will_454

I don't believe that she has had a culture done, I know there was talk about it at the last vet. I will check her records tomorrow when we go in for our appointment. Funny that you should mention stress, she is a bit of a needy dog and does stress her self out/get a bit frantic especially when we get home from work, or if it looks like we may be leaving the house. She also sometimes leaks a little bit of urine if she is excited and has a full bladder - most recently this happened last night when I arrived home from work with a friend (I forgot to mention that earlier), afterwards she went outside and went to the toilet normally.

Thanks for the comments, that all makes sense. Asha's urine pH was around 8 or 8.5 if I remember correctly when the crystals were at their worse and aggravated her urinary tract to the point where her urine was coming out bloody. I haven't tested the pH this week at all, so I might do that tonight when I get home to see where it is sitting. The last sample of urine (which prompted the diet change to RC S/O) was taken at the vets and tested immediately after I got the sample from her. Other times I had taken a morning urine sample and was not able to get to the vets until my lunch break where it was refrigerated in between, so the crystals may have developed over this 4-5 hour period.

they definitely aren't cheap, people are often surprised at the cost of them when we are asked - but I can't put a price on these guys and their personalities. I grew up with different kinds of dogs and I can't see myself owning a different breed of dog again. Like I mentioned before our other 2 year old Ace is pretty much perfect and touch wood the worst problem we have had with him is when he ripped his toe nail off. Here is a quick happy snap - it always makes me laugh:

Not at all - to be honest I completely agree, this seems like the way it will go, although ultimately we have no say in the final decision, but can only advise our breeder based on our experiences over the last year or so. I'm sure they will make the right decision as Asha is from a quite prominent breeder here in Adelaide with some really good blood lines and stud dogs. I will suggest the elimination/hypo diet to the vet again (it was out last vet who suggested it not this one) and will see how we go in the morning with the appointment.

Agree. I don't think any dog with severe allergies should be considered in a breeding program She is on breeders terms, and through discussions with the breeder it is highly unlikely that she will be bred - although as far as we are aware none of her siblings of parents have the same issues. However there haven't been any final decisions made as yet - she was last on heat about 4 months ago and the breeder didn't want to do anything at that stage. I think she will end up being spayed, and will remain with us.

Thanks Anne I have booked an appointment with the vet tomorrow to try and start addressing this and discuss the options for food and treatment. In the meantime I will also send a couple of emails to the names listed above, and I have also found a local naturopathic vet (although it seems from here website she only does online/phone consults): http://www.animalnaturopath.com.au/ and also a vet who specialises in holistic treatments: http://www.glenosmondvet.com.au/services.html#Holistic I think that this will be a good starting point at least.. I have also started looking into suppliers for meat sources that you have mentioned above including the pinned thread for where to buy RAW, also my Dad often goes hunting and brings back goat's which may prove helpful.

Agreed. The itching could be caused by quite a number of factors. It could be environmental or diet-related. Or both. Even though you don't have grass in your yard, allergens like pollens are air-borne. Was the homemade hypoallergenic diet a vet suggestion? Im surprised that beef was suggested, rather than a novel protein. Beef is one of the more likely meats to be problematic, so not a good choice for an elimination diet as far as I'm aware. A dermatologist vet would be my suggestion to deal with the itching, and guide you through an elimination diet if necessary. Funnily enough, my dog was at his itchiest on a prescription 'hypoallergenic' dry food. About 25% of the dogs my vet puts on this prescription food become itchier. He then refers these dogs to a specialist dermatologist for further help. I can't help with the struvite crystals, but others have offered some good advice.Good luck with your dog Will. Frenchies are beautiful dogs. The Hypo diet was vet suggested, we tried both lamb and beef as she hadn't eaten either of these meats before, or at least before she came to us - it was after this we stumbled on the Hollistic Select and she was quite good on that until she developed the crystals again. Im not sure whether it was the rice that may have caused her the issues with this diet, rather then the meat though. Sorry what is VANS diet or what does it stand for? I had a quick google search for it and didn't come up with anything. And as Anne suggested the crystals can be a huge problem if left unattended to, which is why they are really my first priority in sorting them out. She has just finished her bag on RC Urinary S/O, and I am debating whether or not I keep her off of it and pick-up some acidurin tablets from the vet rather then a new bag, so I can start looking into her diet this weekend. As far as I am aware she hasn't had a bile test. She has had urine spinning, dip stick tests, blood tests and stool tests from what I can remember. At her last visit to the vet she was a touch over 11.5kg and the vet was happy with her weight/fat content. Both of our frenchies are of the smaller stature, Ace is around 13kg but that is more to do with their bloodlines.

