Do they really work?
YES, cranberry supplements do work! From personal experience, I can tell you this is not voodoo or the placebo effect. Cranberry supplements do in fact work when given in the appropriate dose. That said, most cranberry supplements list your pets weight range along with an extremely low dose recommendation. Which is why you probably think it’s not working for your pet and why many pet parents discontinue its use out of frustration. For many products, my advice is to follow the recommendations on the package. This is not the case with Cranberry. Let me explain.
Pets that should be on a cranberry supplement daily are those with a history of urinary tract issues. Cranberry has been proven effective in lowering urine pH and preventing E.Coli bacteria from adhering to the bladder wall. How does this happen? This effect seems to be caused by cranberries’ high content of proanthocyanidins. What most people aren’t aware of, is that cranberry has a very short life inside the bladder. So giving your pet cranberry once daily at a low dose, is not going to prevent recurrent UTI’s. Once your pet empties their bladder, all the good stuff preventing E.Coli from adhering to the bladder, is also emptied. Keep in mind, not all UTI’s are E.Coli based, so make sure you talk to your veterinarian and get a urine culture done if your pet is experiencing recurrent UTI’s.
My go-to product is Crananidin by Nutramax because this product is in tablet form and very easy to hide in peanut butter. I also like Cranimals Original, but this is in powder form and significantly harder to hide if you have a picky pet. I recommend giving 5-10 mg per pound three times daily to start. Some pets may not be able to handle the high dosing, so if your pet typically has a sensitive stomach, start lower. Cranberry is very safe, but can upset a sensitive stomach. After a couple of weeks on the three times daily dose, taper to twice daily.
Example: Sox, my 14 year old pit mix with a plethora of medical problems. She has a recessed vulva, creating moisture build-up around her vulva every time she urinates. When she was young, she suffered a couple of UTI’s throughout the years, but nothing serious. As she got older and developed hypothyroidism, mast cell tumors, a heart murmur, etc., she began to get recurrent UTI’s with E.Coli bacteria. As soon as the antibiotics were complete, the urinalysis would come back negative for infection, a week later she’d have another UTI. The veterinarian and I decided to try a 6 month course of low-dose antibiotics only at night with her cranberry supplement (dosed per the box label). This worked wonders until Sox developed an antibiotic resistant UTI. After switching the antibiotic and completing two weeks of treatment, I spoke with an integrative veterinarian who advised me to increase Sox’s cranberry dose. We started offering her about 10mg/lb Crananidin every 8 hours. Which is 5 tablets of Crananidin three times a day! After two weeks, I decreased to 5 tablets every 12 hours. Over the course of the next few months I slowly continued to decrease the number of tablets she was getting, but continued the twice daily dosing. Sox has been on 5mg/lb Crananidin every 12 hours and has been UTI free for over a year! She’s relieved, I’m relieved, and my bank account… is relieved.
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