Aren't urinary crystals formed by lack of water? Maybe a canned diet? I am no expert though. Just seems backwards to feed a dry diet to an animal with crystal issues

 

Grain-based diets are harmful to carnivorous animals like dogs because their digestive system cannot metabolize plant matter. This is one of the bad things that the commercial pet food industry is perpetuating for a long time. My dogs are on a BARF diet and they don't get sick, don't smell, and don't have allergies.

 

It totally depends on the TYPE of urinary crystal. Do you know exactly what type this dog has? I have done a lot of research on diets (kibble and raw) for dogs with urate crystals/stones....and in my research have read here and there about some of the other crystals.
One very important thing is for the owner to add water to the dogs diet....and lots of it.

 

My dog suffers with cystine crystals, from my research I have found that diet has not been proven to help. It really does depend on what type they have. Increased water intake is the most important factor for ours. I chose a quality canned diet and add water to his meals, and encourage him to drink in between. Not saying he's cured but our last test in January found no crystals.

Just had a thought, when I was looking at what to feed, I read Orijens White Paper... http://files.championpetfoods.com/ORIJEN_White_Paper.pdf the part about kidney problems made complete sense to me. I went with the majority that were saying it's more about the quality of the protein rather than the % level. Just turned out Orijens wouldn't recommend their diet to my George as it has naturally high levels of cysteine and methionine. The canned diet he's on now has 50% less of these two amino acids than Orijens.

 

My beagle forms struvite stones (without a bladder infection present). Her pH tends to run high. I switched her to Orijen and Acana. Both Orijen and Acana are formulated to produce a urinary pH of 6 to 6.5. I test her urine weekly and most often get a reading of 6.5. Occasionally she is at 6 or 7.
It really does matter what kind of crystals/stones the dog is developing.

 

A lot of crystal, and subsequent stone formations, have to do with how acidic/basic the urine is. That being said, sometimes stones can form in a bladder with no crystals found to show up in the urinalysis either. This just happened in a patient we had yesterday, thankfully the owner allowed us to take radiographs because the dog was full of stones, and historically had struggled with crystals for the last year or so. It does totally depend on the kind of crystal formed what type of diet will help- some are due to more acidic or some more alkaline urine. Regardless, drinking lots of water will help dilute the urine, and so not being as concentrated, the urine is less likely to form crystals. There are prescription diets that help dissolve stones by changing the urine's pH, and there are diets that help maintain pH at a level where crystals will not form or the likelihood is decreased depending on what the issue is.

I had a cat that was diagnosed with cystitis or a bladder infection and formed crystals about 3 years ago when she was only 2 years old for who knows what reason, and the Dr. recommended she be on Hill's C/D for the rest of her LIFE shocked. I knew I couldn't afford it, and that c/d was s***, so I asked about homemaking her food. I went raw with her and her partner in crime companion for a spell, and they have never done better. That being said, I switched them back to high quality kibble for time and finance reasons. I always add water to their kibble, and add wet food as well to help them keep hydrated.

 

I would agree anything urinary, bladder or kidney needs moisture and water. I wont feed any kibble to cats at all, not even grain free becuase it's dry matter.

 

What can diet do u have ur dog on my daushund Atticus had surgery 2 months ago for cystine stones and the put him on Hills U/D which he hates, am looking for something better heard Hills is crap.

 

It is really important to find out what kind of crystals, as how you feed differs with each type. It seems that what I hear about predominantly is infection induced struvite, which is fairly easy to remedy generally, the others, not so much, however there may be options. Can you find out?

 

Id suggest distilled water. As it will give the kidneys rest because it is mineral free. I would also get off kibble and feed a freeze dried food. It is minimally processed in comparison to kibble which will help the kidneys to get a break.