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19 month old working cocker struggling to pee so took him to the vets today and been told he had Struvite crystals in his pee. The vet has said he needs to have a new diet of an expensive brand of dried food (the surgery appears to only stock this brand surprisingly).
He's been on a diet of 190gms of dry CSJ in the morning followed by 190gms of pure green tripe at night. He's also been getting some scraps from our baby daughters high chair. He's 12.5kg.
I'm not second guessing the vet, I'm just wondering if anyone has a second opinion or advice on a better diet?
Had this with a cat and was put on the Hills prescription diet which was supposed to break the crystals down, it did recur a few times and found that regular dry food was not helping the matter, so I'd say keep him on the special diet until he's better then try him on wet.
I'd stick with the special diet until the crystals are gone from his urine. Might be a few weeks, might be longer. If they're not going then I'd get his urine cultured - checked for bacteria. It should be sterile and infections can promote crystal formation. Once the crystals are gone, if you keep his urine acidic, that'll usually prevent the struvite from reforming. Acidic urine in dogs = meat based diet. There's little evidence that dry foods are worse than wet for bladder stones nowadays ( there was a specific problem with cat foods in the '70s), but you want lots of urine production, so wet feeding isn't a bad idea.
Common problem and one where diet can make a huge difference. If used properly it can avoid surgery. Or a life threatening blockage for that matter - male dogs can get crystals lodged in the urethra. Definitely worth sticking with a prescription diet, at least in the short term. Long term diet depends on the individual dog but you need to get those crystals dissolved first.
Oh, and you do tend to get what you pay for with dry food in particular. Something that costs around £10 for a 15kg bag, isn't likely to have much in the way of quality ingredients in it!