Canine Kidney Stones

JulesInKy

Max (labrador x retriever) 4yrs, 35kg: Burns sensitive
Kuzco (retriever x ???) 7yrs?, 41kg: Calibra S/O (previously RC S/O and Hills c/d)

Routine:
off leash walk 90 minutes morning, 45 minutes evening.
fed twice daily, about 30 minutes after each walk.
fed in separate areas of the house.

Both dogs have never been excited about their food. Kuzco to the point where he will even skip meals rather than eat the kibble. After months of head scratching I've had to start mixing a little wet food to their bowls, but sometimes even this won't work. (Kuzco only gets a touch of the gravy from the wet food). Max will sometimes only eat if he thinks Kuzco is going to get his food.

I've decided I'm going to try Max on Taste of the Wild. Kuzco is the problem with his dietary related kidney stones. He was being fed all the wrong things, human food etc, by well-meaning neighbours before we adopted him and started controlling his diet. He has had kidney ablation about three years ago and has since only shown very minor crystal content in his urine tests. His old vet performed the ablation but never had the stones tested for type.

My own vet is great but their in-house choices for food seem to be limited to the above brands. I would like to present him with different choices for Kuzco so that we can make an informed decision on how best to fix his nutrition.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated!

jesuischarlie

Hi, you need to speak to your vet. You need to find out what exactly your dog has had done. Kidney ablation is a treatment for human end stage kidney cancer, it’s not a method of treating bladder or kidney stones. It’s also not available for dogs. Kidney stones in dogs are uncommon, bladder stones are common. Crystals in the urine are even more common. There are many different types of stones and the treatment and prevention is different for each. For example in dogs struvite stones are usually due to a urinary tract infection and can be dissolved with diet, other types can be due to a hereditary susceptibility etc. Surgery is usually for bladder stones or urethral stones. Kidney stone removal would be very uncommon and would require a specialist surgeon. The diet used to prevent stones is entirely dependent on the type of stone you’ve got. Speak to your vets, they are the best people to advise you.

JulesInKy

My vet is not the vet that originally treated Kuzco. Kuzco adopted us and came with existing problems. When his previous owner knocked on our door and handed him to us, along with a bag of food, the only information she could give was that he had had surgery for his kidneys. Questioning his previous vet the only information we were given was "kidney ablation", with no analysis of stones etc. I had never heard of that phrase before then. I have to trust in the little information that we have been given. He has not shown any symptoms or signs since. We have sent in urine for testing, but it shows only very minor crystal content and not enough for analysis. He has a surgical scar running along his belly. If I remember right, he also had a scar on his penis (but I'm not 100% sure about this).

I have spoken many times with my vet and we both have made numerous attempts to get more info from the previous vet, but it is not forthcoming. EVERY single time I have gone in there looking for the dogs records they have an excuse. Neither is the previous owner any help.

We can only go by the food we were given: Royal Canin Urinary S/O. We have tried two other brands of the same type of food, none of which the dog finds palatable.

I have also since tried Max on TotW High Prairie...he turned his nose to it.

I'm getting really frustrated now with trying to feed them. I have followed vet advice: put down bowls leave them with them for 10 mins, if not eaten take them up and offer again half hour later. No joy.

Apart from the above problem, both dogs are healthy, happy, playful, showing no signs of any deeper issues.