Pro Plan Veterinary Diets UR Urinary Dry review

Ingredients, as declared: Corn, Wheat flour, Dried poultry protein, Rice, Pork fat, Corn protein meal, Digest, Dried beet pulp, Dried egg, Minerals, Fish oil, Urine acidifying substances: calcium sulphate, phosphoric acid.

Corn and wheat flour open the list, with dried poultry protein third and rice fourth, so cereals do most of the structural work in the kibble. Corn protein meal turns up a little further down, layering plant protein on top of the poultry.

The entries that set this recipe apart are printed at the end under a heading of their own: calcium sulphate and phosphoric acid, named by the maker as urine acidifying substances. Labels rarely spell out the job an ingredient has been given, so the purpose is unusually plain here, and what that purpose should be doing in your dog is the vet's territory rather than ours.

Pork fat, dried egg and fish oil complete the animal side, which puts pork, egg and fish in the recipe next to the poultry. Dried beet pulp carries the fibre, and crude fibre converts to only 1.6% of dry matter, the lightest line in the analysis.

Protein converts to 23.9% of dry matter and fat to 16.3%, with the carbohydrate estimate at 52.9% and energy at 398 kcal per 100g. Crude ash comes out at 5.3%, a restrained mineral load, and holding minerals down is one of the things a diet written for this job sets out to do. Whether your dog needs that is a matter for the vet who prescribed it.

The added panel is dosed throughout, vitamin E at 350 IU per kilo. Iron sits at 170 mg per kilo, iodine at 2.7, copper at 18, manganese at 64, zinc at 160 and selenium at 0.18. The label's guide runs from 65 grams a day at 2.5kg up to 600 grams at 70kg, listing 215 grams at 15kg.

It is bagged at 3kg and 12kg, at £5.69 a kilo. A 15kg dog needs around 211 grams a day on the energy figure, which comes to £1.20 a day.