Thanks for the link I will have a look and send an email through tomorrow. The mince was beef when we tried it, I was thinking if I go to raw I would look at meats such as kangaroo and goat, as I can get my hands on it realtively easy. And spring was in full flight in Adelaide the last few days until now when the rain came in today! Thanks for the details, I know this is more then likely going to be a complicated process and that it is going to take time so I will try and get in touch with her. My biggest thing is firstly sorting out her crystals as she has had bloody urine the two times before when crystals were present, but this time I got on top of it before they got too bad. Asha is the pied with brindle mask in my avatar/signature images.

Thanks Anne. Just wanted to confirm she is on cenovis women's cranberry 10000mg which also has 100mg of vit C

I am giving her the powder out of a whole standard human capsules too, just what they have on the shelf at Coles.

We are giving her a capsule once a day, I will have to check the mg when I get home tonight - she is about 11.5kg. Our original vet specialise in Frenchies, both the breeders of our two take all of their dogs and pups there, however they are located out at Blakes Crossing and it was becoming difficult to get out there as we are in Brompton (45min 1 way trip) especially after hours. We have since gone to a recommended vet much closer to home, but I am happy to travel if it means getting the problem sorted. Thanks for the link, I will have a look into it and might give them a call.

It's hard, especially when you have one completely healthy pup and the other one is suffering.. it has been going on for quite a long time now and we just want to give her some relief. The yeasty paw and face seem to have been bothering her quite a bit over the last few days. We had Asha's blood tested about 4 months ago for the exact reasons you mentioned and it came back all clear which was a relief. We have also considered environmental allergies, which she does have to some forms of grass, but We only have hard surfaces and artificial lawn at our house so I'm not sure if environmental is the problem. That will definitely be the next thing we look at if the next diet we put her on doesn't work.

I haven't looked into raw as yet.. I will do that. We did try her on a hypoallergenic diet for a week or so, and she didn't go to well on it, runny stool and vomiting - maybe it was introduced to quickly to her, or it was the rice that was a problem. Diet below: White rice, cooked 175 grams Vegatable Oil 10 grams (2 teaspoons) Meat Source cooked* 115 grams Iodized Salt or Potassium Chloride (Lite Salt) 1.2 grams (π teaspoon) Add Vitamin/Mineral supplements for dogs (ie. Vetbasix)-dose according to dogs weight Braise the meat and drain the fat. Boil the rice separately. Combine all ingredients and mix well. Water, not milk, can be added if the mixture is too dry. *The meat source must be one that the dog has NEVER eaten before. Some examples include venison, lamb, rabbit, turkey, duck, salmon and horse. If you can find it that would be great, and much appreciated! We have been adding a small amount of salt into evening meal and have water available in 2 places outside and inside for her to promote drinking. I have also added water to her kibble on occasions. Usually when she has crystals I can sometimes see patches on the grass where she has wee'd, I also bought some urine test dipsticks to test for ph, protein and lbood in her urine as I was getting charged $15 at the vet everytime for it. She hasn't been for some time as she would hesitate to eat her food with it sprinkled on it and alot of it would remain at the bottom of her bowl once she was finished. I have started her back on it as of yesterday actually and mix it in a little bit of natural yoghurt and she seems to be ok with it. I will start her on the ACV again and see how that goes too.

I have a 2 and a half year old female French Bulldog 'Asha. She has been with us on breeders terms for about a year or so. Over the last year we have had no end of problems with her food, diet, allergies and struvite crystals. She is our second Frenchie, our first Ace (around the same age) has no problems.. so it is a bit of a contrast. Over the last year she has been on quite a few dry kibble diets from Royal Canin Mini (made her stool runny), Eukanuba Low Residue (huge coat shedding problems and itchiness), Eukanuba Sensitive Digestion (still problems with itchiness) until we finally got her onto Hollistic Select Anchovy, Sardine and Salmon Meal. She has been great on this last kibble, itchiness has gone down and both the dogs love the food - now for the interesting part. She has had three cases of struvite crystals over the last 8 months, the first 2 times they were treated with a course of antibiotics (2 week) and acidurin tablets (2 weeks) which brought the pH down and they went away. About 3 weeks ago at her routine vet visit we spun her urine again as a precaution and the crystals were back. After discussion with the vet we put it down to the food she was on and the vet put her on Royal Canin Urinary S/O dry as a last resort as the tablet option obviously didn't fully work. Asha is having problems with this food, she is happy to eat it but her itchiness has come back and she seems to have a mild yeast infection in one of her paws and also in one of the folds on her face, even though we wipe them down with an anti fungal and antibacterial every morning. I am at my wits end with what to do for her, she is such a sweet dog and I can see she is in a spot of bother. I really don't think that the vets know what they are doing (we have been to two of them) because all they want to do is use tablets and prescription diets which obviously work, but cause other major problems for her. Does anyone have any suggestions about what path I should go down with her? I think what I need to do is firstly keep her urine slightly acidic with the food she is fed and also get this yeast in her gut under control. Sorry for such a long post, any help is much appreciated!

