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Post by flossymossop on Mar 17, 2009 10:25:32 GMT -5
Has anyone ever come across a greyhound that has had urate stones in their bladder.
Lucy my 4 year old has just been diagnosed as having these particular stones which might be caused by an enzyme missing that converts uric acid in the bladder causing the stones. Dalmations are prone to the problem apparently.
However after 2 1/2 weeks of blood tests and internal investigations the vets have put her on antibiotics, a course of allopurinol (reproduce the missing enzyme) and have put her on Hills Prescription u/d diet (which she hates) for her kidneys.
I've asked the vets for their help but we keep going round in circles and they stand by their recommendation that she must have the Hills food.
The protein content of this food is under 10% which really concerns me and I'm not keen on the quality of ingredients Hills use. Does anyone have any knowledge of home made diets that i could use instead. At the moment I'm supplementing the kibble with some boiled chicken or white fish - it's the only way i can get her to eat it.
Any ideas would be gratefully appreciated from both Lucy and me
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Post by vickyb on Mar 17, 2009 10:42:01 GMT -5
Sorry your girl's not well  River had a Royal Canin urinary diet (can buy it off the net, try vetuk) briefly when he was suspected of having bladder stones. He loved the food, might be worth asking if it's ok to try this. As far as I know both the Hills prescription diet and the Royal Canin ones are equally good at doing what they are supposed to (well that's what my vet said about the one Trixie has for her Pancreas) and it's just a case of which your dog prefers. Vets really charge for that stuff in my experience compared to over the net prices. I'm no vet but I do know in humans that low protein is given to people with kidney trouble so I wouldn't worry about that. Is the diet intended short term ? The problem with supplementing the px diets is that they are devised to have the correct ratio of nutrients to help whatever condition they have and by adding extra protein you are undoing the benefits. Trixies diet comes in dry and canned and she has both but at different meals to give her variety and she just has a drop of low salt instant gravy mixed up on the dry to make it more palatable. I would imagine it would be quite hard to get a home made diet spot on. If you aren't happy about the diagnosis could you see another vet? |
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Post by Lisa on Mar 17, 2009 10:45:49 GMT -5
Am not sure about the diet BUT the best help for a dog with urate stones and problems in that area is filtering their drinking water. You just need to get a water filter system ie Britta and make sure all the rubbish in tap water has been taken out
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Post by vickyb on Mar 17, 2009 11:28:53 GMT -5
Can I just add that my vet is really good about not over prescribing or flogging px food. The other vets round here routinely sends post op dogs home with a fivers worth of Hills food, ours doesn't so when he advised River to have the urinary diet short term until all the tests etc were back I did trusted him enough to know that it did matter.
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Post by flossymossop on Mar 17, 2009 12:03:10 GMT -5
Thank you both for the advice and note about adding the extra protein to her food, at the moment the vets are looking at the px diet for 6 months to see how she gets on, we've got to go back to the vets again in a couple of weeks for more tests!
I'll definitely get a filter for the water and will have a look online at the Royal Canin u/d diet to test. She really seems to dislike the Hills food wet and dry
The vets she's going to are very good with her as she is extremely nervous ( I have to carry her in to the surgery) but they have been going off in so many different directions for the past few weeks that I've lost a bit of faith in them. And the fact that at our last appointment last week after the bile blood tests to rule out problems with her liver they actually said they were stumped and the best thing to do was to put her on the pills she's on and change her diet and then have her back in a months time to re-test all over again. Knowing how scared she gets it frustrates and upsets me to have to think we're going to have to go through it all again
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Post by vickyb on Mar 17, 2009 16:12:57 GMT -5
good luck with it all. At her age you need to find out what's going wrong. Hope she does like the Royal Canin, Mr faddy pants did Just watch the salt too if you give any leftovers etc.
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Post by ragsysmum on Mar 18, 2009 5:17:29 GMT -5
My Tru has just been on a short spell of Canin c/d food kibble and cans, along with synulox anti-biotics for a possible UTI and she wolfed it down and loved it, though she is not one who is over-bothered about eating and will not eat just anything normally.
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