[terry h]

I have a 4 pound chi that is having crystals in her urine, no stones. Vet put her on SD u/d, canned. I have read horrible reviews. Suggestions? Advice?

[pugmomsandy]

What was her diet before? And what kind of crystals? You can do a forum search for “crystals” and “struvites” and several topics will pop up.

• This reply was modified 9 years, 3 months ago by pugmomsandy.

[PugMaster]

I’m actually going through this now with one of our 3 Pugs. She (Waffles) is 4 and I noticed that she was having to go pee allot and asking to go out allot. Took her in and she had Bladder Stones, one the size of a marble!

She had surgery to have the stones removed and everything cleaned out. Still waiting on the report back from the LAB as to what kind of stones these were, but the Vet recommended putting her on Royal Canin SO.

At first I had no issues with this at all as it promised to keep things clear etc… After she started on it I noticed that she was getting sick a couple times and was constipated. Mind you this was after the pain medication which I know can cause constipation etc…

I’ve switched her to Merrick’s canned food and have been adding warm water to this as well.

Other than the reasons I’ve listed above, I’ve done allot of research on the Royal Canin SO and apparently they have changed their ingredients from ‘chicken’ to ‘chicken meal’ as well as adding other things such as ‘soy’.

From what I’ve read so far, this isn’t the best and allot of people are very upset with the change and have noticed a difference of some sort with their pets that have been on the SO food for a long period of time to the new food with the changes in it.

I was going to look at the Science Diet UD food, but it sounds like this isn’t the greatest either.

At this point, I’m looking at a couple of the more holistic approaches such as adding some natural things as mentioned in other posts such as, cranberry etc…

[crazy4cats]

Hi Terry H-
Since the vet prescribed the u/d, can I assume your pup does not have Struvite crystals? I would definitely recommend feeding the food to try to rid of the crystals before they do become stones. Unfortunately, I just had a bad experience with one of my cats having the Struvite crystals and wished I would have used the vet food sooner. Can the non Struvite crystals be dissolved? Also, there are other brands of urinary prescription foods that may look more appealing. Have you checked out any of those? I actually feed my cat 3 or four different brands and rotate them. Purina, Royal Canin, Iams and Hills all have them. After feeding these his crystals are gone. I hope to slowly add back in regular food after about 6 months. And have him regularly checked to avoid another blockage. Make sure she gets plenty of water and has plenty of opportunities to pee. Believe it or not, I think Purina makes the best canned food for the Struvite crystals. I’d try to get them under control with the Rx food and then figure out how to control them without. Good luck!

[terry h]

She does have crystals, as well as signs of blood. Not bright red. He x-rayed for stones and found none. Thanks for you replies. The dog food needs to be 10% protein.

[crazy4cats]

Most of the 5 star canned food is at least 10% protein. Good luck!

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