only make it in canned and she would need to eat over 2 cans a day, for 4 wks. There is no way i can afford this and not to mention she is on raw, which the vet says caused this. I am guessing the high protien and high calcium in the raw caused this but could be wrong. She eats ground chicken, bone and veg. She is supposed to eat a special kibble the rest of her life to prevent the crystals, theres no way i can do that. I want to keep her on the raw but am not sure how. If anyone has any insights i would appreciate it very much. I was thinking of adding ACV to keep her urine acidic, and cranberry to. Any other suggestions? Sorry if this is all over the place, i just am at a loss at what to do, I thought i was doing her right with the raw, now everything i thought was good for her caused this? Please help! Thank you!

Hi Cat. It's weird, but I just read an article on this the other day. I have read a lot of stuff that says just the opposite of what your vet said about eating raw. I really don't think raw causes the crystals, just the opposite. Vets really like to blame raw for everything!

Read this article!
http://www.ehow.com/way_5188428_raw-prevent-crystals-dogs-urine.html

I'm sure Connie will answer you by tomorrow too!

 Quote: cat richter

Hello, my dog has bin peeing in the house and noticed blood. Took to vet, she has crystals, struvite. Shes on some meds, and is supposed to eat s/d, a medi-cal diet to dissolve the crystals. They only make it in canned and she would need to eat over 2 cans a day, for 4 wks. There is no way i can afford this and not to mention she is on raw, which the vet says caused this. I am guessing the high protien and high calcium in the raw caused this but could be wrong. She eats ground chicken, bone and veg. She is supposed to eat a special kibble the rest of her life to prevent the crystals, theres no way i can do that. I want to keep her on the raw but am not sure how. If anyone has any insights i would appreciate it very much. I was thinking of adding ACV to keep her urine acidic, and cranberry to. Any other suggestions? Sorry if this is all over the place, i just am at a loss at what to do, I thought i was doing her right with the raw, now everything i thought was good for her caused this? Please help! Thank you!

What are the meds, exactly?

What kind of infection was diagnosed? A culture was done?

Struvites are known as an "infection crystal."

Here are some threads to get you started:

http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=255981

and a few search results:
http://leerburg.com/search/dosearch.php?terms=struvites&Submit.x=0&Submit.y=0

From the Manual of Nephrology by Schrier:

"Struvite stones are also known as infection stones" and they occur from "infection by urea-splitting organisms that secrete urease."

So if you can get the invoice out and tell us what the infection diagnosis was (and making double sure that a culture was done), that'll be good.

" she is on raw, which the vet says caused this."


This is not a vet I would continue to go to. JMO.

You will see why when you read the threads I linked you to and what the vet manuals say about struvites.

Thanks for the links. Thats so interesting, i was doing research all day and was shocked to stumble across a site that said crystals were infection caused, not diet, but that seems to be the case after all. I get cheap vet care through my work, so beggers cant be choosers, i do like my vet, he explains things really well, and has never bashed the raw diet, just suggested we switch, misguided i agree, but he is a vet. The same can not be said for his extremely rude staff, talking loudly about how awful raw is in the back room, after we said we fed it to our cat.

She is on clavepstin, and meloxicam, its late, may be spelled wrong. I am wondering what the meloxicam is for. I researched it and it seems yucky, like metacam? Am i right?

It seems to be a pain med, but shes not in pain, so why does she need this? I dont like giving her stuff she doesnt need.

A culture is being done, results not in yet.

I would love to treat this naturally but in my experience, holistic vets are just as big a scam as regular vets. Are there any supplements that are natural to help improve her bladder, ph, whatever. In one of the links vit c and cranberry juice was mentioned.

Maybe i was being dramatic, let it be clear, i would never take my dog off of raw, i was just wondering if there was a different protien or supp etc that would help her. What ingredient in the s/d diet dissolves the crystals? (Supposedly) I asked the vet but he didnt seem to know.

sorry so long.....and confusing....im confused....

meloxicam is another name for metacam - pain killer / anti-inflammatory (I believe).

I believe that clavepstin is an anti-biotic so is caused by an infection.

As far as food is concerned I wouldn't change much unless this keeps happening. Get her to drink a lot of water.

A few years ago, one of my males had a UTI & had formed crystals in his urine & my Holistic vet, Dr.Martin Goldstein, put him on 2 different Vetri-Science (brand name)suppliments: UT STRENGTH & OLI-VET. He also said to be sure that he is drinking alot of water, which he usually did,(fresh water is available at all times to my dogs) but I started putting a little additional water over his food. I have always fed raw, but always put a bit of x-tra water over all their food since then. My dogs were on a raw diet at the time that he got the UTI & not once did the vet have anything negative to say about their diet or even remotely considering that the UTI had anything to do with his diet. He was on the suppliments for a few months & then I stopped them & he never had a recurrence of the UTI.b

I have seen these suppliments in the KV Vet Supply catalogs & have ordered it from there. They most likely have them available at their on line catalog as well. I don't remember the dosages, but there is dosaging directins on the bottle.

Maybe this will help.

ETA....my chiropractic vet (she is a holistict vet also)had given me Meticam when my female had a back injury. She stated that it is the only pain/inti-inflamitory that she fees comfortable using if she need to address pain & inmflamation. None are great, but she feels that it is the safest of the ones available. There are others like Rymadyll & Duramax etc that refuses to use except in end of life situations.

 Quote: Cat Richter

... I would love to treat this naturally ..

I only have a second right now, but I just wanted to make sure you do not stop the antibiotic. You never want to stop an antibiotic protocol after it has been begun, and there is no real way to treat a full-blown bacterial infection of internal organs without antibiotics anyway.

You are getting good advice about pouring some water over the food to maintain good hydration (and flushing).

No i did not take her off the antibiotic. She threw up her vet food, she never throws up but in the span of 2hrs she threw up 4 times.....Thank you for all the great advice everyone!! I knew I could count on you all I was pretty freaked out about it all at first but know with more information feel confident in handling it!