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Our 9 year-old Welsh Corgi has had struvite bladder stones twice in the past two years. This round is finally over. Our vet recommended that we ask you the following questions. What over the counter or prescription acidifying diet food /food brands would you recommend now that the bladder infection and stones are gone, and urine in clean? Would you also recommend probiotics and cranberry supplements? If so, which ones would you recommend? Many thanks for your assistance.
Urine pH is no longer thought to be of great importance in minimizing struvite stones:

1. To inhibit UTIs - so if the dog has any redisposing factors - those should resolved. An example would be a overweight female dog where voiding urine completely is problematic.
2. RSS is now the measure by which we assess the probability of stone formation in the urine, but that is difficult to measure and so ....... the only ones who can (b/c they are so motivated) are pet food companies selling such foods. An example is Royal Canin SO - probably moderate calorie if the dog is overweight..

If you are still wanting to feed an acidifying diet, the Hill's c/d and w/d canned have successfully produced a dilute low pH urine in most dogs. If you are looking for an OTC food that will acidify the urine, there are none to my knowledge that make that claim and have substantiated it. So I would not recommend cranberries or probiotics.

My dog had gastrointestinal issues due to food allergies. I am feeding him a homecook diet made by a nutrition specialist (not vet, not certified). He has lost weight while on the diet. Our vet wants some vet certified in nutrition to check on my diet to see if it needs to be changed. Which plan should I choose to have our diet revised? Thanks.
If the dog is at optimal body weight and has no other medical issues, you may select the Homemade Det Recipe module using the NOVEL PROTEIN option. This is an automated recipe generated based on the dog BW entered and the foods you select.

If you want the current diet assessed and then corrected as needed, then you would select the Nutrition Consult for an individualized consult, and/or if the dog needs to regain back the weight.

What hypoallergenic joint supplement do you recommend, besides Cosequin and Dasequin which contain her allergens, for a dog with a lot of food allergies (definitely beef, possibly soy and wheat, and now, possibly newly developed allergies to pea or potato)? She's almost 14 and has some arthritis. I've asked her neurologist at her ortho vet practice but he's pushing homeopathic and I don't have faith in that. I'd like something that has all three components, glucosamine, low molecular weight chondroitin, and MSM. Thank you for any guidance!
You may have to look for a product in the human pill form or horse powder form.
Neither of those sources attempt to "flavor" meds.

My large cat family (10 kitties) gets both dry and canned cat food on a daily basis. I have their dry food down pat now in terms of what they get rotation-wise (Science Diet, Purina, & sometimes Nutro). I do feed the premium tier dry foods manufactured by these "Big Three" companies, because each uses animal nutritionists (this information is displayed on their websites, which is reassuring) and related food science professionals to create all their formulas.

It's the canned food part I'm not sure about. Nutro and Science Diet offer canned foods that are beyond my budget for 10 cats. There is no "good, better, or best" with these two; at a dollar plus in my neck of the woods for either a 3 oz or 5.5 oz can of cat food, I simply can't afford to feed six plus cans of canned food (divided between two feedings) at this price point on a daily basis.

However, I can afford to purchase Friskies canned food for their daily consumption; Friskies works out to be about 50 cents for a 5.5 oz can and has remained at this price for as far back as I can remember. There is a wide selection, and my cats like this brand.
Am I undoing the benefits they get from their top tier dry food by adding Purina's lowly Friskies line to that nutritional mix? My cats are quite used to canned food, and I don't want to change their routine in regard to that.
I really have no problem with feeding a Purina product at any price point. The quality control is the same across the company. Purina prides itself on having all or none of the bells and whistles people want in their pet foods (color, shapes, sizes, flavors, ingredients, sources, etc) but the bottom line is the nutrient profile and quality controls are the same ..... The overpriced ones are covering for the less expensive products, so on the whole they make money allowing all kinds of people to feed their pets nutritionally sound products.... make sense?

Hello! I have a 7 year old male Basenji-mix who has a variety of health issues. He has Addison's disease, food sensitivities, and recently had calcium oxalate stones removed. His vet recommended prescription food to help prevent new stones. However, my dog does not like the prescription food (Royal Canin SO) and I am EXTREMELY disappointed in the junky ingredients in the 3 prescription diets. I would like to keep him on his previous food (Taste of the Wild), which he loved and was doing very well on. Short of a home-made diet, do you know of any other options? I am looking for a food with quality protein that will not aggravate his sensitivities, that will also not contribute to the formation of stones. I understand that the stones are likely to reoccur anyway due to unknown heredity and because he will be on Prednisone for his Addison's. Thank you so much for your time!
Sorry ... there are no other commercial options (Hill's u/d or k/d, Royal Canin SO and Purina NF) given all of the dietary changes recommended to minimize or delay reoccurrence. OTC food cannot by regulation make the necessary changes to the food to prevent oxalate formation and still be in compliance with AAFCO rules for OTC foods.

