My cat had bladder stones. Does Vetoquinol Methigel help urinary pH?

What a cute kitty! Your vet can prescribe a special prescription diet to help manage the crystals in his urine. The one we commonly prescribe is Royal Canin SO diet, but there are several others available as well. These diets help keep the urine pH at an appropriate level and can decrease or eliminate the crystals in the urine.

The best and most effective treatment to adjust a cat’s urine pH is to start a special prescription diet. Royal Canin, science diet and Purina all make prescription diets with additives to make the urine more acidic. This will also help to prevent urinary tract infections. These diets can be purchased in many pet stores and online as well but they do require the OK from your veterinarian. The diets will begin to take affect within two weeks and it is recommended to retest the urine one month after starting the new diet. I hope this helps.

It depends on which diet you are using in the Hill's brand. The link below is to a school that many vets will send stones to for analysis. On this page you will find a PDF link to treatment/prevention of urate stones. There are several diets listed there. Another option is having a nutritionist make a diet for your pet that you would make at home. Most vet schools offer this service and it could be facilitated through your vet if you don't live near a vet school. Hopefully your pet has also been evaluated for diseases that predispose to urate stones as this is a more rare stone. I hope this helps and thank you for using PetCoach! https://www.vetmed.umn.edu/centers-programs/minnesota-urolith-center/urolith-analysis/treatment-recommendations

Hello. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, some of these dogs keep developing stones, & we just do not know the total reason & mechanism for this. So you are perfectly right to feel confused, & frustrated with this. The Royal Canin S/O has been one of the best options in terms of preventing stones through the diet, & of course, the more water he takes in, the more water there is to flush the oxalate elements out of his bladder before stones reoccur. Sometimes we do recommend potassium citrate, if urine pH is consistently lower than 6.5, & some newer thinking is to add hydrochlorothiazide if he does seem to be redeveloping urolithiasis frequently & he does not have high blood calcium levels. You could monitor his urine for blood with urine dip strips manufactured for this purpose ( your vet can help with this ). A full urinalysis should be done every 3-6 months to keep pH between 6.5 & 8 & to maintain urine specific gravity to 1.020 or lower. Imaging, with either ultrasound or x-rays every 6-12 months is useful to identify very small stones that can generally be removed without surgery.removed . Hopefully, Casper will remain stone free for a very long time. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! I am sorry you and Sanjee are going through this. First I think it important to wait until the stone analysis is back before deciding 100% what to do diet wise. Even though she has calcium oxalate crystals doesn't mean the stone will be that exactly, though it is likely. Calcium oxalate stones are the hardest to prevent recurrence. I recommend Veterinary Prescription diets like Royal Canin SO, Hill's c/d or Purina UR. I also recommend monitoring urine pH and concentration. Calcium oxalate crystals form in more acidic (lower pH) urine. If the diet alone won't control the pH and keep it more neutral sometimes we have to add potassium citrate. I think periodic X-rays to check for recurrence are also important. There are many small white dogs that have had many cystotomies to remove calcium oxalate stones. I hope this helps and I wish Sanjee the best today for her surgery and a speedy recovery!

Bladder stones are collections of mineral crystals that combine together in the urinary tract. Excess minerals can encourage the formation of crystals in the urine, leading to the creation of bladder stones. Urinary diets have the correct balance of minerals to maintain bladder health. In addition, they have low protein and calcium, which results in decreased urinary concentrations of stone-forming constituents. To get the biggest benefit, I recommend choosing a urinary specific food for Liir, as regular diets will not be formulated to help with bladder health. I recommend Hill's Science Diet u/d. I hope this helps!

I would talk to your veterinarian about other veterinary diets. It is not recommended feeding other diets because it can prone them to stones. The gel you are referring to if I am seeing the correct one is just a calming agent and will not help with bladder crystals or stones. Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.