Recipe for home cooked meals

[Vivianne]

The UTI saga continues. Background info: A week ago my girl was diagnosed with a uti. Vet wants to keep her on antibiotics (clavamox) and Science Diet s/d formula for a month, naturally I don’t, but I’m not a vet.

The antibiotics I can concede to, but not the diet. She is already constipated and not drinking the same amount of water a day that she used to, this may be because of the antibiotic. I have a call into the vet to discuss this with her.

Can someone help me out with a low protein homecooked bland diet recipe, till I get to the bookstore this weekend and research this myself. I also need sources of fiber to add to her diet as treats between meals.

Thanks in advance for any advice; you can’t imagine how appreciative I am of this forum and its members. I'm worried to death about my baby.

[beth19]

Is UTI the acronym for Urinary Track Infection? Just wondering...

If you are giving antibiotics to your baby, you should add about half a cup of plain yogurt (with active yeast) a day or Probiotics from the health food store to your dog’s diet. The yogurt or Probiotics will promote good bowel health, specially needed in this case since antibiotics kill the bacteria very much needed in the intestines.

I am a BARF feeder and advocate, therefore I could only suggest a BARF diet. If you need a low protein diet, there is a modified diet for skeletal disease which is low in protein.

This diet consists of 75% low protein vegetable-meat patties, 25% raw meaty bones (chicken wings, necks and backs are good choices). The veggie patties should be made of 75% crushed vegetable and fruit and 25% minced meat.

The total amount of food per day you should start out with is 5% of the dog’s weight. If your baby starts to loose weight, add a bit more food. On the other hand, if she starts to put on some weight, reduce the amount.

In other words: If a dog weighs 80lbs, the total amount of food per day would be 4lbs.

75% veggie mix patty = 3lbs
- 75% crushed veggie and fruit
- 25% raw minced meat
25% RMB = 1lb

To lower the protein content even more, you can adjust the amount of veggies in the mix up to 90%, lowering the minced meat to 10%.

As for the fiber treats, I don't feed fiber to my dogs at all. And I haven't had any problem with their bowel movements.

This is a bit much at first, but after a short while you get used to it. I strongly recommend reading Dr. Ian Billinghurst’s books “Grow your pups with bones” and “Give your dog a bone” if you consider feeding BARF.

I hope your girl gets well soon.

[CarolineS]

Vivianne,

I hope you've found some reference books and managed to figure this out. Some good books are Strombeck's Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diets, Diane Morgan's Feeding Your Dog for Life and Canine Nutriton by Ackerman. All have something in them about urinary tract disease and also about management of stones. If stones are present, apparently you need to know what type before you make changes to the diet. Strombeck's book is by far the best.

If your vet has recommended a low protein diet I assume what he's trying to achieve is reduce the amount of urea produced. Urea is produced as a byproduct of digesting protein and it passes out through the kidneys and the urinary tract. You can achieve this by feeding a low protein diet, so there is less protein to digest but another way to achieve it is to feed a more highly digestible protein. This way you can keep the dog's protein at a normal level. Eggs are the most highly digestible protein available. If you feed them, nearly 100% of the protein will be digested and very little urea will be produced. When you feed meat, only about 80% of it is digested and urea production is higher.

If your vet suggested the fiber as well, it again plays a part in urea elimination though it is usually suggested for renal disease diets. The latest findings are that some types of fiber actually pick up the urea and eliminate it via feces, therefore taking some of the load off of the kidneys and urinary tract. It must be a specific kind of fiber though, not all of them work the same. It must be a fermentable fiber. Some examples are beet pulp, furctooligosaccharides (FOS)and gum arabic. I really don't know exactly how much you'd need to feed (if you could even find it!). I have seen supplements with FOS in them at the health food store. Perhaps search the net and see if you can find something on it. I know you can get beet pulp for horses at the feed store, but I'm not sure if it's the same you'd feed to a dog. I imagine it is, but again, I'd research it first.

If the vet hasn't recommended fiber to decrease urea elimination and you just want to add some for bowel health, then raw veggies are good for this or cooked potato with the skins.

