Why is Royal Canin Urinary SO prescription & making my dog pee more?

The urinary care food is a prescription diet to maintain PH at a level to prevent certain stones forming. If you give it to a dog who doesn't need it, it can actually cause the PH to change too much causing another type of stone to develop. Therefore I do not recommend feeding it to your other dog.

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Grandpaw. All prescription diets need to be prescribed by veterinarians. They are specially formulated for medical conditions. There are specific cases in whichh they can and cannot be feed. For example, a prescription kidney diet will be restricted in protein levels. This would not be appropriate for a young growing puppy. Prescription urinary diet are generally high in fat and salt. This can be contraindicated in patients with heart disease or a history of pancreatitis. These diets do not contain drugs, but are used to treat specific medical conditions. I hope this information helps!

I believe you're referring to Royal Canines brand of urinary diet SO. In conjunction with appropriate medication SO is a great food to help prevent urinary tract infections. Lulu will likely need to be on this food for the rest of her life. Any changes to a non-urinary diet may trigger a recurrence of crystals or stones. If she does not resolve after a month of anabiotic's and diet, further diagnostic testing such as ultrasound or scoping of the bladder may be necessary to determine the cause of the urinary tract issues. My own dog is on Royal Canin SO and he does great, until my kids feed him the wrong food and then he has a flare up again. So please be sure to feed her only the prescribed diet. Good luck I hope she's feeling better soon, and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

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.

The urinary diet is meant to treat and prevent urinary stones. This is formulated to have minerals and nutrients in certain concentrations to decrease the likelihood of stone formation, to acidify the urine and dissolve certain stones. Being grain-free is not a factor when formulating this food and is not necessary. Likewise grain-free food is not any better than food with grains for helping with urinary disease. The food needs to be specially formulated and labeled as a prescription diet. I hope that helps. If you want more info about this food, I've provided a link below to more information about this food. https://www.royalcanin.com/products/vet/urinary-health

So both are urinary diets, just make by different brands. Urinary SO is made by Royal Canin, and Urinary UR is by Purina. Both are formulated to help dissolve struvite stones and prevent their reoccurrence. I hope this helps.

To my knowledge, there are no current OTC diets formulated for dogs with urinary issues. These diets are designed to alter the pH in such a way to keep the urine at a certain level. Her current diet does not explain her weight and appetite despite being fed a normal diet. I would be interested in seeing what her current blood work looks like, and would want to investigate some potential causes for these symptoms you are seeing. It is possible Roxy could be developing several different endocrine disorders. If you are seeking to change her food and still need it to be appropriate for a dog with urinary problems, I would consider consulting with a veterinary nutritionist. You can usually find these professionals through veterinary schools. They will typically offer consultations for extremely reasonable costs, as they primarily function in the research circle. The nutritionists through my vet school ,Virginia Maryland College of Vet Med, would probably be happy to assist you if you emailed them with your concerns. Hope you figure things out and consider getting some diagnostics done on Roxy.