Urinary pH manipulation - Effects of diets and supplements on the urinary pH in dogs

• Autor(a) principal: Igreja, Inês Alcaide
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10348/10822
• topic: Urinary pH; Acidifiers

The urinary pH is a valuable and easily measurable biochemical marker and a vital part of the urinalysis as it is essential for the interpretation of urine chemistry and may reflect systemic acid-base abnormalities. In patients with uroliths, it can be used to determine the need for urinary pH manipulation and help monitor responses to treatment. In the first part of this dissertation a review on the current knowledge about urinary pH and his variation during the day, urinary pH manipulation using oral supplementation and the methods used in the measurement of this parameter, is presented. In the practical section of this dissertation a study was carried out whose objectives were to: 1) evaluate the influence of two therapeutic diets formulated to prevent the incidence of uroliths, Hill's® Prescription Diet® u/d® Canine (u/d) and Royal Canin Urinary SO dog (Urinary SO) on urinary pH; 2) to evaluate the effect of oral supplementation of potassium citrate and an oral solution containing ammonium chloride (Urical) in the urinary pH; 3) evaluate the effect of the postprandial alkaline tide in the urinary pH of dogs. The following hypothesis were presented: 1) u/d diet (MER = 1.6 x 70 BW0.75), fed over two meals per day, or potassium citrate (130-211 mg/kg BW/day), given two times daily with food, causes a significant increase (P0.05) in urinary pH. Food intake caused a transient increase in urinary pH between 09h00 and 11h00 (approximately 2-4 hours after intake). The present study confirms that nutrition does influence acid-base balance in dogs, thus food can be a valuable tool to manipulate pH. The influence of ingredients/diets on urinary pH in dogs should be further investigated, so that urinary pH control can be effective and predictable.