Earlier this week we noticed blood in our dalmatians urine (male 2yrs) after xrays and tests the vet told us it was stones and he has since today undergone an operation which removed 2 marble sized and quite a lot of small grain sized stones.  These are now being sent off for analysis.  Does anyone have any experience of this problem at all who could give us some general advice?

Many thanks

chrissy x

Jeangenie is the dalmatian expert :) I'm sure that she will be able to help or point you in the right direction. As she lives on here (LOL :D ) she'll see this soon, hopefully :)

Daisy

Ditto that..I know from previous threads JG did a lot of research (maybe if you use search facility on here)
Mean time your Breed club has some info in the Health section.
HTH:)

Yep, one of my boys had a blockage due to a urate stone last year. Since then I've had to learn an awful lot about the condition! There's lots of information here, but the treatment your dal will need depends on what sort of stones he'd formed. They're probably urate, but could be other minerals, and all require a different approach.

Thanks for your help - Hope your dal is healthy and happy now - we just had the results back from america and his stones are urate ones. He has been put on hills u/d over the past few weeks, which he is not keen on at all, we have slowly switched him over, we have tried taking it away after 10 mins and feeding nothing til next mealtime but he getting worse and today has barely eaten a few mouthfulls and is thoroughly miserable, are there any alternatives to this food and if not something that he can have added to it that will not set of this problem again? also our vet has mentioned medication but seems relucant to give this and would prefer dietary management of his condition, is this how your dal was treated?

many thanks

Chrissy

Luckily Piglet loves the u/d, so that's not a problem I have - just the cost of it! £20-odd for 5kg isn't cheap! Working from the information available from purine lists I've found a recipe that seems okay.

Take a cup of rice, add 1 cup of milk and 3 cups of water, and slowly bring it to the boil. Turn off the heat and let it cool. If not all the liquid's been absorbed by the time it's cooled, heat it up again, then let it cool. You should have a pretty solid 'pudding'. Break 3 or 4 eggs, whisk them together and stir them into the pudding, heating gently to help them set. I find this makes 4 portions, to which I can add a spoonful of cottage cheese, or a little white fish.

You might find that your dal will eat the u/d if it's mixed with this rice. Perhaps half a portion with half his ration of u/d?

Most importantly, make sure he drinks a lot. An extra pint of water a day is good - a bowl at lunchtime, with maybe a little milk added to make it more tempting, means a bladder full of nice dilute wee a couple of hours later, to keep the bladder flushed. Make sure he's not going to be left unattended for a few hours after his big drink, or you'll come home to a very large puddle!

So far (touching all available wood) Piglet's been fine. We test his wee every 3 months for crystals, and check the pH more frequently, just to make sure he's not getting too acidic. Hopefully your dal will pick up soon.

i know what you mean about the cost ouch! we bought a 15kg bag from an online pet pharm for £48, the best price i could find! I will try the rice this morning as he has completely refused his meal this morning and i dont want him skipping meals as he loves his exercise, we are lucky that he has always drank a lot but like you say the more the better to flush his bladder out, many thanks for your advice it is very much appreciated.

chrissy

How did the rice work? Did he eat?

he woulnt eat the rice?! he was also sick with bile yesterday and his faeces were also full of mucous.  He ate some food last night and this morning all be it with alot of coaxing from me and going back to half and half u/d and old food as the vet was concerned about getting him to eat anything - longterm though i dont know what will happen? there are other prescription diets for this condition but i would think that they will taste much the same really...the vet doesnt seem to have any answers and hills say definately cant add anything to u/d so i am lost as to what else to do.... thanks for your help though...

Chrissy x

I'm surprised he wouldn't eat the rice. Piglet adores it. What were you feeding him before? It might well be that a mix of UD with another food (I'm toying with Burns Organic and JWB ocean white fish & rice) would be okay longterm, as long as you keep his bladder flushed regularly.

i know - i was surprised to, maybe he did have an upset stomach, im going to try it again and see what happens.  He was on wainwrights turkey and rice before, which i have been told is the equivelent of the quality/ingredients of jwb....

chrissy x

>He has been put on hills u/d over the past few weeks, which he is not keen on at all,

Can't blame the poor mite,Low protein/fat equals LOW palatability.I can say with all certainty that my dogs would starve to death if i had to feed some of these prescription foods(because they wouldnt eat it),so if they ever get one of these conditions i would have to find another route.

I dont know anything about your dogs condition,except that they need that extra fluid,which dry food certainly lacks... If it were me i would see a holistic vet and get a list of foods and recipe's that would be safe to feed and put them on a home made diet per the H vet's instructions.Much healthier,cheaper and tastier then that dry food.

Good luck.

i know i cant blame him and he is so miserable with it, he has always loved his food and now i am having to coax him to eat each piece of kibble, it is such hard work.....think i will try and research other options with the help of a holistic vet....

thanks for that

Chrissy x