Diets For Dogs With Bladder Stones. This past Saturday, I gave a private talk about home- made diets to prevent and deal with bladder stones to a small group of 3. The audience was a combination of breeders, veterinarians and veterinary technicians. I’ve had good luck in dealing with dogs that develop bladder stones and I think a lot of it has to do with a focus on dealing with the current problems, but being as vigilant as possible about occurrence in the first place. I guess that word about my having helped stone- forming dogs has spread because the interest during this talk was very high and it was followed by about a three hour question and answer period. I was exhausted and exhilarated at the same time. It’s great to see such enthusiasm from breeders and vets because both play critical roles in teaching the public. The great majority of my clients appreciate that generic diets (be they commercial, raw or cooked) may have contributed to the problem, so they tend to embrace my approach of looking at their dog as the unique individual he or she is. That is, a generic diet may be based on dietary principles that work, but just how well they work can be based on unique metabolism, so we need to consider that as well. There are different types of bladder stones and many are combination stones. The three most common are urate (Dalmatians are genetically disposed to forming these stones), calcium oxalate, and struvite. Urate crystals and stones can be a heads up about liver shunts, especially in puppies, so the Dalamation is not the only breed that can have these, but for different reasons. Urate crystals can be prevented by feeding the right diet. ![]() The problem here is that some people don’t want to hear what the right diet is because it’s vegetarian. Eggs, milk products and tofu can make up the protein part and the rest is pasta, potatoes or rice and certain vegetables that are low in purines. ![]() ![]() In some cases, chicken can be fed, but if you start with chicken and the dog has urate crystals, the chicken has to go and then you can recheck urine, see where you stand and take it from there. Chicken might be ok later, but there’s a weaning process to go through. I’ve been working with Dalmations for about 1. The thing to remember is that “right diet” means it has to be right for that particular dog. Urate stones look like this: Struvite stones are almost always due to a urinary tract infection and urine p. H will be high. Struvite stones are the easiest to deal with from a dietary perspective. In a nutshell, we increase protein from eggs and meats and lower the carbohydrate content of the diet. There’s more to it, but that’s the start. A basic struvite stone looks like this: Calcium oxalate crystals can be more challenging, but again, success comes from understanding how a certain dog reacts to proportions of certain foods rather than just the foods themselves. Basic calcium oxalate stones look like this: Protein derived from meat, dairy and fish will decrease urine p. H and most of these dogs have low urinary p. H to begin with. That’s a common problem, so we need to feed less of the foods above, but “less” is relative because it depends how much of them the diet provided in the first place. To compensate for the lost calories after a reduction of dietary protein, we use carbohydrates (choose white rice, egg noodles, wild rice or rye bread) and as luck would have it, carbs help to increase urine p. H. Now, we add low oxalate vegetables and fruits which means we’re restricted to acorn squash, white cabbage, cauliflower, cucumber, green peas, iceberg lettuce, red pepper, turnip roots, zucchini, peeled apples, cantaloupe, cherries, honeydew, mangoes, nectarines and watermelon. Cook the vegetables and don’t feed organ meats. One of the most critical thing you can do to prevent crystals and stones is to keep the dog really well hydrated. Make the food “soupy” by adding water to the food bowl. Preferably not plain tap or mineral water (filtered or distilled are much better) since we want to avoid excessive mineral intake – but we want to a feed a balanced diet, so this does’t translate to not adding the amounts of required minerals to food. Flushing out those crystals with water prevents them from aggregating into a stone in the first place. Photos and credit: http: //www. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2. Both comments and pings are currently closed. ![]() Balanced Homemade Meals for Dogs and Cats. The latest edition of the Journal of the American Veterinary Association features a study of homemade recipes for maintenance diets for dogs. The results are dismal. It demonstrates how difficult this process really is and how important extensive research is needed to create a balanced homemade diet. The Study Recipes. The researchers analyzed 2. Four of these sources were authored by board certified veterinary nutritionists. ![]() ![]() The other 3. 3% of the recipes were obtained from 2. The Findings. Of the 2. National Research Council’s (NRC) Recommended Allowances or Minimum Requirements for all essential daily nutrients. Nine recipes exceeded the nutrient minimums established by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO). All but one of those recipes meeting the NRC or AAFCO standards was authored by a non- veterinarian. The most common deficiencies were zinc, choline (a vitamin- like nutrient), vitamin D, vitamin E, copper, calcium and EPA/DHA (omega- 3 fatty acids). In some of the deficient diets, deficiencies of vitamin D, vitamin E and choline were less than 5. NRC Recommended Allowances. Nine recipes exceeded the NRC Safe Upper Limit for vitamin D, and six recipes exceed the Safe Upper Limit for EPA/DHA. Not Surprised. The findings in this study verify my observations when I started my research on homemade diets. The lack of attention to detail by veterinarians, even those who are board certified in nutrition, and non- veterinarians may have serious long term problems for those wishing to feed quality homemade diets. Billinghurst's BARF DIET looks only to the freshest whole raw food sources rich in vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids from human grade ingredients. We are already beginning to see an increase in puppies and dogs with osteoporosis presenting in veterinary hospitals. The upside of the study is that it verified that recipes analyzed by available databases of human foods (providing that specific preparation was followed) were consistent with the chemical analysis of randomly chosen recipes. This means that if an author of a homemade recipe can provide a USDA database comparison of their recipe compared to NRC and AAFCO requirements for all essential nutrients (4. The researchers of the study suggest that recipes include a safety margin of quantity of nutrients to allow for individual difference in digestibility and absorption of nutrients. ![]() Such recipes should exceed both NRC and AAFCO for all nutrients without exceeding the Safe Upper Limits. Table 1 is an example of the type of information that an author, or commercial food manufacturer for that matter, should be able to provide. The amino acid taurine and the essential fat arachadonic acid should be included for cats. They should also specify the supplement brands that will provide the necessary levels of nutrients. If they are unable to provide all of this information, keep searching. Dr. Ken Tudor. Image: Thinkstock. FREE Sign Up; Request Vet Approval; Videos. Homemade Food Overview; Cooking Demonstrations; Nutritional Management of Common Diseases; Help. How to make and feed your dog a complete and balanced diet. Raw, or they prepared meals for their dogs using ingredients from the same sources that they would use for themselves. SOURCES: Oldways Preservation Trust: “Mediterranean Diet Pyramid,” “Med Diet and Health,” “The Eating Pattern of The Mediterranean Diet Pyramid,” “To. ![]()
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