[J S]

My dogs have only thrown up yellow bile when they didn’t have enough food on their stomachs, and they were/are the nervous-ninny types.

The blood in the urine is a red (no pun!) flag that you have a serious infection and need antibiotics. Frequent urination can also be an indicator, but I noticed that the new formulation of Royal Canin dry food has added salt for the very reason to make the dogs pee more, to keep the bladder and kidneys flushing. We have to give our girl extra trips outside and give her more than one chance to squat before coming back inside.

After our last round of antibiotics, she’s on dry RCanin, floating in water/broth, with no-grain wet food and part of a Vit C capsule sprinkled on top, along with a mini scoop of Cranberry Relief. So far no “pee-crawling” for over a month!

[J S]

I was speaking of the article Rene d posted here: http://www.petdietdesigner.com/blog/entry/cosmos-urinary-stones They determined their dog had oxalate crystals, both by diet experimentation and also by x-ray and then surgery.

I respect your point of view, but I disagree with your statement about only a vet can prescribe treatment. God gave us all brains to research, ask questions, involve other experts, share our own stories, etc. I’ve healed a whole lot of things without running to a vet, an MD or a pharmaceutical drug. It’s a more natural way to treat dis-ease. Of course in extreme circumstances there are reasons for the vet and drugs and surgery. I’m not against those, but maybe our medical system wouldn’t be so screwed up and people and pets would be healthier, if we ate better and used more common sense, rather than ran to an “expert” who is often just “practicing” on us anyway. That’s my personal experience and point of view. Your mileage and experience may vary.

[J S]

That’s an educational article, but their dog has oxalate crystals, not struvite and the diet needed would be different due to needing a different pH urine.

PH strips can be found either on-line or at the health food store. Our Saluki/Husky struvite crystal maker is holding steady with occasional signs of what we call “pee-crawling” which means there might be some crystals starting up again (no blood is observed). The keys to her improvement are using mostly canned wet food, a bit of kibble and extra water (float the kibble) at both meals, and one of the meals we still use the Royal Canin for struvite crystals. The other meal is Canidae grain-free, which is what we feed our other dog. We also use cranberry relief powder in one meal, and a pH lowering powder in the other other (the non-Rx meal). With increased water consumption the best thing is to get her on a schedule of peeing outside every four hours or less, and so far, no more crystals or infections that have been requiring a vet. Her noon and bedtime snacks are also broken up and floated in some water to increase her liquids. We try to keep her pH lower with grain-free and more meat in her diet. One snack is Texax hold-ems dehydrated sheep lung. Hope this helps.

[J S]

Thanks Nate. I looked into Zignature when it was first mentioned it and I didn’t like the “natural flavors”. What is so great about that that it’s in everything? Seems completely unnecessary for something supposed to be healthy. I will try the distilled water idea tho, as I’ve been using filtered tap water and our water is a bit hard. I’ll look into the gold berry balance now that I’ve used up the Cranberry Relief. Thanks to everyone for all the ideas!

[J S]

@Nate – would you tell me what food the nutritionist recommended which you saw near immediate results in lowering your pooch’s pH? The current no-grain food I just tried hasn’t been as good as I hoped, so I’m looking for the next thing… Thanks!

[J S]

I would do some research on struvite crystals to make sure your doc is giving you the right info. From my understanding having a high pH (non-acid) in the urine with an infection is the environment in which struvite crystals form. The battle is two-fold. First you want to increase water to flush the uti out of her system which also means frequent and low stress times outside to empty the bladder entirely each time. We take our Saluki/Husky rescue outside every four hours and have her kibble swimming in water so she has to drink that before eating (she’s never been a big water drinker). Sometimes we drip an ice cube in the water bowl to make it more interesting. I’ve also just started adding some colloidal silver to the water bowl as that helps with all infections and is supposed to help deter tooth plaque (I used CS when I had a UTI and didn’t have to take an antibiotic). We also put cranberry urinary plus powder in her kibble, but it did not stop another infection so I don’t know if we’ll continue using it in the future. We also use a powder called Biotic-pH from Wysong. The main ingredient in it is the same as in the Royal Canine food used to keep the pH lower. Our bodies have their own systems of regulating pH, but what we eat does make a difference. Increasing meats would increase an acidic environment. We’ll be switching to a non-grain kibble next to see how that works. Royal Canine is a lot of chicken fat and our girl does plump up on that somewhat. Best of all would be to get off the dry kibble completely but we haven’t been able to break that habit yet. She does get wet food, chicken leftovers, canned premium dog food, etc. along with her kibble and water stew. If we could keep her from digging in the dirt (which I think is what’s giving her the UTIs) then maybe we’d have a chance to end this cycle, but as part Husky that would be asking a lot! Best of luck as you find out what works best for your pooch.

