My Frenchie has grit in his urine. What else can I do to help?

There are a number of different kidney problems, such as incontinence, bladder stones or crystals in the urine, UTIs, cancer, or obstruction to the urethra, and some of them can't be prevented, such as chronic kidney failure or cancer which may naturally occur in older dogs. UTIs in dogs are caused by bacteria entering the urethra. Crystals in the urine can by caused by supersaturated urine, which happens when a dog has to hold their bladder for a long time. For good kidney health, I recommend making sure Bruno is let out to urinate on a regular basis, not being left longer than eight hours between peeing, making sure he always has a source of fresh water available, keeping him at a healthy weight, and making sure he eats a high quality diet.

These signs are extremely concerning and more investigations are essential to determine the origin of them and understand what type of treatment is required. Abdominal ultrasound and urine analysis would be needed. I would strongly recommend to discuss these options with your local veterinarian.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! The urinary tract symptoms you describe could be due to a urinary tract infection, urinary stones, a tumor, among other possibilities. Keep in mind that this may be unrelated to the crystals and can even be something like urinary incontinence. I would continue monitoring for signs of painful urination or bloody urine. I recommend that you have him evaluated by your veterinarian for further assessment and treatment. Further diagnostics would include abdominal imaging and lab work. Treatment would be based on findings. Good luck and have a good night!

These signs may be compatible with a urinary tract infection/inflammation and possibly urinary tract stones may be present again causing inflammation/infection of the kidneys. A clinical examination at your local veterinarian is essential to confirm these clinical suspicions and treat appropriately. Antibiotics and abdominal ultrasound may be needed. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. If this answer was helpful please let us know, this will be used to improve our service!

Unfortunately, only these diets will be able to help Luca’s bladder problems. The diet will help acidity the urine and it also causes him to drink more. This helps to prevent crystal formation and also has a flushing action in the bladder. I recommend to try the Royal Canin first. Mix it in VERY slow (like 10% of the food initially). Then every few days increase the amount. You should purchase the canned food to see if he likes that. If he does, you can feed him that mixed in with the dry food. Try to keep him out of the other Doha’s food. The diet will not work if it falls below 90% of the total daily food intake. I hope you find this helpful and please feel free to post any further questions.

Urine crystals often (depending on the type of crystals) form when they have a bladder infection. This would normally be the cause of a young dog having incontinence issues, but it's also possible that he has a nerve issue, or hereditary problem like ectopic ureters. It's best to have Asher rechecked by your veterinarian sometime soon. They can give you more information about the cause of his current urine dribbling and offer additional testing if necessary. I hope that helps and Asher gets better soon.

I'm sorry you're having such a challenge diagnosing what is going on with Dude. An increase in water intake and urination is not commonly associated with allergies of any kind. As you know, the first step in evaluating an increase in water intake and urination is to check a urine sample and blood work. Based on those results, did your vet recommend any additional testing? I would presume that Dude's urine concentration was low That can hide a number of things that can be going on. So, you could consider getting a sterile urine sample to submit to the lab for urine culture and sensitivity to see if a urinary tract infection is hiding in a dilute urine sample. You can have an abdominal ultrasound performed to further evaluate the internal organs in the abdomen to see if that gives you additional information. Or you could also do some addition blood or urine tests for Cushing's disease ( https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=635 ). Sometimes, I will recommend this testing be done with an internal medicine specialist ( http://find.vetspecialists.com/ ). In the meantime, I would recommend measuring Dude's water intake since that may give them additional information about how much water he is drinking. Good luck! I hope that was helpful and you can figure out what is going on with Dude. Thanks for using PetCoach.