My huskies are 8 mos. and 2 years old. I can feed Cato, for about .65 - .75 a day. And Delilah is about that same. I have a great Co-op and it helps to buy in bulk. I spent less than 100 on 120 lbs of meat. This will last us 2.5 months. If you can find a co-op in your area it will be help a lot.

http://dogaware.com/diet/rawgroups.html << that is a good compilation list for Co-ops. There are a few in the Carolinas.

Going to resurrect this thread, since Shadow was diagnosed with Struvite Crystals this morning.

She started exhibiting the classic UTI symptoms last night, frequent urination, lots of accidents, and mostly just dripping when she did pee. I started giving her cranberry juice last night (we buy the 100% juice, no sugar added stuff, so it's not junky), and she didn't seem to be in a tremendous amount of pain before bed. I woke up several times in the night to take her out, and she still peed in the crate. We got up this morning to her crying while peeing in the crate, we got her out, she cried and peed some more, so I got my act together and took her in to the e-vet. Aaron was able to collect some urine so they didn't have to tap her bladder to get it, and they found a lot of red blood cells and struvite crystals, which they said was indicative of an infection. The vet said I shouldn't have to worry about changing the diet unless the crystals persist, and right now she's on an antibiotic and an anti-inflammatory as well as continued cranberry juice.

So here's what I'm thinking, and please anyone chime in with other suggestions. First off, I'm familiar with raw, have done research and considered it, but it's really not practical for us. From what I understand, and again, correct me if I'm wrong, but I've heard that red meat has a higher pH and inhibits crystal growth. It was very difficult to find a food that Shadow tolerated, so we have to be very careful about switching food. We know for a fact that she can't tolerate any kind of potato, so that takes out an awful lot of the grain free formulas. The only kibble I've had any luck with is the Nature's Variety Instinct, and she's been on the chicken formula with the Raw Boost. After doing some research and talking to her foster mom (who has an awesome vet who is very knowledgable on nutrition), I'm going to go exchange the big bag of Chicken for the Venison formula. She's pretty much out of food aside from that unopened bag (was going to open it tonight for dinner), so I need to go do this before the store closes. I'm all ears with other suggestions to try out over time though.

Aside from the food, what supplements are people using? I'm completely open to supplement use, and I really want to keep this from becoming a recurring problem if at all possible. Thanks all!

Meredith, raw does not cause crystal growth if it is done correctly. That means you are feeding gan adequate amount of muscle and bone. I also feed eggs and fruits and veggies because mine love them.

I would try something besides the Nature's Variety simply because it has a REALLY high ash content, which means it is dense in minerals and could be contributing to the problem. That would be my only concern, as I don't dislike NV.

I wasn't implying that raw causes crystal growth, I was just saying it's not really practical for us to do with our dynamic.

I'm aware of the high ash content, it's just been horrible trying to find a kibble that doesn't give her the runs. I'm still looking for another grain free kibble that doesn't have potato in it, which is proving to be difficult. Even most of the THK and Grandma Lucy's formulas have potato.

OH! I read that wrong, I thought you were asking if it caused it? I knew you were not interested in feeding raw. I guess I wasn't clear on what you were asking.

Have you thought about Back to Basics?

I'm actually not familiar with that one, but I will go look it up. Thanks!

My late Schnauzer Tessi suffered from crystals for much of her 14 years. Sometimes they would form into stones and we had to have them flushed under general anesthetic on a couple of occasions after she would get a UTI. My vet (who is fantastic) after much research on Tessi's case, said that she needed to stay off bones as the excess calcium was a known contributor. She wasn't on raw, but I liked to give her bones every now and again, but then stopped bones. I am not sure how this relates to a true raw diet, but it might be worth considering. 

BTW, when I do get my Husky, I fully intend following the Prey model Raw diet, so I am not bashing raw. Just something to consider when you do your full research. It is feasible that an 85% Meat, 5% bone, 5% organ and 5 % liver might be good assuming the stools were okay??

I personally would be worried about distilled water, fully stripped RO water is considered dangerous for humans and this is essentially the same a distilled. You can buy RO units that you can adjust the amount of minerals stripped out. Having said this, there might be circumstances where distilled water is used under medical supervision.

Distiller water is not harmful; many kidney patients are on it.

I have no doubt that there are some instances where Distilled water water is used to treat a medical condition. Following are my comments based on my limited knowledge and experiences.

I looked into getting a Reverse Osmosis De Ionised (RO/DI) unit for my home as I use it for a highly sensitive fresh water aquarium shrimp. We use water with 0 TDS (total dissolved solids) and then remineralise with the appropriate level of minerals for the species of shrimp. I was advised that this pure water was no good for drinking. Which is odd I must admit. The reason is that it will strip essential minerals from your body and taste like crap (I subsequently created a system,catching and clean storage device for rain water which serves my minimal requirements for aquaria)

Here is a paper from the World Health Organisation, that discusses distilled water with the following areas for concern

• Direct effects on the intestinal mucous membrane, metabolism and mineral homeostasis or other body functions.
• Practically zero calcium and magnesium intake. 
• Low intake of other essential elements and microelements. 
• Loss of calcium, magnesium and other essential elements in prepared food.
 • Possible increased dietary intake of toxic metals leached from water pipe. • Possible bacterial re-growth.




http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/nutdemineralized.pdf

As I said before there may be circumstances where the stripping of minerals is beneficial for certain medical conditions, and may indeed reduce crystals in dogs bladder. This would possibly be consistent with my Vets advice to remove bones from my dogs kibble diet. 

My point in responding to this thread is not to argue or refute the use of distilled water, rather my intention is to raise awareness that distilled water may have undesirable effects. I had researched this quite a bit before deciding against installing a unit in my kitchen. 

My recommendation would be to do a fair bit of research and then consult with my vet or doctor before embarking on medium or long term consumption of distilled water.

To say distilled water is not harmful because many kidney patients are on it may indeed be true, but I don't know what other medications or supplements are used in conjunction with their treatments nor am I a doctor.