[3RingCircus]

I wonder if feeding raw changes urine pH. Bailey has too high of urine pH, meaning alkaline and takes pills to acidify his urine. I wonder if I need to get him checked or get some pH strips myself and check him.

LOL - he looks at me in an odd way if I stand along side while he pees holding out anything. Tried to get his midstream catch that way once.

 

[DaneMama]

I would wait to test it until he's been on a full raw diet for several months.

 

[urneighbour]

The PH strips can be puchased at a health food store. My dog also tends to have an alkaline urine with a tendency to develop chrystals. I help acidify his urine with Vitamin C daily. Regardless of whether you feed raw, I would suggest that you monitor his PH levels anyway as alkaline urine, just like urine that is too acidic, can cause some serious health problems. If you are having difficulties getting a sample mid stream...I suggest you designate an old soup ladle to use to catch the urine! The acidity in the urine can fluctuate throughout the day so I also recommend that you are consisitent at what time of day you are getting your sample. If you are concerned about the effects of a raw diet on your dog's urine, test and record your results of his urine on a calendar for a few weeks before starting raw and then use the next couple months as your comparison study. I would be interested to learn what your results are.

 

[3RingCircus]

I should have mentioned... oops... :redface: on my Leonberger List someone suggested I feed raw with Bailey because it normalizes urine pH. So I'll be interested in seeing if this is true. Now I'll wait a month before tested his urine.

Bailey receives urine acidifying medication twice daily. The acidifying med is supposed to make his urine slightly acidic. Neutral is 7 and his should be around 6 + with the medication. Before starting his med it was 8.

A dog can get crystals with too low of pH as well.

 

[RawFedDogs]

Since raw feeding much more closely approximates the diet a dog would eat in the wild and IF diet affects urine pH then a raw diet would work towards pushing the pH levels more towards the normal range.