Cystine Stones In Dogs Diet

Strict compliance is necessary if your dog is on a special diet and is receiving medication to dissolve cystine stones.

Cystine stones in dogs diet.

Without preventive care cystine uroliths tend to recur within 6 12 months of removal or dissolution. The type of diet your vet prescribes will depend on the stone. This is significant as lifelong feeding of a commercial prescription diet or home prepared therapeutic diet is very expensive particularly in large breed dogs. Urine amino acid profile reveals abnormal quantities of cystine and in some dogs and cats lysine arginine and ornithine.

When the stones are made up of cystine a normal compound found in the body they are called cystine stones. In this situation measure urine cystine concentration. Your veterinarian may be able to palpate the stones or may need to perform imaging studies such as a bladder ultrasound or a contrast radiographic study. Cystine bladder stones appear to be the result of a genetic abnormality that prevents a dog from reabsorbing cystine from the kidneys.

Because not all cystinuric dogs form stones cystinuria is a predisposing factor rather than a primary cause of urolith formation. On the canine cystinuria email list most of us have found that diet and urinary alkalinization have failed to prevent our dogs from forming stones and have sometimes caused other problems including other types of stones that form in alkaline urine. Urolithiasis cystine in dogs. Calcium oxalate or cystine stones about three quarters of dogs diagnosed with this type of stone are males between the ages of 5 and 12.

Return for follow up examinations and tests as recommended by your veterinarian. Some dogs with cystinuria are negative on this test even though they have the disease. Calcium oxalate stones cannot be dissolved and must be removed surgically. Neutering castration in these cases may prevent recurrence of cystine uroliths removing the need for lifelong medical management.

In most stone free dogs cystine concentrations are extremely low. Once they are removed you can help prevent the formation of new stones by giving your dog the correct diet. While bladder stones in general are somewhat common in dogs cystine bladder stones are rare. If the nitroprusside test was only evaluated after castration it is difficult to determine if castration reduced cystine excretion.

Dogs affected by cystine stones i am assuming cystine as you didn t specify in your question but more information may be found about other stones on the link below may be given n 2 mercaptopropionyl glycine 2 mpg and a low protein alkalinizing diet to help raise the ph of the urine to prevent further urinary stone formation. For example for dogs with urate and cysteine bladder stones your vet will recommend specific lower protein therapeutic diets that promote alkaline ph and reduce intake of stone precursors says larsen who is board certified in veterinary nutrition. Urolithiasis is a medical term referring to the presence of crystals or stones in the urinary tract.