We went to the vet this morning with a 2 hour old urine sample, so relatively fresh in comparison to the other times. After the urinalysis it seems as though the crystals are all but gone and her pH is back to normal.. The crystals did cause an inflamed/aggravated urinary tract so she is on Metacam 1mg once a day for a week for that. There is still a very small amount of blood in the urine but as I mentioned before she is still on heat. She is also on the Baytril and Acidurin for another week to make sure we get rid of the crystals for good. We will keep her on the cranberry powder/capsules and keep up with the ACV to promote a higher fluid intake. It seems as though she is on the mend, we need to take another urine sample out Sunday next week for a final analysis.

I only mentioned that there has been no mention of a UTI, I assumed blood in the urine indicated this anyway? We are definitely pushing the drinking, putting her water bowl informer other when she finished eating and makig sure she has access to fresh water all day. Tomorrow at the vets I'll confirm all the details and also enquire as to the short lengths of the antibiotic courses.

The first and last urine sample the vet has inspected have been from her morning urination, taken during a lunch break in a sterile urine sample pot and refrigerated until it got there. The middle sample was taken from a sample she gave at the vets Concentration is yellow in the morning but is much clearer in the afternoon when we get home after she has been drinking water during the day. The vet knows about all additives and she is fed nothing but her kibble plus any of the above additives - she is fed twice daily, no treats except nylabones. As for the examination she has had 3 urinologys so far, there has been no mention of UTI's however there are struvite crystals and a small amount blood/white blood cells in her urine, but she is not weeing out blood so to speak nor is she having issues weeing. One thing I did leave up of my initial post was that what started all of this was what seemed slight loss of bladder control, if she was excited when I got home from work she would urinate while she was walking/jumping around and it seemed like she didn't know it was happening, she was also dripping urine while inside, no large puddles just drops, like she didn't know she had to go. I will get some further information on Monday, what is everyone's thoughts on Protexin?

Ended up getting the cranberry capsules 10,000 earlier today, will start them with her dinner. I think they are the best of both worlds incase she won't take it whole I can open it up and sprinkle on her food. As for fluid intake it seems that the ACV promote her drinking, I have definitely noticed the difference since we started her on that. I might give the salt a try too. I would be interested in the alternative diet if you were able to find out, I appreciate the offer. I am going to have a chat to the vet about the prescription diets on Monday and see what they are going to recommend.

The breeder hasn't had any of these issues with any of her siblings or parents (well mum) so she doesn't seem to think it is hereditary, we think it may have stemmed from the whole food issue at the beginning. There are discussions of not breeding her at all including with the vet, I guess ultimately its a bit out of our control. I will look into purchasing some cranberry powder today, and keep up with that and the ACV.. are there any off she shelf preimum foods that may help with this? Higher quality protein, or different types of protein ie fish or duck etc. I only say this because even though she is doing well on the sensitive food she still itches and chews at her paws quite a bit so I was thinking a food change could help that too.

We have recently housed our second french bulldog dog Asha a bitch on breeders terms for the breeder of our first male Frenchie. We took her in at 15 months of age and she had trouble settling in, regurgitating food, runny stool etc. even though she was being fed the same food (Royal Canin Mini). We went from the RC to Eukanuba prescription low residue kibble for a cycle, went back to RC with the same results and have no ended up on the Eukanuba sensitive stomach (non-prescription). She is doing well on this food, coat is great, keeping it down and at her ideal weight. Over the last few weeks she has developed urinary crystals due to the high alkalinity of her urine. She has been on the following antibiotics: Cephalexin 200mg - one tablet twice daily, this was for a week but after another urinalysis there was no improvement so the vet switched her to Baytril 150mg half a tablet once a day, half way through the 10 day cycle we also had to put her on Acidurin 100's 1.5 tablets twice daily. After all this she is on the last day of her Bytril and we are to take a sample of her urine to the vets on Monday. Off our own backs we have been giving her apple cider vinegar in her food in the mornings and also some cranberry juice. The vet seems to think that if by Monday we haven't cleared this up we need to look into her diet again, which is going to be a painful process due to her sensitive stomach. To top it all off she came on heat 4 days ago.. Obviously she isn't going to be breed this cycle. Any thoughts on the sutuation, and possibly other remedies or alternate foods that we can look into, it's been a rough 4 months for her.