Paradigm Changes in the Role of Nutrition for the Management of Canine and Feline Urolithiasis

Results of experimental and clinical investigation have confirmed the importance of dietary modifications in medical protocols designed to promote dissolution and prevention of uroliths. The objectives of medical management of uroliths are to arrest further growth and to promote urolith dissolution by correcting or controlling underlying abnormalities. For therapy to be most effective, it must promote undersaturation of urine with lithogenic crystalloids by 1) increasing the urine solubility of crystalloids, 2) increasing the volume of urine in which crystalloids are dissolved or suspended, and 3) reducing the quantities of lithogenic crystalloids in urine. This article summarizes and applies evidence about nutritional management of urolithiasis derived from experimental and clinical studies of cats and dogs performed at the Minnesota Urolith Center.