its actually very unlikely that the dogs were that sick from specifically beef - the food should not have been sitting in their stomachs that long, and if they were defecating during that time, they were not in a situation of "GI stasis".
Elevated protein and high meat diets, tends to make dogs urine more acidic, as a carnivores should be. What type of crystals did your vet say the dogs had in their urine?
If your dog had puppy vaginitis and a concurrent UTI, i would not jump to blame the foods. Most healthy animals can handle a wide variety of protein, and a high protein diet should not result in protein spilled over into the urine because that is not where the protein in the urine comes from (it comes from damage to the kidneys themselves).
Dietary protein is actually most relevant on blood urea nitrogen, and even then, animals fed nothing but meat do not have that much of a difference from kibble fed dogs.
What could be more of a factor is the mineral content of foods - depending on what type of crystals your vet found, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus can be implicated in crystalluria. However, most *balanced* diets don't really have this issue unless the dog is otherwise ill or predisposed.
That being said, if you fed an improperly balanced raw diet I do not doubt that they could form crystals - however, due to the short time you fed the diet , I am not sure it would have been long enough for that to happen. You may never know why you had this happen (was it both dogs or just one?), but you may want to find out what types of crystals the vet saw and monitor that dog in the future for any signs of problems (bloody urine, straining to urinate, etc)
thanks