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Permalink Reply by christy fry on July 22, 2009 at 2:48pm

Hi Nicole, i feel for you having a animal with issues like this. I had a lab bless his soul who went though a really bad bout of pancreantitus, he was in doggy icu for a week ( he started having infalmation again the day he was to be sent home) lost 20lbs while there and never gained it back. I had to feed him a really expensive vet. diet that was 39.00 for 20lbs I bought 2 bags a month. His coat went to crap and he was never was a normal weight again. His food had to be less than 6% fat. The trade off was he never had to go through another bout (which is very painfull and life threatening). and I had him another 2 heathly as he could be beatifull years. Good Luck!

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Permalink Reply by Mike Wilson on July 22, 2009 at 8:11pm

If you've now had 2 urine samples with crystals, your vet should have recommended culturing the dog's urine. You will find out what bacterial are involved and what the bacteria is sensitive to for treatment. A chronic bacterial infection will often eventually begin to assist bladder stone formation. This is an expensive surgery. One of our rescue dogs had a resistant strain of E. coli which was very resistant to most drugs. It took 6 full weeks of antibiotic treatment after surgery to clear her infection (she arrived with over a pound of bladder stones). This dog is now on Royal Canin's urinary Rx diet and has been fine for a year.

We have had 2 rescue dogs which would not eat Science Rx Diets (yes, corgis). One with kidney issues was willing to starve. When offered Royal Canin Rx formula, she immediately ate and recovered to the point that she lived nearly 8 months. I'm not aware of less expensive alternatives. There are however, other brands of prescription diets. A year of prescription food is far less expensive than bladder stone surgery.

Coat quality depends on individual dogs and how they react to certain diets. Some dogs may look better on certain diets - in other words, your mileage may vary. Our dog on the Royal Canin urinary Rx diet has a lovely coat. Another is on Wellness Fish/Sweet Potato. The rest are on Pro Plan. All the coats are nice. Sometimes it may not be food causing poor coats. Check throid levels and things such as sun exposure, flea dermatitis & allergies.

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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on July 23, 2009 at 1:05pm

Sounds like increasing water intake is important. You can lead a dog to water, but can't make it drink... unless you mix a lot of water in with the food!

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Permalink Reply by Lisa on July 23, 2009 at 5:20pm

We had a sheltie that had bladder crystals and refused to eat the prescription Science Diet. He got so weak and lethargic that we thought he would starve to death. He was on very strong antibiotic for weeks and did get over the bladder crystals only to find out he had Cushings disease. I cooked his food for about a year until we lost him to complications from the Cushings. (bladder crystals can often be caused by a more serious problem) Hopefully your dog will get better without further issues. We bought a whole case of the Science diet , $75.00 or more. and our baby didn't even eat 2 cans.

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