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Special diet for bladder or kidney stones and next steps?

Gene&Janet

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Hello Forum,

I hope this is not too much information—it is long. We have been working with Dr. Jeff regarding our dog, Marty’s (7yrs old, chihuahua, 9lbs) pancreatitis and elevated liver enzymes. Marty has been making steady progress with that (pulsatilla, play, sniff walks and improved diet). Recent lab results show lower levels in both areas.

On May 20, we noticed some blood in Marty's urine. We took him to our local vet. He had been playing rambunctiously, and we thought maybe he strained something. She didn't find an infection and he seemed to be better and there was no more blood in the urine.

However, we noticed blood again this past Sunday, so we took him to the vet this morning. Our vet couldn't determine with certainty (x-ray) if there are stones, but there was something on the x-ray that may be stones. She is doing a urine culture for the possibility of an infection, but it seems likely it is stones. Her recommendations were a special diet, and follow up with another x-ray, or we take Marty to a specialist for an ultrasound to determine with certainty if it is stones or a mass.

In the meantime, the vet suggested a special dog food (Royal Canin) to help dissolve the possible stones. We are not too comfortable putting him on a canned diet after the pancreatitis and I’m not clear on how this diet works to help with the existing stones. Will something like this irritate his pancreas and liver function? Marty has been on a special prescription diet from Just Food For Dogs(JFFD), Metabolic Support Low Fat. It's a fresh food (human grade) made with turkey breast, ground beef, beef liver, psyllium husk, acorn squash, eggs, oats, coconut oil, EPA/DHA. There is a possibility that JFFD can make a special food for Marty. My concern is how to balance it all. Although he is much better, Marty still seems to be limited in what he can eat without getting an upset stomach. My husband thinks Marty has an allergy to chicken, but I’m not sure. At times he gets ahold of the other dog’s food or the desert tortoise’s food, or something he has found somewhere. (He is an adventurous eater.)

Marty’s appetite is normal. His energy level is slightly lower and he is clingy. He is drinking more water, but it is 100 and something degrees outside. He is urinating more frequently, and he has yelped with pain a few times. I know from experience how painful stones are and I am concerned about blockage.

We attended last week’s forum, and will be there tonight as well, but would appreciate any input on how the diet can help with stones. Should we set up an appointment with the specialist without waiting to see how a change in dog food addresses the issue? Thank you, and I apologize for the length. Thank you.
 

GinnyW

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I don't believe there's any solid evidence that something like the Royal Canin can have an influence on stone formation - and certainly not at this level where effective intervention is a total necessity. Homeopathy has a good track record with stone formation, and good natural food will provide the best foundation for a resolution. The fancy concoction you have is way better than RC, but I'd like to see less vegetable matter and more organ meats, as well as more good oils like MCT, krill, and fish body oil. A "chicken allergy" may or may not exist, but conventionally raised chicken is not great food, and may contain aggravative compounds from the chickens' diet. In any case, I would recommend working with a homeopath. Stones are not just a diet problem, but rather a matter of systemic dysfunction.
 

Dr. Jeff

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Hi Gene and Janet-

Your post is perfect, and is not too much info!

More info means better characterization of the dis-ease process. BTW-describing the process of getting sick or staying well was ~50% of last week's ACVIM conference.

As y'all know Gene and Janet (from our work together), the bladder stones may just be another physical manifestation of the energetic imbalance.

Just like his pancreatitis diagnosis or any other diagnostic test abnormality.

IMHO, there's one underlying energetic cause for many different physiologically measurable symptoms like elevated liver enzymes, high Spec cPL and visible ones like vomiting, not eating, blood in urine, etc.

I agree with Ginny that the research evidence is thin (at best) for most of the Rx diets.

As we discussed last night, the best next step is to run serial urinalyses to see if there are any crystals in the urine that may be clues to what the stones are (if they are indeed stones).

An abdominal ultrasound will further confirm the presence or absence of stones as well as show any bladder thickening, presence or other urinary abnormalities, etc.

There are also Rx home made diets available from Dr. Strombeck, but like many stone diets, I'm not sure if they have been documented to work, need to be chosen based on stone type, and are not ideal.


When's your internist appointment and ultrasound?

I look forward to hearing about the findings as well as the results from any urine tests you do.
 

Gene&Janet

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Hello and thank you for the responses. Dr. Jeff,we were hoping to have full results on Marty’s urine analysis today, but the only results so far is that there is no bacterial infection. Hopefully we have the full results tomorrow. The earliest appointment for the ultrasound we could get for Marty is July 20. We will follow through with serial urine analysis, and are very glad for the video on how to collect urine.
Ginny, thank you for the great input, especially on the proteins and chicken. Do you think an organic free range chicken would make much difference? I’m glad to hear that evidence is scant on the canned prescription food. I cringed when it was suggested (not by our regular vet, but an associate). We (and Marty too) are hoping to diversify his diet with more meats. Marty, has made steady progress, and seems to recover more quickly when his stomach is upset. I’m so glad to hear that homeopathy has a good track record with stones.
I will share the results of the urine analysis as soon as we get them.
We are looking forward to Monday’s meeting.
 

Gene&Janet

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Our local vet just called and said results show struvite crystals in his urine. I’ve asked them to email the lab results. The vet‘s thoughts were that diet would help with these type of stones quickly. Not sure that is a simple thing with Marty’s concurrent issues? Either way, we’d like to add more variety and balance to his diet as we work on his overall balance.

We have an appointment with Dr. Jeff next week. We have been reading through Dr. Christina‘s list of some possible medicines for urinary conditions. Any thoughts on what remedies we should make sure to have on hand and ready to go?
 

Dr. Jeff

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Yes, struvite stones can be dissolved by diet.

However, as you said, diet is just part of his symptomatology.

Do you have one of the emergency remedy kits? All of the acute urinary remedies are in there, but Marty's overall condition and stones is not truly acute.

It's an acute flare-up of his chronic energetic imbalance. In those cases, often the previously used remedy is more helpful.

However, regardless of the individual symptoms, his BEAM will help y'all decide what to do.
 

Gene&Janet

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We don’t have an emergency kit. Last year during the peak of the epidemic most were on back order so we bought some individual remedies. We were giving Marty pulsatilla.
 

GinnyW

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Firstly, yes, organically raised chicken would be better. But chicken is just not a nutritionally rich meat, and any red meat will be more nutritious. Organs are usually more nutritious the bigger/older the animal source. Great diet is an aid to any healing, but the "guide" to healing is in homeopathy. The stones are only a demonstration of systemic dysfunction, brought on by poor diet or other factors. There could be other sorts of dysfunction going on, even things we cannot observe. But a good remedy, based on what we can see, will help the whole body's function.
 

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