[107barney]

Awww poor Roxy. Teddy has struvite crystals due to a bladder infection. He had it as a young pup, it was mistreated with Amoxicillin and lingered. I changed vets and got to the bottom of it and he had a small stone and struvite crystals. He was treated with clavamox, metacam, and was prescribed the Hill's S/D diet which dissolves struvite crystals. I objected to the S/D diet and at the suggestion of the vet nutritionist at Boston's angell memorial hospital, we tried a product called Uro-eze in lieu of the S/D diet. I added 1/8 tsp of Uro-Eze to Teddy's food 2x/day for about 6 weeks. It worked without side effects to dissolve the struvite crystals and the stone (confirmed by ultrasound). We have not had any return of symptoms.

As for calcium oxalate crystals/stones, diet cannot dissolve them but can help prevent the formation of new ones. So if Roxy has Calcium oxalate stones, she may need surgery to remove them. She should then go on a low oxalate diet (usually a meat and rice based diet supplemented with low oxalate vegetables are used if you are a home cooker and I think you are).

The other thing we did when using uro-eze is we added cranberry juice to Teddy's food to enable him to drink more and blush the bladder.

The uro-eze is not commonly prescribed - our vets learned about it from the vet nutritionist. Your vet nutritionist will know about it. I'd email him and ask his thoughts/consult on this.

It's a challening road but defintely not something to be in total despair over, it can be treated and cured!!