[J S]

Update on our 2 dogs with struvite crystals. The girl with the recurring UTIs and previous-to-being-adopted-stone-surgery is getting more water with her food and getting out to pee more often. Trying to be calmer on our walks so that she can pee as often as she wants/needs to (every five feet if there are good smells around!). She hasn’t exhibited the crawl-peeing of an infection the last two days and has never exhibited pain when peeing. As soon as the crawl-peeing showed up I added 500 mg of vit c to each meal and she’s already getting a scoop of Cranberry Relief in the morning and a scoop of Wysong Biotic Ph with dinner, and eating the Royal Canin S/O with a little wet food. I’m also using Colloidal Silver (10 drops each meal for 2 days, then 6 drops, until 2 days after symptoms ended. Her pH this morning was 6.75. I’ve used Vit C and colloidal silver on myself when I was told I had a UTI. I really dislike using antibiotics unless extremely necessary. Here’s a website on C.S. by a holistic vet: http://ottawavalleydogwhisperer.blogspot.com/2013/08/colloidal-silver-diy-treatment-for-dogs.html . Our boy dog shows no signs of a UTI and his ph on regular diet is 5.75. Next time we run out of food I’m going to switch from All Stages Canidae to their grain-free version to see if that will help with our girl. If anyone has found a difference using distilled water please let me know. I know our country water is a little on the hard side so that would be the next best thing to try. We’d also started giving her a glucosamine/MSM pill which I see includes other minerals which may have contributed to her last crystal-forming. She sure felt like a puppy on that even with signs of an infection, but obviously we’re still learning! I’m thinking her recurrent infections are because of her psyche as well as nearly touching the ground when she pees, and she’s also part husky and loves to dig in the dirt, which flies right back through her hind legs.

[J S]

The easiest way for us was to float the food in a moat of water. She laps it all up to get to the good stuff.

[J S]

Thought I should register and share our story since I’ve gained so much info from all of your stories. We just found out dog #2 ALSO has struvite crystals and high pH, so I’ve been researching foods. Both dogs have been on Canidae All Stages kibble with water and mix-ins (human leftovers or soup, etc.). Both are 1/2 Saluki and from a great rescue organization in NorCal called Stola. I’m beginning to think this breed is high strung, and if not, their early years of abuse or neglect has probably not helped them be mellow, however, we’ve seen improvements lately even in the one we’ve had for two years now, so that tells us to never give up. Anyway, I was angered by someone’s message whose doctor said there was no alternative to Science Diet. That stuff is cr** and it makes me mad that Vet’s are pushers of that. We have our #1 dog (who did have stone surgery just before we adopted her) on part Royal Canin, which probably isn’t much better. We did it all the time for several weeks but she blimped up because of the chicken fat. We used NaturVet Cranberry Relief for awhile but that didn’t prevent a 2nd UTI a year later, so that’s when we started swimming the kibble in water and going out to pee every four hours as well. Now we have to do the same with #2 dog. There’s no sign of infection, but we want to get the pH lower. Even though Canidae is a good brand I’m looking for other options other than cooking for them, if possible. I’m probably going to be baking dog biscuits in case the Kirkland brand is part of the pH issue. I’ve subscribed to this thread so will be following along. Thank you for all your help.

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