From:
"Tressie"
Date: 2008-08-24 02:14:00 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: stones/Urinary pH
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
Dr. Murray - thank you for the clarification.
I know now what I need to do - get some ph test trips and monitor
Sampson's ph levels, while maintaining him on the Innova EVO Ferret,
which is the highest protein kibble I can get in my area (50.5%) -
and hope like heck that his ph level starts coming down from 7 to 5.
Will also check his bonded companion's ph level since he was fed the
same crappy food.
An aside I have notified the previous and original owner about the
problems they inadvertently created by feeding these ferrets cheap
cat food and fruit loops. Both were suitably contrite.
Gratefully,
Tressie
--- In ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com, AFERRETVET@... wrote:
>
Hi Tressie,
> Since there has been some questions and confusion about
> what the pH of the urine should be and what pH it should be
> for stone prevention and treatment I thought I would answer some
> of those questions.
> By far the most common bladder stone is a struvite stone.
> Struvite stones occur when the pH is elevated above 6.5.
> Thus an acid urine pH is desired to prevent and to treat
> struvite stones. Meat based diets should produce an acid
> urine because the brake down of the sulfur containing amino
> acids produces sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid lowers the pH of the
> urine. Plant based protein do not have the sulfur containing amino
> acids and thus produce a high pH (7 and above) and struvite
> stones. Most ferret (cat and kitten) foods add a urinary acidifier
> like dl-methionine to produce a urinary pH of 5 to 6 which will
> prevent struvite stones. Struvite stones can be removed by surgery
or
> slowly dissolved by lowering the urine pH to 5 to 5.5.
>
...
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