I want to use natural sources for as many ingredients as possible. Why don't you offer diets with liver, eggshells, bone and marrow, even chicken thighs, which are very affordable? I would love to pay $25 for such a diet.
We suggest ingredients that best fit the nutritional requirement and then add as little supplement has possible to complete the profile. Not all ingredients can be used in all recipes when a PARTICULAR nutrient profile is intended. For example, we do use dark meat chicken in many recipes if the fat content is to be a moderate level but have to use white meat chicken if the fat content of the diet is to be low. Liver has many micronutrients but if fed at a level to meet the copper requirement, it would be too much protein, iron or fat for the intended purpose of the recipe, is expensive and some people do not like to cook liver in their homes.

As for bone or marrow, in order to use any ingredient in a recipe, I have to know the FULL nutrient profile (~40 nutrients) and it has to be of a known % digestibility. Marrow is not in the USDA Food Database so although often said to be ‘nutritious’ apparently the USDA is confident in a consistent nutrient profile to publish one. The digestibility of bone is either not known or highly variable, and there are much safer ways to provide calcium than feeding bones. Finding bone meal has become more difficult since the BSE scare because most of the bone meal came from cattle. Hence I prefer not to use these in a recipe when I am GUARANTEEING the nutrient profile meets AAFCO or NRC recommendations. As for eggshells, yes they contain calcium but only 0.5 gram/large egg shell. For larger dogs (30 or more lbs) require 3-4 grams of calcium per day, this is 6-8 egg shells per day which most people find to be a waste because the dog does need /should not eat 1/2 dozen egg whites or yolks per day. So although those are highly nutritious foods you mentioned, all are not need in one recipe and not as practical, or universally accepted as they may first appear.

The converse is that there are several ALL in ONE supplements specifically designed and proportioned to have the correct amount of only the essential nutrients needed in the smallest volume plausible (less than 3% of total diet). In general I have found over the course of 20 yrs that pet owners are not consistent when making their own food. They make changes which are not appropriate and “drift” off the original recipe … and then no longer have a complete and balanced recipe. However, if they use one of these supplements (that I do not sell), they are more likely to still meet the pet full nutritional needs when they make their own substitutions. With fewer individual supplement to buy and measure out, owners have been more compliant for less money spent using this very convenient powdered form, and hence continue to feed a nutritionally complete homemade diet.

If you have very specific requests, we can certainly help you through a Nutrition Consult.

In some of your messages, you suggested going to the nutrition library to find diets for a cost of $15. I can't find any link in the nutrition library for doing that.
https://www.petdiets.com/Library/Articles/Dogs/Healthy-Pets

Go to "Nutrition Library" and then "Articles".
Then select either 'Cat - healhty pets' or 'Dog - healthy pets'.
Scroll down to see "Homemade Diet for ....."

The link above is to the dog page.

I have a question about the AAFCO statements on pet food labels. I know you've stated in the past that you are not in favor of "all life stages" formulas, because they are desgined for the most demanding life stage (growth) and are usually more than an adult dog needs. For the same reason I tend to look for products that are desgined for maintenance rather than all life stages.

My dog is not overweight but he easily could be if I didn't watch him carefully. I try to select the lowest calorie products I can find. Right now I am trying to decide between a Purina One formula (Chicken & Rice Smartblend) and a Pro Plan formula (Adult Savor Chicken and Rice). I thought the Purina One product might be lower in calories but they are exactly the same. The guaranteed analyses of the two products are identical except the Pro Plan formula has higher levels of Vitamins A and E. The ingredients are not identical but I don't seen any significant differences between the two.

What *IS* different is the AAFCO statement. The Purina One product makes a maintenance claim, while the Pro Plan formula is for all life stages. The two products are so very similar I don't understand why the AAFCO statements are different -- that's probably a question best answered by the company. But it does make me wonder if the AAFCO statement is a reliable basis upon which to make a decision. What do you recommend?
The AAFCO statement has to cover the minimum - not the maximum. So 2 foods with the same nutrient profile may be suitable for growth but the company can always place a lower, or less rigid claim on the food. They do not have to say it meet growth just b/c it does. AAFCO is about protecting the lower end of nutrients and on very few nutrients the high end. So any growth food can have a maintenance claim, but not every maint food can have a growth claim.

I would select based on caloric content (kcal/cup) first for the type of dog you described, and if the same within the same company go with the less expensive, more convenient to obtain product.

The recipe I just purchased lists corn oil as one of the recipe ingredients. I feel extra virgin olive oil is nutritionally superior plus most corn is GMO now and I do not use any GMO products. I typically make all my purchases organic. Can I not use the olive oil??? thanx so much.
The dog has a daily requirement for linoleic acid. Corn oil (GMO or not) contains 58% of this essential fatty acid. Olive oil contains only 8% linoleic acid, so from that stand point I would say that corn oil is nutritionally superior. The only other oil that comes close to having the same high concentration of linoleic acid is sunflower oil ... I am not sure how you feel about sunflower oil production but that would be a reasonable substitute at the same dose if you can obtain it. If you wish to feed olive oil, you would have to feed 7 times as much olive oil to meet the dogs daily need because turkey is a low which may or may not be palatable to the dog. I hope this is helpful. Let me know if you have other questions.

Can you create a diet for my adult dogs and/or puppies using Nupro Natural Dog Supplement instead of BalanceIt or Carnivore Mix?
Sorry those supplements are not complete nor properly balanced to complete a homemade diet.
Have you considered Chef's Canine Complete at www.mypetgrocer.com under 'vitamins and minerals'?