Homemade food for Struvite stones

[gator96]

We just found out yesterday that our 2 1/2 year old BC has small struvite stones in both his kidneys and his bladder. The vet is hoping to dissolve them with diet and antibiotics for the infection. Our concern now is about the food being recommended. When he was about 8 months old, our pup experienced digestive issues which resulted in us moving towards a homemade mixture of meat, rice, vegetables, and a small amount of quality kibble. Since then he has responded well to this diet. The typical canned mixture recommended for dissolving the struvite stones is low protein and full of grains and fillers. We are terrified that we are going to trade one problem for another. Are there any recommendations on a more wholesome diet for these stones?

[Northof49]

There are some really good yahoo groups for this, if you just to to yahoo groups and do a search for kidney problems or bladder stone problems.

[MaggieDog]

Whole Dog Journal had a GREAT series of articles on urinary tract issues - I know they said that the recommendations for diets to dissolve stones are changing.

 

My Corgi mix had struvite crystals last summer - switching her to Honest Kitchen's dehydrated raw foods cleared them right up! She eats Keen primarily.

[MyTDogs]

Meat acidifies the urine, veggies & grains will raise the pH (alkalinize). Kibble is much more likely to produce a concentrated urine if the dog doesn't consume enough water. Struvite stones are formed in concentrated, alkaline urine.

 

If this was my dog I'd feed a diet heavy in meat, with no grains & a little veggie matter. S/he'd get some RMB but also a meat & veggie "soup" to encourage water consumption (to help flush the urinary tract). I'd also have a urine culture run after the antibiotics are finished to be sure the infection is gone. Struvites are most often instigated by bacterial infection.

 

HTH,

[gator96]

Thanks for the advice. I am hearing a lot of good things about raw diet to keep the pH down. Makes sense now that the diet I was giving him before probably didn't have enough acidity with the vegetables and kibble. It is great to have this forum to understand what works. There's so much conflicting information out there it can be very confusing.