Cranberries?

[pita75]

Anybody feed their pup cranberries (in any shape or form)? I noticed that some kibbles have it in their ingredients and I've seen posts from people on other forums that feed it to their dogs...just wondering if any of you have fed them?

Supposedly, cranberries can help prevent UTIs (I have used cran juice myself to get over a UTI in the past) but I don't really know if it has the same effect in dogs and how much it would take to work. Sophie doesn't have a UTI, but I was just thinking it couldn't hurt to feed her cranberries every once in awhile if it works and doesn't mess up her stomach.

Thanks

[French lady]

My Sofie has about 2 UTI a year and I have started giving her special Vet food and putting organic apple cider vinegar in the drinking water. I do not think she is drinking as much water as she use to. Cranberries sound like something I should try. I do think they would have lots of sugar in them, which with Sofie's weight, I like to stay away from.

[gmacleod]

Try cranberry extract ;) Then you don't have to worry about the sugar.

And yes, cranberries are often very good for helping to keep UTIs at bay. I guess it will depend a bit on what the exact causes are, but in most cases, cranberry extract is very helpful. Doseage is about 500mg for a 50lb dog, so half of that for frenchie.

Another thing that can affect UTIs is food - avoid things that contain wheat, soy, corn, beet pulp or molasses. That goes for treats as well as kibble (flour is wheat, and many treats contain molasses).

You should also examine how long you ask your dog to hold its bladder if you're crating during the day. The dog may be physically capable of holding on for several hours, but that means that it is holding toxins within the body (that should be flushed every couple of hours in urine) and bacteria within the bladder (that also should be flushed every couple of hours by urinating). That just makes conditions ripe for the development of UTIs and kidney stones, so if you don't have to ask your dog to hold on that long, then don't ;)

[Piperloo]

I have frozen cranberry juice in a bowl, broken it with a spoon and fed it in pieces to my dog. She really enjoyed it that way and it made a great summer time treat. appicon

[pita75]

The frozen cranberry juice sounds like something Sophie and Peet would like, they both like to crunch on ice cubes...I'll have to give it a try especially since I've heard it gets unbearably hot in Georgia in the summer...not looking forward to that. :eek: