[Echos_Momma]

Hello,
I have a question to ask and i thought about coming here to see if anyone else had this problem or knows about it. When i got smuttley and brough him home i noticed that smuttley was peeing alot i know puppies pee alot already but he was diffrent it was like 5 small little pees in a hour so the vet said it was just a puppy well when i took him for his second needles i brought this issue up again we ended up doing a urine test and it came back he has struvite crystals... He gave him 2 weeks worth of meds and told me to change his food. I am feeding him blue buffalo the puppy stuff but i was wondering if there is any kind of better food to be feeding him. How do dogs get struvite crystals?? do they have this for the rest of their lives?

 

[Mikey T]

Before changing the food I would be looking at another vet. In the vast majority of cases struvite crystals are a manifestation of an UTI. That is the bacteria that cause a UTI changers the Urine ph causing crystals to form. Crystals themselves are not a problem it is when this goes on a long time and stones form, THen the Bacteria is often tied up in the stone,. it goes like this Treat UTI acidity in Urine goes up disolves stones releases bacteria causing relapse UTI on to a vicious cycle.

So Your Dog Has Struvites

Merk Veterinary Manual
Urine Sediment[/url]

Struvite crystals are commonly observed in canine and feline urine. Struvite crystalluria in dogs is not a problem unless there is a concurrent bacterial urinary tract infection with a urease-producing microbe. Without an infection, struvite crystals in dogs will not be associated with struvite urolith formation. However, some animals (eg, cats) do form struvite uroliths without a bacterial urinary tract infection.

So if the dog has struvite crystal without a UTI no problem But In most cases I know about a UTI is general the cause of crystal formation. And one stones form they can be difficult to deal with becasue the shed bacteria that cause the recuring UTI.

Canine struvite stones

Struvite stones in the dog are almost always formed because of the urinary changes that occur with specific types of bladder infection: almost always Staphyloccocal infection but occasionally a Proteus infection. If a urine culture from a patient with a bladder stone should grow either Staph or Proteus, this would make struvite more likely than oxalate. Also, struvite requires an alkaline pH to form while oxalate requires an acid pH to form; urine pH is a part of any urinalysis and thus provides another clue as to the stone identity.

...
Urea is an important biochemical excreted in urine. When urine is infected with bacteria that are able to digest urea, urea is broken down into ammonia (NH3). Ammonia in water ionizes into ammonium (NH4+). Ammonia is toxic to the cells of the bladder wall and its presence generates inflammation (though the infection present also generates inflammation as well). The proteins released in the inflammatory reaction form a matrix which the struvite crystals use to form an actual stone. The reaction takes place only in an alkaline pH but the presence of ammonia creates just the alkaline pH needed for stone formation.
Bacteria capable of digesting urea are called “urease positive” bacteria and in most cases we are talking about Staphylococci. In the dog, the general rule is: No infection, no bladder stone.

...Dietary therapy in the prevention of struvite stones is of secondary importance in dogs (with the exception being the English Cocker Spaniel for which this is a hereditary metabolic problem rather than a matter of infection). The focus is on prevention of infection

so as you see My guess is the meds are for a UTI if he has stone formation it could become recurring until the stones disolve. There is no need to change diet because of stuvite formation in dogs. This is one are where dogs and cats differ.