Meet Buddy. He is a Foxy x Jack Russel. Energetic by nature, little Buddy lives up to his name, loving life and going places with his owners, including at the local waterfall.

 

When he was six months old, Buddy visited Anexa Thames for his castration. The day started with a pre-op health check – the vets checked him over to ensure he was fit and well, gave his owners the opportunity to ask any questions, and explained the benefits of getting some testing done. This testing is helpful to the vet as the results are used to understand how well Buddy’s internal organs working, allowing the team to:

• Best support Buddy while he is under anaesthetic
• Identify and manage any health concerns early
• And if the test shows nothing to worry about, the test is still valuable to provide an individualized baseline for the vets to compare to in the future.

Buddy’s owners opted for preventative care testing (blood panel, urinalysis and fecal sample).

Even though Buddy was healthy and well-within-himself and displayed no signs of health concerns, Buddy’s results showed there were ++ Calcium Oxalate Dihydrate crystals in his urine. This was unusual and prompted the team to investigate further.

This wasn’t Buddy’s first stint at the vet’s. Buddy had broken his leg when he was only three months old and had undergone treatment to help it heal. Post-treatment, his owners decided to add a bone and joint supplement to his diet to support his recovery. The supplement was made up of calcium, glucosamine, green lipid mussel, omegas and other multivitamins.

The extra calcium provided by the supplement was a source of calcium, but at the dose given, probably not enough calcium to create crystals in Buddy’s urine. The Thames team also looked at Buddy’s diet to check if he was on a suitable diet for his age and stage. It turned out Buddy was eating Royal Canin starter for puppies under two months old and pregnant/lactating dogs (this food has extra calcium in it). Unfortunately, his owner accidentally bought Starter food instead of the Stage 2 Mini puppy food from Royal Canin.

Buddy had been accidentally over-supplemented. He was getting extra calcium from the starter food and bone and joint supplement, causing the crystals!

Buddy’s castration operation went ahead without issue, and he began eating the correct food type for his needs.  Buddy recently celebrated his first birthday and is crystal-free, which is great news!

You don’t always think of these things at the time… However, something simple as over-supplementing with calcium has the potential to result in urinary issues like urine crystals and bladder or kidney stones. It was very good for Buddy to identify this issue early.

 

 

Other articles that may interest you:

Let your pet live their best life – Identify disease early with preventative care diagnostic testing