UTI/food related?

[Amy R]

Hello. I have a 4 year old neutered Shih Tzu who is extremely healthy. I have been feeding The Honest Kitchen for over a year and am very happy with their products. We are in the process of moving into a new home that is a 1 1/2 hour drive from our current house. Because we’ve been going back and forth so much I bought some Nature’s Variety LID Duck kibble to feed on the days that we are traveling. Grady (Tzu) started having accidents in the house and licking himself a lot – he’s is not normally a licker. He also had a very strong urine smell about him. Took him to the vet and he was diagnosed with a UTI. I can’t help but wonder about the timing. Has anyone else feeling this food had any urinary problems?

Thank you, Amy

[T]

Some vets (including me) do believe stress can contribute to bladder inflammation. Moving PLUS a diet change may have tipped the scale just enough and allowed things to go awry.

I just recently wrote an article on bladder inflammation on my blog. Check it out: http://naturalalternativesvet.com/bladder-inflammation-cats-dogs/

Tabitha
naturalalternativesvet.com

[Amy R]

Thank you Tabitha – I will definitely read your article. After his first round of antibiotics(10 days of 125mg Clavamox twice daily) his urine was still very concentrated and he still smelled like urine one day after his bath. Back to vet for more tests. Blood work all came back perfect, examined his prepuce and all was fine. Urinalysis still showed protein and high PH levels. I am waiting on the results from the urine culture – should have those in 2-3 days. On 14 days of 68mg Baytril (1/2 a tablet daily) for now. Amy.

[Amy R]

AND ultrasound of ultrasound of abdomen was clear.

[Tracy O]

any update Amy? Asking as I was feeding my baby Instinct and Prairie and she also got a UTI very bad. Interesting…..

[Jackie B]

My mini poodle suffers from UTI’s after periods of stress. You can help stave them off by making sure your dog gets plenty of water AND has plenty of bathroom breaks. The extra water flushing through the bladder keeps bacteria levels lower. I feed all moist food (no kibble) to my boy and I also have a pet water fountain (Cat Mate brand). My pup is 19 lbs and the size is fine for him. He has been UTI-free for several years using this fountain and moist food combo; prior to that I fed him kibble and bowl water and he had 3 UTIs in about 8 months. The UTIs occurred 2 out of 3 times during times of stress.

I was not feeding any Nature’s Variety products during the times he got his UTIs. So I do not know if there is a correlation between UTIs and brand or simply UTIs and stress and dry kibble.

[Mom2Cavs]

I’m not a vet and I’m not saying that the Instinct kibble is to blame, however, I just want to note that Instinct kibble is a high ash kibble. I found that my dogs cannot handle certain high ash foods, NV being one of them. I have just rotated them off of Victor, which I also think is a very good food but it is pretty high in ash. They are eating Annamaet again and actually doing better. They can only eat foods like Victor or NV or Earthborn (which is also pretty high in ash) for a short while before I notice problems start happening like increased tearing, having accidents in the house or stronger smelling urine and loose stool. Fromm and Annamaet are two foods I love that use low ash proteins.

[Author]

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