Blocked UT, crystals and food... oh my!

[Riven]

I was gone for the weekend for the Boone show, got home About 5:30 on Sunday, unloaded 23 runs, a ton of feed ( literally ), and 400 lbs of dust... then had to go pick up my kids from mom's 30 minutes away, come back, hear stories, get baths, and ready for bed, then go out to unload chins, etc.

Finally it was late and I was thinking... I haven't seen my cat. Usually if I'm gone he comes to see me when I get home, I came down to check emails and saw him laying there... didn't think a lot of it, thought maybe it was mad at me, I was exhausted and ready for bed.

Today I had class, grocery shopping and visiting in laws for a bit, then got home and found him laying in the laundry room, lethargic, out of it, staring at the floor all wobbly, and trembling... So back to town we went...

He had a bladder the size of a grapefruit, and we ended up putting a cath in him. He's scheduled for a renal and UA tomorrow and we'll know for sure what happened, what type of crystals, etc.
Then he's coming home for a couple days ( I refuse to pay ungodly amounts of money when I can watch him better and give fluids at home ), then we'll go back in, remove the cath and see what happens...


Phewwww.... I feel better now! Okay, not the reason for the post is... cat food. Of course the vets recommend science diet, I'm not a fan, so I was looking around and I do have a canidae/felidae dealer about 22 miles from me, and my friends husband actually works in that town! They claim it's Ph balanced to help prevent crystals and stones ( at least some of the formulas anyway ) and was wondering if I could get some other opinions on this, or other good foods that would be ideal if you've been there done that food thoughts would be great.

Years ago I had a cat who had a similar issue and $600 and invasive, sex changing surgery later... we still had a cat who peed all over the house, so I'm really wanting to prevent this becoming a continual problem, I know that the blood work/UA will tell more, but I'm just trying to get some research done.

 

[Snickers]

Sorry to hear about your cat. I hope he gets better soon. Sorry no input on food. I fed Science Diet and now they are on Nutro.

 

[menagerie]

I'm not a fan of any of the Science Diet foods. The feline K/D formula used to contain ingredients that caused kidney problems. Talk about creating a market for your products. :banghead: I see they have changed the formula and those ingredients are no longer listed. But I still cringe when the name Science Diet comes up.

 

[Riven]

Yup,. not a science diet fan. I know that Tony ( the tech ) said that Purina makes a Rx formula, but I'd have to find a vet who sells it and I'm not a huge purina fan either!

 

[Sesame]

hmm... I don't know too much about this, but this could be a recurring problem and happens more frequently in male cats. Do you feed a mix of dry cat food and wet? I heard that sometimes offering wet food might help with water intake. A family friend's cat has a similar condition to your cat's, I believe they feed him a pH balanced dry food (I think it's Science Diet).

I'm not a fan of Science Diet either... or Nutro... Right now, I'm feeding Blue Buffalo or Royal Canine (in a funk for finding a good dry food for my cat after that Nutro recall).

Good Luck!

 

[Riven]

I think I'm going to try the Felidae if I can't find any other thoughts.

It can be a re-occuring problem, but not always. Another thing I don't think people take into consideration is the water itself. Normally water intake is not an issue, this was obviously something that was "building up", but when I got home the dogs and cats were all out of water, and I'm going to guess perhaps for at least a day or two, because when I asked her about watering them she began stuttering for words, and that could have progressed it more quickly.

Supposedly he was "fine and playing" on Sat. but my cat rarely "plays" except with my other cat, and their play time is a private thing usually, and late at night, they don't usually play around people they don't know, in fact, they often just disappear for most of the time.

 

[Dustbunnies]

My dog has reoccuring bladder stones. He has had the surgery twice and has them again. Some animals are just prone to them.

He was on prescription Hill's U/D for a while and got them again (but for some it works great). Now he is on Royal Canin SO and that seems to be pretty good. These foods don't prevent or disolve crystals, they just don't have anything in them that causes the crystals like most other foods can.

We recently switched him to distilled water on the advice of his vet. We feed him Hypoallergenic treats because they don't have preservatives which can cause crystals.

Dogs seem to be more prone because they go a while without peeing giving the crystals more time to form together. Cats can go anytime in the litterbox.

He is also taking glucosamine tabs for arthritis that also help the bladder by reducing swelling.

Despite 2 surgeries he is not incontinent at all, thankfully. So, it can work out okay.

With your cat it could be a one time event that started from an infection and snowballed.

 

[menagerie]

Wet food is much better processed by the body than dry. Another thought, when dealing with stones and sludge in guinea pigs we up the vitamin C intake a lot, it helps change the ph in their system and combats the gunk. I don't know if that's been tried in cats. Nettles are also supposed to be good for UT health. You might want to do some research on these two things and see what the vet thinks. I'm sure there are lots of other herbal and homeopathic remedies that could help.

 

[Brittney]

Aww I'm sorry about your kitty. I hope everything works out for him and the crystals don't come back. I doubt you or him for the matter would want to go with PU surgery hehe. poor kitty.

I feed my dogs science diet as it seems to be the only food they will eat, go figure, and they seem to be doing ok on it. But, I have thought about switching to another food, just not sure which route to go.