My dog eats high protein food. Can this cause UTIs or bladder stones?

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!

The minimum amount of protein in the diet should be 18%. There is no maximum amount of protein and in a healthy dog it is not bad to feed a generous amount of protein. In some conditions like kidney failure, protein may be restricted. Urine crystals are not a known concern with a high-protein diet. Urine crystals are usually an indication of kidney or urinary bladder disease and can also be due to genetic conditions. I hope that helps.

Not that I am aware of. The exact cause of calcium oxalate bladder stones is poorly understood at this time. Normal dog urine is slightly acidic and contains waste products from metabolism including dissolved mineral salts and other compounds. These mineral salts will remain dissolved in the urine as long as the pH stays within a narrow range, and as long as the urine does not become too concentrated. Some diets that cause a persistently alkaline urine pH may also cause this. This link may help you more. ( https://www.vetmed.umn.edu/sites/vetmed.umn.edu/files/canine_calcium_oxalate_uroliths.pdf )

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Oaklee. That particular diet is great for skin disease and is worth a try if you have not had luck with her previous treatments. The protein in the urine is unlikely related to the skin disease. It can mean several things. First, if she has a urinary tract infection, that will increase the protein level in the urine. If this is not the case based on the urinalysis, then I recommend a test known as a urine protein creatinine ratio to measure the exact amount of protein in the urine. If this ratio comes back elevated, then she will need treatment to help limit the protein loss in the urine as it is an indicator of kidney disease in a dog. I typically will measure blood pressure next and run bloodwork if it has not been done recently. Then I will start a medication. I hope this information helps!

It depends on the type of urinary disease your dog has. If she's having recurrent urinary tract infections, to my knowledge there is no known association between food and that condition. If she's having urinary stones, then there are some foods that have been associated with causing or worsening this condition, and being able to advise you about that would require that we understand what kind of stones your dog is getting, because there are several kinds. I am unaware of any stones or urinary tract problems that are worsened by feeding chicken and rice, however as pointed out in previous answers this is far from a balanced diet. If you're interested in giving your dog a home-cooked diet, I'd recommend checking out this site: https://secure.balanceit.com/tools/ez2/. It's created by the vet school at the University of California, and it's great for helping you figure out how to cook for a pet with health issues. You'll need the assistance of your vet to get a final recipe, but it's a very helpful site.

It's is difficult to say which foods in particular because ultimately it is a question of how that food affects the pH of the urine. The acidity or alkalinity (pH) of the urine influences whether the stone constituents will remain dissolved or form stones. Some stones, such as struvite, form in alkaline urine, whereas others, including calcium oxalate stones, form in acidic urine. Depending on the type of stone (struvite vs calcium oxalate-in most cases but there are exceptions such as ammonium urate) you may want to feed a diet that decreases the pH or one that increases the pH. Furthermore, any underlying urinary tract infections must be treated as bacteria can alter the pH. In order to obtain the information needed, have your veterinarian perform a urinalysis or if your pet had surgery for bladder stones ask for the stone analysis report. As far as blueberries, I think that it is fine. However, grains may result in more of an alkaline urine which could promote further struvite stone formation.

We see sterile inflammation of the bladder in cats that people sometimes incorrectly term a UTI, but this is not seen in dogs. A true urinary tract infection (UTI) is a bacterial infection. Parvo virus does not cause residual problems in the body once the dog gets rid of the infection. The diet you mentioned appears nutritionally incomplete which can certainly cause a number of problems, but I would not expect it to worsen a UTI. A UTI needs to be diagnosed based on lab results and the resolution of the UTI also needs to be confirmed with lab results. If the first round of antibiotics does not resolve the infection, we will often perform a bacterial culture and sensitivity and possibly additional testing to further investigate the problem. I have attached more information for you on UTI's below. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=2457 Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.