Help! My dog has urinary crystals and food allergies. What to feed?

Unfortunately, only these diets will be able to help Luca’s bladder problems. The diet will help acidity the urine and it also causes him to drink more. This helps to prevent crystal formation and also has a flushing action in the bladder. I recommend to try the Royal Canin first. Mix it in VERY slow (like 10% of the food initially). Then every few days increase the amount. You should purchase the canned food to see if he likes that. If he does, you can feed him that mixed in with the dry food. Try to keep him out of the other Doha’s food. The diet will not work if it falls below 90% of the total daily food intake. I hope you find this helpful and please feel free to post any further questions.

There is no "active ingredient" per se in the Royal Canin Multifunction and Urinary Hydrolyzed Protein diet. Rather, the diet is developed in such a manner as to create an environment in which urinary stones are less likely to form. Specifically, struvite crystals will form in alkaline urine. The diet is designed to lower the pH of the urine so as to prevent the development of these crystals. They do this primarily by eliminating purines (one of the amino acid building blocks of protein) through hydrolyzing the proteins (breaking them down into amino acids). An additional benefit of hydrolyzing the proteins is that they are much easier to digest and are hypoallergenic.

I'm so sorry that Poppet does not seem to be doing well. It really depends on the composition of the crystal/stones that were removed whether or not diet is important for preventing the recurrence of crystals/stones. If there were struvite stones, diet is generally of secondary importance in prevention. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=460 If they were oxalate stones, then diet is very important for prevention of recurrence. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&C=&A=662&SourceID= The best way I have found to get dogs off a prescription food and still prevent the recurrence of bladder stones is to do a homemade diet formulated by a veterinary nutritionist. I'm unsure how accessible a nutritionist is in Australia, but you may be able to use a US nutritionist like this company. https://secure.balanceit.com/ Good luck! I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

From Royal Canin's website: "This diet is only suitable for healthy adult cats that do not have a urinary issue or a history of urinary problems. This food is not a replacement for a diet prescribed by your veterinarian." If Elbi has already had a urinary problem, I don't recommend considering switching to the urinary care food. Urinary S/O is designed to encourage more drinking, as well as neutralize the pH of the urine - both of those together tend to almost completely eliminate the chances of crystals forming.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Fortunately, there is an option for Bizu that is a newer poduct from Royal Canin, which is a multifunction pet food. They have a combination diet that is urinary (like he is on) and hydrolyzed protein, which is specifically for allergies. Hydrolyzed diets may use chicken and other proteins in them, but the protein sources are broken down so small that the body doesn't recognize them and they don't cause the itchiness we see with food allergies. This may be a great option for him!

They do make a pill known as DLM that helps lower the pH but if you lower it too much you can form calcium crystals in the urine that can lead to bladder stones as well. Either method takes frequent urine checks to monitor progress

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.