Pancreatitis-Yorkie

About 4 months ago our 4 year old, 10lb yorkie suffered from pancreatitis and was hospitalized for one week. We don't know what caused it, but it was reccomended that he be put on wd perscription dog food. We also have a 1 1/2 year old yorkie and was told that this dog food would be ok for her too. This week I noticed blood in his urine and took him back into the vet, they took and x-ray and he has Small stones and a bladder infection. He was put on an antibotic and we were told he'll probalbly pass the stones. At first one vet said he needed to be switch to another dog food with a higher PH, and then another one (SAME OFFICE) said he should stay on the wd. My question to you is, he has had one episode of pancreatitis, is there an over the counter dog food that I can purchase that would be good for both of our dogs? Should we put him back on regular dog food? Are the stones caused from not getting enough nutrition from the wd dog food?

My Comment:

Hi

I am not sure I understand you correct about whom got the urinary stones and/or pancreatitis of your two dogs.

In general, yorkies are phone to both pancreatitis and urinary stones.

There are two types of common urinary stones seen in dogs.

One is based on magnesium (struvite) and a urine kept more acidic is said to dissolving struvite stones and crystals.

The other one is calciumoxalate. Here her urine is tried to be in the more alkalic area, in an attempt to minimize the formation of these stones.

This is only a guideline.

So, feeding the w/d, the urine could be in the acidic area (6,2-6,4) as this is the "target urine pH" using this food (from the Hills Key to nutrition book)

If calciumoxalate stones are present an acidic urine could in THEORY make it worse.

As long you haven't been able to make a chemical analysis on the stones you don't really know what they are made of. So this step is important to do. Find out the nature of the stones.

Sometimes they are made of both struvite and calciumoxalate!!

Food for pancreatitis patients - yes, w/d is an option.

But, I normally use Royal Canin Intestinal Low Fat. I like this better. Not that I am a big fan of Royal Canin, but pancreatitits is a serious disease and I want to minimize the recurrence of it, as much as possible.

Perhaps, you can in some pancreatitis patience, after some time, try to go back to a more normal food. Especially if you are almost certain that the disease is caused by something known for example a pizza slice (or something else).

This is not the case for you. So, going back to normal food could mean the disease would come back.

We simply don't know if it will or not!

How this food work together with the urinary stones is hard to tell. There is no contraindication listed and you probably have to contact the company when you know the exact nature of the stones and hear what they tell you.

I can't recommend any over the counter food for you to try.

Normally I stick to Royal or Prescription when it comes to more serious diseases.

All the best

Per Schonbeck