Food Issues, Struvite Crystals And Allergies..

[will_454]

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!

Edited September 5, 2013 by will_454

[Tara8430]

Have you thought about trying a RAW diet with her? She sounds to have similar symptoms to my girl, she also had high pH urine and serious case of the itchies as well as tummy upset after tummy upset. I changed her to RAW at 7 months of age and saw big improvements.

[~Anne~]

There is a natural raw diet you can feed to dogs that develop struvites. I will find it and post it up.

You should also encouraging drinking which you probably already know. One easy way to encourage drinking is to add salt to the diet.

I have a pug who develops struvites. Thankfully though she is fine on the prescriptives kibble and has never had a problem since she has been on this.

A cheap way of testing for crystals is to get her to wee on newspaper and leave it to dry. Then hold it up to sunlight and you will see crystals shining if there are any.

You can buy dipsticks from the chemist to check for ph level.

[minimax]

Is she on cranberry powder?

With my girl who had crystals and high pH, we were on the acidurin for months to get the pH to stabilise, two weeks sounds pretty quick.

I added apple cider vinegar to my girls diet (but she was fed raw anyway) as well as cranberry powder and over time her pH began to stabilise and we weaned off the acidurin and the pH behaved.

Edited September 5, 2013 by minimax

[westiemum]

Yep my thoughts too. Again at the risk of being howled down, trying a raw diet maybe with only one low allergenic meat like roo to start with might be the way to go. I really worry about what's in commercial dog food (and yes I'm ducking for cover but nothing I've seen will change that).

I've had similar problems with my Sarah severely itchy on BH and had struvite crystals - back on raw and grain free dry for emergencies only and she's a different dog.

Edited September 5, 2013 by westiemum

[will_454]

Have you thought about trying a RAW diet with her? She sounds to have similar symptoms to my girl, she also had high pH urine and serious case of the itchies as well as tummy upset after tummy upset. I changed her to RAW at 7 months of age and saw big improvements.

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.

There is a natural raw diet you can feed to dogs that develop struvites. I will find it and post it up.

You should also encouraging drinking which you probably already know. One easy way to encourage drinking is to add salt to the diet.

I have a pug who develops struvites. Thankfully though she is fine on the prescriptives kibble and has never had a problem since she has been on this.

A cheap way of testing for crystals is to get her to wee on newspaper and leave it to dry. Then hold it up to sunlight and you will see crystals shining if there are any.

You can buy dipsticks from the chemist to check for ph level.

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.

Is she on cranberry powder?

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.

Edited September 5, 2013 by will_454

[Guest hankodie]

A little bit off topic and sorry if I'm butting in, but have you run a blood test on Asha just to double check everything is normal? I only ask because my frenchie has a liver disease and one of the main symptoms is struvite crystals. I'm NOT in any way implying that you're dealing with the same thing but a blood test might be a good way to double check that everything is working OK if you haven't done so already :)

I also add a pinch of cranberry powder to Odie's meals every morning as well as the occasional bit of apple cider vinegar, more as an extra preventative measure than anything but I haven't seen any crystals or bladder stones yet (she will be prone to these due to her condition) my frenchie also suffers from terrible itchiness & allergies which i initially thought were caused by her disease and the food we were feeding her, but now we're pretty sure it's due to environmental/contact allergies I sympathise with you, it's no fun and a bit of a guessing game I'm afraid hope you work it out soon!

[minimax]

I used to mix the cranberry powder in with the yoghurt to disguise it as well, but now I make my own raw mix I break open a trillion little capsules and they go into the bulk mix. You can also dissolve a capsule into a little warm water and put it into their food.

The thing with cranberry is it stops any bacteria sticking to the bladder walls, so if there is any infection it won't take hold. It's definitely one thing to keep up, and even though my pugs last crystal breakout was over a year ago, and her last UTI months before that, I keep her on the cranberry and probably always will.

[will_454]

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.

[Guest hankodie]

Poor Asha glad to hear her blood results came back normal though, at least you have narrowed it down a little. With her face wrinkles the main thing is to just keep them as dry as you can (without irritating them) so if you're wiping them down with something make sure you gently wipe it dry afterwards.

Also you can speak to your vet about an elimination diet, it might be beneficial if you haven't tried it out already (some information here)

Hope Asha feels better soon!

[persephone]

I am wondering how much cranberry you are using?

She only needs a little bit - you could hardly see it . Even my cat will eat it in mince ..he weighs 12 kg ..and gets a small pinch .

Are your vets specialist vets ? It might be time to try the The Companion Animal Health Centre ? being uni based..it has everything under one roof ..and different people to ask .

[will_454]

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.

[persephone]

Oh.. are you using vet prescribed animal dose cranberry ? Sorry to question if you are I just break open human cranberry capsules and use the powder ;)

[minimax]

Oh.. are you using vet prescribed animal dose cranberry ? Sorry to question if you are I just break open human cranberry capsules and use the powder ;)

Yeh I use human capsules too, the strongest they come and feed my 12kg pug what averages out to a half capsule a day, I up it a little if she's having a flare.

[will_454]

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

[~Anne~]

I used to mix the cranberry powder in with the yoghurt to disguise it as well, but now I make my own raw mix I break open a trillion little capsules and they go into the bulk mix. You can also dissolve a capsule into a little warm water and put it into their food.

The thing with cranberry is it stops any bacteria sticking to the bladder walls, so if there is any infection it won't take hold . It's definitely one thing to keep up, and even though my pugs last crystal breakout was over a year ago, and her last UTI months before that, I keep her on the cranberry and probably always will.

Sorry, I just thought I should correct this. It's less likely to take hold, not "it won't"

[will_454]

Thanks Anne.

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

[Tara8430]

Wil another option might be contacting a canine naturopath like canine vitality http://caninevitality.com.au/

I recently got some stuff off her for Abbey as although her skin is okay at the moment she is still having breakouts which make her miserable.

[Tara8430]

Have you thought about trying a RAW diet with her? She sounds to have similar symptoms to my girl, she also had high pH urine and serious case of the itchies as well as tummy upset after tummy upset. I changed her to RAW at 7 months of age and saw big improvements.

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.

Hypoallergenic diet didn't do much for Abbey corrected stools but that was about it. What type of mince are you cooking? beef? beef can be an issue for a dog with sensitivities. Try eliminating grains, turkey is good for sensitive dogs and try giving spinach and kale etc..

Honestly I feel your pain I've been trough a fair bit with Abbey in her first 18 months I honestly only now feel like I'm stable with her allergies, mine on the other hand oh my god why is there so much pollen this week I haven't stopped sneezing.

[Salukifan]

I think you're dealing with a combination of issues that merit careful, professional advice on a way forward. I suspect the answer may not be a simple as a change of diet. Then again, that could be the answer. Who knows?

I'd suggest you try for a phone consult (with your dogs records forwarded) with someone like Dr Barbara Fougere in Sydney. She's a naturopathic vet. I suspect she'd want some blood work done as a start point. Thyroid issues would be something I'd want eliminated from the list.

Just out of interest, what colour is your Frenchie?

Edited September 5, 2013 by Haredown Whippets