urinary infection - Science Diet CD - any info on this food (how much, allergy)
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My 8 year old maltese, Tiger, has a urinary tract infection. Vet has suggested Science Diet CD has anyone fed their dog this food? Is there something better he should be eating? Any comments or advice is appreciated. Thanks!
I'm not familiar with the "CD" suffix, but just from looking at the ingredients it didn't look like anything special. Pretty sure there have been some threads on here about that brand.
One of my neighbors has a female Peke, about 3 yrs old with UTI. Her dog is on this diet and eats nothing else, the vet said no treats of any kind, just this food. So far there's been no change in the dog's UTI, going on for about 3 months now, but I know my friend has cheated a bit on the treat side. The dog seems to love the food -- I keep a small supply at my house for treats when they come over -- my dog likes it too, and he is very picky about what he eats. They are trying to stick to the diet, I'll let you know how they make out with it.
You need to find out if/what kind of crystals the vet found. There are two major kinds of crystals formed in urine - each kind requires a completely different diet. These two most common crystal types are struvite crystals and calcium oxalate crystals. Struvite crystals are more common. Unless you know, from the vet, the actual kind of crystal, you won't get the diet correct for your dog.
Once crystals form, they act as a focus for bacteria to live on and produce infection.
Struvite crystals/stones (yes, stones can form) are associated with high ph urine - and the infection in that environment will usually be caused by Proteus sp organisms or Ureaplasma.
With low ph UTIs, almost anything goes: E coli, Enterobacter, or any one of the many Gram-negative organisms in the GI tract.
This needs antibiotics, a change of diet if you have identified crystals (the TYPE of diet depends on the type of crystal) and getting your dog to drink more water.
You need to find out if/what kind of crystals the vet found. There are two major kinds of crystals formed in urine - each kind requires a completely different diet. These two most common crystal types are struvite crystals and calcium oxalate crystals. Struvite crystals are more common. Unless you know, from the vet, the actual kind of crystal, you won't get the diet correct for your dog.
Once crystals form, they act as a focus for bacteria to live on and produce infection.
Struvite crystals/stones (yes, stones can form) are associated with high ph urine - and the infection in that environment will usually be caused by Proteus sp organisms or Ureaplasma.
With low ph UTIs, almost anything goes: E coli, Enterobacter, or any one of the many Gram-negative organisms in the GI tract.
This needs antibiotics, a change of diet if you have identified crystals (the TYPE of diet depends on the type of crystal) and getting your dog to drink more water.
Hope he's doing better soon.
Thanks viralmd! He's sleeping at my feet right now and taking it easy. The vet said his ph is high and she's afraid he'll develop struvite crystals. He's on cephalexin solution #1 twice a day, but I was wondering what people could tell me about about this Science Diet CD dog food before I purchase it from the vet.
Sunny, I've been trying to find the actual ingredient of this prescription food, without success. The key, obviously, is to keep the urine pH low - cranberry juice (diluted) can help. Another way to lower the urine pH, and a very harmless way to do it, is to supplement with Vitamin C. As in people, when the dog takes in more Vitamin C (also called ascorbic acid) than the body needs, the excess is excreted into the urine (making the pH lower) and then is eliminated! This is available in your local drugstore.
Here are a few things to try. This info is from the book, "The Nature of Animal Healing" by Martin Goldstein, DVM. You can find the book at Barnes & Nobles.
Give your dog Vitamin C in the Ascorbic Acid for, not the Ascorbate form. 500 mgs., 3 times a day. Crush the tablets and mix in with the food. You can also use the cranberry supplement Cran Activ. Go to a pharmacy or swimming pool supply store and get some ph test strips to test the urine for the ph level to determine how much acidifier to give.
Since it sounds like a stubborn infection, get some of the bee hive medication called propolis and give at 1/2 the human dose.
After looking at the c/d ingredients, I wouldn't feed that to any dog. The only "meat" source is "chicken BY-PRODUCT meal". Corn and soy are the main ingredients. Find a food with a high quality protein source that has low ash and low magnesium content.
The Science Diet is also preserved with BHA and BHT. They are both known to cause cancer in animals. Also a poor protein source tends to come out of the dogs' body as waste. So the c/d could be causing some of the problem with the infection hanging on for so long.
I would check out the Dick Van Pattan's Natural Balance foods. The allergy formula looks to be a good choice. It is all natural with no grains whatsoever. It is a Potato & Duck formula. I couldn't find the ash content of the food. it has no magnesium listed in the ingredient list.
Not much nutrition there. I have had the vet try to sell me these kinds of crappy foods for years. I won't play.
In your situation I would be looking for a holistic vet or an animal nutritionist to recommend food. Eagle Pack makes some foods that might work for you Eagle Pack Pet Foods, Inc. (http://www.eaglepack.com/Pages/EP_PetHealth.html#crystals - broken link)
The two forms vitamin C are not the same molecular structures. The ascorbate form may cause the ph level to increase where the ascorbic acid form lowers it. Wikipedia has a diagram of both forms molecules.
This website has some good info on kidney stones. www.doctoryourself.com/kidney.html
Last edited by hunterdog57; 08-01-2008 at 01:30 PM..
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. The dog seems to love the food -- I keep a small supply at my house for treats when they come over -- my dog likes it too, and he is very picky about what he eats. They are trying to stick to the diet, I'll let you know how they make out with it.
