questions/help with what to feed Tasha

[TashasMom]

Tasha is close to 12 years, moderately active & weighs about 95 pounds. SHe has been eating Nature's Recipe for about 8 years.
About 3 years ago she developed a UTI; it was treated, she got spayed, everything was fine. In January of this year she developed stones, had bladder surgery. The vet put her on Hills s/d (for 6 weeks he said) The first 2 weeks she was fine. Last week she started vomiting and having diahhrea within 1 to 2 hours of eating. Called the vet, he said give her some boiled beef for a day or 2. That worked fine. He called to checkup on her, said resume Hills. COnditions came back, plus she was irritable and unsociable. Call the vet again, asked if I could stick with the beef, he said no, she needs the Hills to prevent more stones. I have never questioned him before, but she is miserable.
I resumed the beef, she is fine.
I do not want to be the cause of her getting stones again, but I don't want to feed her something that is ruining her daily life.
Does anyone have any advice or recommendations?

Tasha's confused mom

[mmgy]

Did you have a full blood panel done at the time of that surgery? How did it look? I'm not sure how to tie the bladder problem to the vomiting/diarrhea problem.

M2

[TashasMom]

Did you have a full blood panel done at the time of that surgery? How did it look? I'm not sure how to tie the bladder problem to the vomiting/diarrhea problem.
------------------------------------

Her blood work came back fine. She is on the Hills (which is causing the vomiting) because of the bladder stones. The vet said she needs the Hills to prevent a reoccurance.

[spidey]

You could try warming it and/or mixing it with warm water, but she may be really intolerant of something in the Hill's diet. There are other manufacturers of prescription diets (Purina, Waltham, Medi-Cal (called "IVD Select Care" in the US) and others), but I don't know if any of them have a struvite diet like s/d. You may also be able to find a home-cooked diet which meets your dog's needs, but a quick search doesn't reveal an s/d equivalent recipe (I can find most others, but not s/d). However, since s/d is meant to be a temporary diet only, maybe you can discuss trying something else with your vet? I'd point out to him that if Tasha can't eat it, it can't do her any good, right? Good luck.

[rottnkidd]

Hi Tasha's mom- Here's a link to some info on the importance of water intake, and commentary on whether the Rx diets are beneficial. There apparently haven't been any studies done proving their effectiveness.
http://www.vin.com/VINDBPub/SearchPB...00/PR00172.htm

Awhile back I was helping a friend research struvite info for her dog, and I did a bit of reading about it. Maybe some of this info will help you. Bladder infections cause the urine Ph to be high, which leads to crystals and stones. So if an infection is present it must be treated first. A urine 'culture' (instead of urinalysis)would rule out the bladder infection possibility. If the stones are reoccuring, then diet changes should be considered. Grains are alkaline, therefore a diet consisting mostly of grain will not help to acidify the urine, to lower the Ph.
Distilled water is recommended for bladder stones because it acidifies the urine. Encouraging the dog to drink alot of water, with frequent opportunity to empty the bladder, will help prevent the urine from becoming supersaturated. (Distilled water would not be suggested for a healthy dog though.) There are other things to help acidify the urine, fresh raw meat is one, Vit C in Ascorbic acid form is another.
If I can find more links for you I'll post them as soon as I'm able.
Best wishes -
kathy

[TashasMom]

I am researching foods & ingredients, struvite & stones, herbs, etc. I have come across Azmira products; has anyone heard/tried any? There is one specifically for stone reduction called MegaPet daily.
I also read here about antibiotics killing bacteria needed in dogs. She started her symptoms like the last day of her meds.
For now I'm going to give her the beef with some white rice (also supoosed to help stone occurence) & throw in some yogurt & fruit.

To Kathy: I haven't found anything about distilled water, but I will look into that now.

Thanks for everyone's opinions so far.

[mmgy]

You can buy powdered acidifiers, and sprinkle them on any brand of food.

Mega Pet Daily is more of a daily vitamin, though it does say in the product description:

"Contains a better ratio of calcium, phosphorus, and potassium to magnesium, important in reducing bladder and kidney stones."

calcium 50 mg
phosphorus 20 mg
magnesium 7.2 mg
potassium 10 mg

I sell the Azmira food products, but not all the supplements until I learn more about them. Lots of dogs that can't tolerate "regular" foods thrive on Azmira; they've been around for years, and have kind of developed a little niche market.

M2

[Carina43]

http://home.attbi.com/~mstraus/kidney.html

You might find some pertinent info on that link...written by someone who knows her stuff and has gone to a lot of work to put some info together.