Nutrition Strategies for Canine Urinary Health: Understanding Crystals, Stones, and Diet

This session examines the physicochemical mechanisms underlying urinary crystal and urolith formation in dogs and outlines evidence based nutritional strategies for managing lower urinary tract disease in general practice. Content includes how dietary moisture, nutrient composition, and feeding patterns influence urine concentration, pH, and relative supersaturation—primary determinants of crystal nucleation, growth, and aggregation across stone types. We will review indications for therapeutic urinary diets, the role of moisture rich and fresh food formulations, and diet responsive factors that modulate recurrence risk. Emerging insights into the urinary microbiome as a potential biomarker of urinary tract health and a modifiable target through nutrition will also be discussed. Participants will gain clinically applicable frameworks for diet selection, client communication, monitoring high risk patients, and long term nutritional management of dogs with LUTD.

• Learn about physicochemical drivers of urinary crystal and urolith formation, including the roles of urine concentration, pH, and relative supersaturation.
• Evaluate nutritional strategies that modify urine chemistry, with emphasis on dietary moisture, nutrient composition, and feeding patterns.
• Differentiate indications for therapeutic urinary diets including moisture rich or fresh food formulations in managing and preventing common canine stone types.
• Learn about emerging evidence on the urinary microbiome as a potential biomarker and diet responsive factors in canine lower urinary tract health.