Dog Lawn Burn remedies dangerous?

Two burn spots that I am working on re-growth

If you have a small space for a lawn like I do and like to let your dog out to enjoy it, burns may be an important issue to you. This summer, I began using a popular lawn burn prevention tablet for our dog Daisy to eat so that her urine PH would be neutralized in hopes to keep our lawn from being damaged. However now I am concerned that this may have contributed to (or even caused) her having a bladder infection.

After searching the internet for information on possible dangers of these lawn burn remedies and finding very little information or experiences, I wanted to share our story today on my blog. I hope that it may be useful information for others.

CAUTION: the below may be too wordy for some of you who are not interested in this matter directly ('Mom'♡).

We have a Dichondra lawn, which is pretty hardy, however, our soil does not drain well. I hate to call it soil even since it is composed of mainly clay it seems (this area used to be marshy tidelands from what I understand). Of course I prepared the area that was to be 'our lawn' with bags and bags of appropriate lawn soil (this took about 6 months), otherwise, I doubt any grass or other lawn type ground cover would have taken root. Our Dichondra lawn is beautiful and green all year round and super easy to maintain. It's especially nice to have that nice lush green to see everyday when living in a metropolis like Tokyo.

Then came our dog, Daisy. During the rapid growing seasons (spring and summer) the lawn can take all the punishment Daisy dishes out, but once things start getting colder and the position of the sun changes, the Dichondra goes into a sort of 'hibernation' mode. Then the dog urine burns a dead spot that doesn't grow over and then ends up being a spot of dirt. I take Daisy on regular walks but she still likes going outside in her garden too (and it's nice when I'm feeling tired or unwell that she can 'go' out in our garden).

A spot where the Dichondra has recently died, next step will be plain dirt during the slow growing seasons of late fall and winter.

The whole reason for putting in our lawn was to cut down on the dirt (which can be muddy during rain) and dust that blows around the patio and eventually enters the house, so obviously I wanted to find a way to remedy the lawn burning.

Last winter I made the lawn inaccessible to Daisy with this green garden net (in the photo here above). Since I had trained her to potty on a tray that holds disposable 'potty' pads/sheets for during times we were traveling and emergencies (like inclement weather), I then set up the potty tray on the lanai (patio). But she doesn't really like going on that and seems to wait to use the tray until it's a last resort (it seems to be more enjoyable to 'go' on grass etc.). There were even a few accidents in the house because she held it so long, she couldn't get out fast enough (sometimes we have to close the doggie door so she doesn't bark excessively at people passing by our fence).

So this summer I tried the lawn burn tablets for dogs. It sounded like a miraculous solution. It did say on the bottle that dogs with certain illnesses such as 'acidosis' should not take it. 6 months have past and it really seemed to help (or maybe it was just due to the growing season). I have kind of tapered off, not being religious about giving them daily. About 3 weeks ago dead spots started appearing again, as the weather is cooling down and full sunlight is not reaching the entire lawn anymore. So I put up the net and Daisy had to start using the potty tray on the patio again.

View of the netting off lawn and the 'potty tray' on the patio.

Because of using the potty tray, I was able to see that Daisy was 'ill' far quicker than I could ever have otherwise. I noticed last night after she urinated, that the color was much different that usual. It was almost red and there were little darker red spots. Also I could see a 'sparkling' in the urine, like it was crystallizing. So off to the vet we went this morning. She was diagnosed with 'cystitis' which is really a catch-all term for infections in the bladder or even urinary tract. She is on anti-biotics and a special diet for 2 weeks.

Now, I am left wondering, could the lawn burn remedy have had a hand in this? I realize that UTI/Cystitis is rather common, especially in a female dog and that Daisy waiting for long periods to eliminate could contribute to infections. But, I have to wonder too, if her PH is off, that is exactly what the lawn burn tablets work on, the PH, would that make the environment in her bladder friendly for an infection?

So my suggestion is, if you give your dog one of the many lawn burn remedies on the market today, it would probably be good to make sure to find ways to get your dog to drink more water than usual as well as being sure they are able to urinate at least 3 times in a about a 12 hour period (maybe more if they are able to get alot of water down). I would also pay very close attention to how they are doing, maybe monitoring the dog's urine occasionally by catching it in a dish and taking a direct look that the color and clarity are normal. If you are really savvy, you might figure out how to do some PH testing on your 'samples' collected.

After speaking with our Vet today and reading up on this condition, it is clear that the sooner a dog is treated for UTI the better.

Just sayin'.......and wondering....