A friend asked me to post regarding his daughter's Lab who was recently diagnosed with crystals in her urine. The vet put the dog on Science Diet CD but my friend's daughter is seeking alternate foods or treatments. If you know of any, would you please let me know?
I'm not exactly sure why the daughter is displeased with Science Diet but from what I've read on forums, it isn't the greatest food.
TIA
Barb
Years ago I had a rescue with persistent crystals in the urine, which looked like it had ground glass in it. He did not do well on Hills products, other than maybe d/d, and I turned to a holistic vet. I was told to make sure the infections had cleared up first, as they were the cause of most struvite crystals, then add Prozyme and if that was accepted, slowly switch him to regular food with something to acidify the urine and prevent infections: first cranberry AND acidic vitamin C, then just the prozyme and the acidic vitamin C. It worked, and stopped the runs he got on the Hills C/D from the corn and I don't know what else was in it. Nowadays, I do that regimen and haven't needed C/D for struvite prone dogs that come in, AND I switch to a grain free food, not a fish meal based one but a meat based one, paying attention to any allergies the dog might have. She may wish to speak to her vet as to whether or not this might work for her dog. Meanwhile, the prescription diet sure beats getting blocked!
One of my adult males had persistent crystals and eventually got blocked and required surgery. Scary time.
Instead of Hills CD we switched to a grain free diet and he has not had a problem since then. Can't say if that would work for every dog but it helped him and also cured his chronic ear gunk.
