Archive for the tag 'struvite crystals'

Update on Frenchie Puppy with Struvite Crystals

admin July 17th, 2008

We’ve had an update on the French Bulldog puppy with struvite crystals –

Dr. Lori,

Thank you for the response. Since I sent the question to you, the following happened, so I thought you might be interested.

We took the local vet’s opinion and put the puppy on canned food and bottled water, and after a week the lab results on a urine sample turned up no crystals. So introducing more water into his died (via the canned food), and taking out the softened water possibility (via the bottled water) solved the problem.

However, it also created a new problem because the puppy started having very soft or completely runny stools. We tried mixing in dry food, and then even rice, but the diarrhea got very bad. So we reconsulted the local vet, and we put him on California Natural for Puppies kibble (which only has lamb and rice, and only 4 other ingredients) to remove the possibility of allergens as the cause of the diarrhea.

Now his stools are fine, and his pH in the urine is around 6.5-6.8 (I tested with a aquarium pH strip). But now he drinks water so much, that I can’t even let him out enough times, so he makes a mess not because of the crystals but simply due to volume. (We live in an apartment in NYC, and I already let him out literally 10 times a day; so I ride the elevator a lot).

Thank you again for your advice, because it largely goes in line with what the local vet suggested, which makes me feel much better.

Thanks so much for the update. As we’ve said before, we really appreciate hearing back from the people who’ve written in, so we can learn how your French Bulldogs are doing. I hope the peeing issue gets under control soon!

Tags: , , , , , ,

Ask the French Bulldog Vet - Struvite Crystals in Frenchie Pup’s Urine

lorihuntdvm July 8th, 2008

I came across the “Ask the Frenchie Experts” while researching the following situation:

A weekend ago, our 13 week old Frenchie suddenly started having lots of small pee-ings (as opposed to going regularly or having a normal “accident”). So my wife thought he might have a bladder infection. She got a urine sample to the vet that day, who saw — I assume under a microscope because I wasn’t there — traces of blood in his urine. So the vet put the puppy on an oral antibiotic.

This last weekend, my wife took him back to the same vet, who saw the same results. So the vet sent the most recent urine sample to a lab, which returned a result of 7.5 pH and moderate crystals in the urine (as well as an elevated white cell count…). The vet wrote a prescription for Hill’s c/d, as well as to keep the puppy on antibiotics for another week.

Concerned about the growing nutritional needs of the puppy, and to get a second opinion, today I asked the puppy’s normal/local vet what to do. He looked at the faxed lab results, and suggested that we put the puppy back on normal canned food and bottled water, and to stop the antibiotics since it’s been 10 days already.

I would like to go with the second opinion because feeding a low calcium, non-puppy food like Hill’s c/d to a growing puppy seems like a bad idea. But having struvite stones form is equally bad (never mind the return of the uncontrolled small voidings).

The one thing I failed to mention is that the water at the weekend location has a lot of water softener in it because my wife’s father adds it. Thus I am hoping that could be the culprit here. (Although our 7 year old Frenchie living with him is fine)

Any advice in general would help, and maybe a tip on the most nutritious canned puppy food to get would be great.

Dr. Lori writes -

This is a puzzling situation, but I do agree with you that c/d is not an ideal diet for a growing puppy.  I am reading all these results, and while I see mention of blood and white blood cells, I don’t actually see any evidence of bacteria or cultures being done?

I would suggest starting there to see if there actually IS an infection.  If so, a culture would be in order.  I agree with your second opinion and at this point would stop all antibiotics and go to normal food for a while.  If the problem still exists in a few weeks, I would do a culture and sensitivity at that point, and take it from there.

Crystals can be somewhat normal in male dogs especially and probably have to do more with pH than anything.  I would encourage him to drink lots of water, even if it means “flavoring” it to get him to drink more, adding chicken broth to water will do wonders to attract their interest, or ice cubs can be a fun toy as well as help hydrate them.

Give an update when you can and good luck with your little boy

Lori Hunt, DVM

Tags: , , , , , , ,