9 year old Lab with crystals in her urine....

Question
Hello Catherine, I have just picked up $60 of prescription food (s/d)for my 9 year old lab who was diagnosed with crystals in her urine.  This food will last 10 days!  My husband about lost his mind, and frankly I don't think we can afford to feed this to her for too long.  On top of that I am reading a lot about the prescription diet food, and it doesn't sound very good.  Suzie is experiencing incontinence, especially at night.  Is there a way to make her diet healthy AND less expensive?  I am reading all of your answers to previous questions and would LOVE some help with this.  My sweet baby has a few years left in her and I want to allow her to be as healthy as she can be.  Any help would be MUCH appreciated.  Thank you, Heather

Answer
Hi Heather,

Well, to be fair to everyone else, if I design a tailor made diet for you - which is often what is needed with uroliths - it's a professional service (see my website at http://www.thepossiblecanine.com/services.htm).
That said, if you are at the crystals stage and no stones, and IF the crystals are struvite, I should be able to help you here with some ideas. Fill me in a bit and we'll see what we can do. There is a great deal of information on all aspects of natural health and diet at my yahoogroup, so in lieu of a consult the group Files can help you a lot too, if you plan to do home made diet.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ThePossibleCanine

Again it depends on the type of crystal, and severity, and whetehr any other health conditions might complicate dietary requirements.

Hang in there! Homecooking is often LESS expensive than prescription diets, though I won't pretend it's not a lot of work. Using fresh foods will only be a good thing - as long as you formulate the diet careflly. With struvite, you may well be able to manage it with a commercial food, although I will have to suggest a premium food and they are not cheap. :(

Get back to me, we'll see what we can do.

All the best, Catherine