Peeing 1X per day / UTI

Good Morning Dr. Gaylord, I am a very big fan of your show here in Canada and hope that you can help us. My Mom has a 5 yr. spayed female Havanese who is pee pad trained, as she lives in a Condo. When she was 2 yrs. old she had a bladder full of stones (struvite) that were successfully dissolved through the special Science Diet CD (SD)? canned food. She also passed a few while urinating, and avoided getting any surgery done to remove them. She has been stone free now for 3 yrs., however she only pees 1X per day (she has done this since she was a puppy) and tends to get UTI’s a couple of times a year, that are treated with antibiotics. We know when she has an infection as there will be blood in her urine, and then off to the Vet we go to put her on antibiotics. She is now on Royal Canin Canned Urinary SO food, but we hate feeding her such a low quality food. We also give her cranberry extract 1X per day, mixed in her food to hopefully help her sustain a healthy urinary tract. We realize Tiffany’s problem is that she only pees 1X per day, but we just can’t get her to go more often. She also had an ultrasound done and everything looks normal. My two questions for you are:

Is this normal for some dogs to only urinate once per day, if so, could this cause her more serious problems in the future?
We would like to put her on Innova EVO Turkey & Chicken canned food as we’ve heard dogs with UTI issues should eat “grain free” food, is this true?

Any other suggestions / recommendations you may have would be greatly appreciated as we are very concerned about our little Tiffany

 

Answer from Dr. Gaylord Brown:
It is certainly outside of normal behavior to only urinate once daily. However, getting her to urinate more often will be next to impossible. Research done at UC Davis, indicates struvite stones in dogs are caused by low grade infections. Preventing stones requires preventing and treating these urinary infections promptly. Dietary control for struvite stones is probably not as effective as once thought. For chronic infections, low dose cycle therapy with antibiotics has proven effective in some dogs. Discuss these findings with your veterinarian before making any changes in your dog’s diet.