[USER]

My dog has bladder stones and the vet put her on a very strict urinary diet. I bought one bag of the food from the vet but then placed an order from Chewy.

One bag of food and one small bag of treats from Chewy cost $138.17 and it’s almost gone already and it was just delivered on January 15. It is a urinary SO diet.

The vet said it has to specifically be a urinary SO diet. I bought Royal Canin brand at the vet and ordered the same brand from Chewy.

Has anyone else ever had to have their dog on a strict urinary SO diet and found the food any cheaper?

Unfortunately the vet said she has to be on this diet for the rest of her life.

I need to be able to find this food cheaper. Please help!

[Gia]

So as someone who was heavily into the pet industry, both rescue and store I recommend you look into some research. Prescription diets are currently under fire for actually not having any medicine in them.

The way they work is increased salt in the diet which makes your cat more thirsty.

Also reduced minerals in the diet which is supposed to help with stopping the formation of stones.

There is typically some type of acid added into the diet to ‘break up’ the stones – however there are a few types of stones, the acid they add doesn’t work for all of them.

Can it help, yes. Can it also increase the cat’s salt intake and cause them to be deficient in other minerals – also yes. It just depends on the cat to be honest.

I would recommend increasing the water intake, wet food or raw food, basically anything with more moisture. Also look into adding cranberry and blueberry into their diets (super snouts makes a cranberry product that even my pickiest cats will eat).

For the stones – the company “adored beast” has a protocol called Easy Peesy. It’s homeopathic for breaking up stones and has been used for many many years within the owners practice in Canada.

They also make litter you can buy off amazon that you can break out for specific testing.

To test their PH levels (litter doesn’t absorb) so when they pee you can get a sample to test with the test strips. It’s called “check up pro” cat litter.

Main point is to increase moisture and to change the PH level, which the cranberry and blueberry helps.

Whatever you choose I wish you the best and hope your kitty gets better soon

[Chrystal]

Search the internet and see what ingredients you need. My shi tzu had stones and the vet recommended a prescription food that was super expensive.

We did it for about 6 months and I started making their food myself and she hasn’t had any issues since

[Corrine]

Had a cat on it. We could also not find it cheaper anywhere, but the cost of a urinary blockage was much more expensive than keeping her on the food for the rest of her life

[Sonia]

I have a cat that is on the same food for cats. He’s been on it for years. When we couldnt get a bag for a few weeks during covid, he immediately got sick again.

It’s extremely important to keep him on the proper Rx food

[Cassie]

10 years in veterinary medicine here. So, the prescription food is going to help break down the stones & work to prevent them from coming back.

It also helps with water intake too. Trust me it’s going to save you vet bills being on this food.

I know it sucks but it is what it is.
I had a dog that got big bladder stones.

I put him on it and they didn’t get bigger & when I was finally able to do surgery the stones never came back

[Ancella]

Chewy sometimes has discount codes, you can find them on like retail me not, or just search chewy discount codes
Sometimes, other pet stores will have specials too, but Petco and PetSmart I find to be really overpriced.

I bought my hamster around Memorial Day and Petco was having 20% off everything.

You can also shop through a shopping portal like Rakuten, you’ll get a little percentage back, but it’s delayed. They only pay out quarterly.

This is kind of a longshot, but you could also go on BUY NOTHING and make that special request, when my sweet Doberman passed away, I had all this food left over, so I gave it away to someone I knew

[Lisa]

I would research what it is that specifically causes the problem. At this price it may be less expensive to make a food.

[Barbara]

My dog is in renal failure. He wouldn’t eat the prescription foods so we started making his food. Go to the Balance It website.

You can formulate your dogs personal recipe based on condition.

My vet suggested this.

[Geri]

Dog and cat both on this, won’t find it cheaper, is the same regardless of where you get it, the only way you’ll get it cheaper is if you do the auto ship subscriptions and you’ll get a few bucks off.

Hills urinary diet is crap (let’s be real, they all are if you look at the ingredients) and made both of mine sick, Purina makes a prescription urinary diet, but if I remember correctly it’s more expensive.

So, sticking with the Royal Canin is your best bet, maybe just eliminate the treats to help with your cost as well

[Paula]

Check with your local animal shelter and Humane Society. Sometimes they get donations from individuals and companies of special diet food that is not really necessary for the rescues.

They have a vested interest in you keeping your dog.

[Kelly]

I had a pup on the same food with the same condition. Never found it cheaper.

[Rita]

My dog is on a prescription diet and it has been amazing for him. But Royal Canin is the Mercedes of the prescription foods.

Check with your vet to see if Purina or even Science Diet have a prescription diet that would work for your pet.

Another option to save money – Rakuten cashback deals. Instead of paying the $135ish regular price for our bag of dog food we wait until Rakuten has a 20% cashback deal at Petsmart.

Then we buy as a new autoship order (you can cancel the recurring orders after your food has arrived).

Stacking the Petsmart Treat points on top usually means our bag of food costs $100-$115 and then we get $25ish back through Rakuten.

We’ve also learned it is somehow cheaper to place 2 separate orders for 1 bag each rather than 1 order for 2 bags of food.

[Anna]

Look up bladder stones in dogs
Treatment for bladder stones in dogs
Home Cooke meals for dogs with bladder stones

Sorry I don’t have dogs and usually my first go to is the Internet to do some resource on the condition

[Linda]

Good luck, my daughter spends a fortune on her cat that has the same problem.

The vet wrote out a life time prescription for the food.

[Donna]

Chewy often has discounts or specials on prescription items. I signed up for Capitol One shopping and it almost always saves me money at Chewy, Petco, or Petsmart.

I shop around a lot because I can’t afford things either but I’ve learned to watch the deals. Chewy sends out emails alerting you to sales.

They have one that if you spend $100 you get a $30 gift card. I buy at that time a lot.

I keep my order at the 100 mark and put in another order to get another card.

I then use the two $30 gift cards to buy something I need for my pets. You can get it a little cheaper if you sign up for autoship.

I always set the date out to 8 months and can change it later. Chewy will send out an email when your autoship is getting closer.

You can cancel it at any time, pause it indefinitely, or change the date. We had to buy a prescription diet food for my dog.

The website the vet recommended that they used was ridiculous in pricing.

Chewy was the cheapest I could find. Amazon is sketchy when it comes to prescription diet food in my eyes.

[Crystal]

Look into things like cranberry supplements and natural treatment. The SO food made our dog gain weight and I researched supplemental and we took her off.

She lived to almost 17

[Christina]

Look into putting your pup on a raw food diet. It’s helped thousands of pets eliminate all kinds of health issues!

It’s far cheaper and MUCH better for their bodies!

[Author]

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