A Diet For Treating Kidney Or Bladder Struvite Stones©
WellVet.com™Bladder and especially kidney stones are very serious. Your animal should always be seen by a veterinarian in your area. Traditional Chinese Medicine also seems especially helpful, as does homeopathy. A consult with Dr. McCluggage is recommended (Click here for information on phone consults). Recommended herbs and supplements will vary by case, and the products listed below are included as guidelines only. Other products may be better indicated to help heal your animal.
Portions can be made up daily then added together at mealtime.
All portions are in a rough volume percent of the total amount fed. This allows for variation by size without worrying about cups, teaspoons, and other measuring devices.
- 50% of each meal is meat. The type of meat should be varied from time to time. For example, some meats to include:
Fish
Lean ground beef
Chicken
The meats should be cooked right before being fed and the portion adjusted to accommodate for the animal's size (equaling 50% of the total amount of food in the bowl). Cook the meat to a medium point. Do not overcook it. While cooking, add extra water. Stir enough of the extra water into the meal once all ingredients have been added to make a stew-like consistency.
- 25% of the meal should be a carbohydrate
- Sweet potato
- White potato
- White rice
These should be cooked fairly well done, and the skin removed, for the first 60 days following the stone removal, or until the stone has been dissolved. The skin has extra minerals that will contribute to the next stone's formation, if one is going to form.
- 25% of the diet should be varied, almost daily, and include:
- Eggs
- Yogurt
- Carrots (peeled early on, as the skin has more minerals that contribute to stone formation. later on the carrot can be fed whole and raw)
- Tofu
- Beets (cooked)
- Squash (cooked)
To the above, at each meal add:
- One high quality multivitamin per meal (we like Thorne Research's Canine Basic Nutrients, click here, and Feline Basic Nutrients, click here
- 1/2 to 3 capsules of a Calcium Citramate supplement (cats and small dogs get 1/2 capsule; increase the dose for dogs from there based on the dog's size, where the largest of dogs would get 3 capsules per meal
- A small pinch of a "salt substitute" which is actually potassium chloride
- 1/4 to 2 tablespoons of olive oil (again, cats and small dogs receive the smallest dose and large dogs the maximum dose)
In addition, WellVet.com recommends that the urine is routinely checked to make sure it stays in an acid pH and that a urine culture be performed every 1-3 months for the first year to make sure there is no bacterial cystitis developing.
WellVet.com also recommends our proprietary Chinese herbal formula called "Cystitis and Dissolve Crystals Formula". Click Here to order this custom formula designed by Dr. McCluggage
If the pH does not stay acidic, we recommend adding l-methionine (not dl-methionine, the synthetic compound). For information on l-methionine, click here.