There is one kind of stone that always occurs with a UTI and that is struvite calculi. Apparently, the antibiotic plays a much larger role in managing this kind of thing than does the diet. I do have a couple of diets from Strombeck's book that might help. They are for 25 - 30 lb dogs, so you'd need to figure out the calories and supplements and adjust accordingly.

2/3 cup cottage cheese, 2% fat
1 egg, large, hard-boiled
2 cups brown rice, long-grain, cooked
2 tsp canola oil
1/2 oz brewer's yeast
4 bonemeal tablets
1/4 tsp salt substitute
1 multi vit/min tablet

OR

same as above, substituting 1/4 lb very lean beef (raw weight) cooked for the cottage cheese

OR

same as above substituting 4 oz tuna, canned in water, no salt added, for the cottage cheese

Sodium is sometimes increased to encourage the dog to drink more. The first and last diets are high sodium, the middle one is low sodium. Again, check with the vet to see what is recommended for your dog. Hope this helps to get you started. :)

[rottnkidd]

Great post Caroline. This information could benefit other's whose dog's suffer from UTI's. The addition of cranberry capsules (not the juice as it contains too much sugar) will prevent bacteria from adhering to the bladder wall, however, this isn't effective until the infection has cleared with antibiotic use. Adding blueberries are also being recommended, and Vit C in ascorbic acid form. Wysong has a product called Wysong-Biotic that's added to the food to acidify the urine. Encourage the dog to drink LOTS of water, and have access to empty the bladder frequently. Here's a url with alot of info. Scroll down the page, a bit more then half-way, until you see "Overview of Urinary Tract Infections". The
info is technical, however, this specific section deals with
successful therapies, when additional diagnostics are needed, and guidelines for management, and the drugs commonly prescribed. It also suggests treatment for reoccuring infections.
Good luck!
kathy

[beth19]

Vivianne, definitely follow CarolineS advice.

There is a wealth of information for all of us in that post.

CarolineS, thanks for sharing such wonderful knowledge.

[Vivianne]

I was so hoping you’d stumble on this thread. And yes I was able to find Strombeck’s book. Stones have already been ruled out by the vet, what was found were in fact struvite crystals. This is why the vet has recommended the low protein diet.

She is on clavamox for a month, currently it’s our second week, and there has been much improvement, but the diet will remain a forever thing. I am also adding for the duration of the antibiotic treatment acidophilus/bifidus to her food.

I have cranberry extract capsules ready to go as well when the infection clears up completely. I have always given her vitC prior to this particular uti and it managed things for a while, but it never cleared up with the vitC alone. This is why the new low protein diet will be a permanent thing.

The fiber I want to add to her diet is because of the constipation she is experiencing due to the antibiotic. I believe some roughage in the raw veggie category will do just fine to aid things along.

I cannot thank you enough for the invaluable information you have shared with me and all forum members. I send you a sincere thank you for your time in responding to this thread I am very grateful.

Thanks again,

[CarolineS]

You're quite welcome. :) Since you're looking for fiber to help relieve constipation, the fiber in plain canned pumpkin works well for both diarrhea and constipation. Dogs seem to love the taste as well.

Now you've got Strombeck's book, I'll leave you and your dictionary alone to wade through it! If you have any questions about homemade cooked diets, don't hesitate to ask. I hope Madison enjoys her new food and feels better soon. :)

[rottnkidd]

I apologize! I didn't post the url on the uti's did I? Perhaps I should think about getting some rest, instead of trying to catch up canine-related things at 3 a.m.!! This article is very technical and lengthy, so to read about uti's only, scroll down about 3/4 of the page. ( And sweet Caroline, thank you for the 'reminder'!)
Here it is -
http://dcavm.org/00jan2.htm

kathy :o

[CarolineS]

Vivianne,

I was just going through the Whole Dog Journal from February 2001 and found that they listed Innovative Veterinary Diets in their top ten dry foods. They specifically reviewed a food for allergies, but commented that the prescription diets from this company are far superior to Science Diet's prescription foods. It noted that IVD makes a prescription food to help prevent struvite formation. It said that IVD had recently been bought out by Heinz but that no adverse changes to the food had been seen at that time. It might be worth taking a look at the ingredients in the IVD if you are still interested in feeding a kibble.