Crystals in urine?

J

Jinee1

Forums Regular
Hello. My 5 month old puppy was diagnosed with UTI 12 days ago. She's beenon antibiotics for 12 days and I took her back to the vet to get the urine tetsted again today. Still there are 30 white blood cells from one section of the microscope and apparently there was too many to count last time. They also saw 4 crystals and they didn't quantify last time so I have nothing to compare to. Her urine pH was 8 and now it's 6.5.

The vet took an X-way to make sure it wasn't bladder stones and the X-ray was clear. Phew! But she says the crystals are magnesium and pottassium crystals which dogs can get from their food. She's currently on Blue Buffalo puppy chicken and rice formula. She suggested the we put Eevee on some scientific formula that apparently dissolves the crystals called SD or something. Then after the crystals are gone, Eevee will be on crystal preventative scitific dog formula CD or something for rest of her life! Then the vet says previously people thought dogs get crystals from diet so they changed diets etc, but still dogs get stones eventually later in life and needs surgery. This didn't make sense to me. Then what's the point of switching food to the scientific formula if Eevee needs to have surgery ultimately anyway? Is the scientific formula just to 'delay' the time of getting stone and having surgery??

Since there are still white blood cells in her urine, I didn't want to rule out the fact that the crystals might be gone if UTI is completely cured. So right now, she's on same blue buffalo and I'm going to add chicken stock to her drinking water to entice Eevee to drink more. Are there anything else I should be doing? Has anyone had similar problems? Eevee's so young and I can't believe she's having all these problems already. I've spent $350 on vet bills already. But I don't mind as long as Eevee will be cured, which doesn't look like it at the moment. :-( Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!!
 
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I'm sorry that Eevee isn't feeling well. I know exactly what you're going through. When Bailey was a puppy she had numerous UTI's. It made housebreaking her really difficult. Sometimes the antibiotics would work and sometimes they wouldn't. She had crystals in her urine and low acidic urine (high ph).

The only thing that seems to work for Bailey is a vitamin C pill. She gets a 250mg. I break it in half, so she gets half in the morning and half at night. One time I stopped giving her the vitamin C pill and then she developed another UTI, so I know the vitamin C pill is helping her. Vitamin C pill isn't for every dog. It took some trial and error to find the right dose for her. Too much vitamin C caused another type of bladder crystals and too little caused a UTI. I believe there can be some negative side effects from giving a daily vitamin C pill, but it's the only thing that has helped Bailey ward off UTI's. You can always ask your vet if there is a supplement you can give Eevee to help her urinary tract stay healthy.

I believe that Bailey also has an inverted vulva or premature vulva, which can cause urine to pool and form an infection. Next time you bring Eevee to the vet, I'd have the vet check her carefully and make sure she doesn't have an inverted vulva.

I hope the antibiotics work fast and Eevee feels better soon.
 
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I can sympathize with your pups with UTIs. I too, had a bought of constant and recurring UTIs. The Vitamin C also worked well for me (of course at higher doses). The theory is the Vitamin C is acidic and therefore changes the Ph of the urine, which in turn inhibits bacterial infection.
 
Cranberry caps work to for the crystals or Berry Balance from Solid Gold. I used the Berry balance on Katie when she had crystals then switched to the caps. I don't think you need to go to the Science diet food. I can't recall what food I put her on back then. Hope she feels better soon and you get this under control.
 
AngelinaL said:
I can sympathize with your pups with UTIs. I too, had a bought of constant and recurring UTIs. The Vitamin C also worked well for me (of course at higher doses). The theory is the Vitamin C is acidic and therefore changes the Ph of the urine, which in turn inhibits bacterial infection.
Click to expand...

Yes this is why my dog gets vitamin...to increase the acid in her urine.

I should also add that my dog did not have to change her diet to prescription dog food. I do run a urinalysis every 6 months to make sure everything is okay.
 
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