homemade diet for UTI

Question
Dear Ms. Lane,
I read a recent letter that asked about a homemade diet for a dog with frequent urinary tract infections.
My miniature schnauzer Daisy is 4 years old and has this problem. Her vet put her on a food called WD that is supposed to lower her urine pH. It has helped but the food is very expensive and I just cannot afford it on my limited social security income. Can you help me formulate a homemade diet for Daisy that would be less expensive for me and perhaps even better for her? She has no other known health problems.
I would very much appreciate your help.

Answer
Hello Linda,

Not only is W/D costly, it has notoriously low quality ingredients:

"Ground Whole Grain Corn, Powdered Cellulose 17.1% (source of fiber), Chicken by-product Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor, Soybean Mill Run, Corn Gluten Meal, Soybean Oil, Dried Beet Pulp, Soybean Meal, Iron Oxide, Potassium Chloride, Calcium Sulfate, L-Lysine, Vitamin E Supplement, Choline Chloride, vitamins (L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate (source of vitamin C), Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Biotin, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Vitamin D3 Supplement), preserved with BHT, BHA and Ethoxyquin, minerals (Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Manganous Oxide, Calcium Iodate, Sodium Selenite), Taurine, L-Carnitine, L-Tryptophan, Beta-Carotene. "


Yikes - we can do much better than this. I take it your dog has sruvites? As well as the UTI? I can certainly help you formulate a diet, but let's consider a few things.

1) Home made diet is also not cheap - even if I endeavour to make use of the lowest cost ingredients such as eggs, sardines, rice, liver,chicken thighs and beans - it's still not inexpensive. Plus, all home made diets require supplementation. I am not aware of the exact cost of the Hill's but I wouldn't want to mislead you. It can be controlled, and if you're a savvy shopper you will do things like buy veggies in bulk, cook and freeze them when they're cheapest; but it is never cheap like a grocery store food is cheap.

2) Home made diet does entail extra work in temrs of shopping and preparation. I always like to make sure people are well aware of this. There are tricks for making it easier but it is difficult, some days. :)

3) I am always happy to help people out, but there is a reason I do this professionally; before I formulate a diet for an individual dog I have the owner fill in a questionnaire, so I am in possession of a good amount of information and history, and can develop the recipes with all the facts in front of me. Since you are on limited income I'm guessing my fee is challenging for you. On the other hand if I don't devote the hours to going through your dog's profile and calculating each nutrient carefully, I can't assure you that the diet is correct for him or her. I would consider a discount given your income restrictions, if you want to have a look at my services page and get back to me.
www.thepossiblecanine.com

Handing out generic recipes is a bad idea with health conditions, in particular. Peraps we can work out a compromise here.

4) Again, my yahoogroup offers a free tutorial on how to formulate a balanced diet and all you really need is a calculator and our support. That option is totally free and could be a great starting place for you.

I regret I cannot do work for no fee, but I do this for a living and it's much better for the dog in question to have me work closely and not just hand out a one-size-fits-all diet.

This is my yahoogroup:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ThePossibleCanine and you can always contact me at home as well. I would really like to help if I can. If after reading through this reply you would like to discuss a consultation, I'd be more than happy to do so at a reduced rate.

All the best, Catherine