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Fellow cat owners, I need your input!

Started by dovaholic, March 09, 2018, 10:26:15 PM

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dovaholic

This question is specifically geared towards my fellow parents of cats with frequent urinary health problems.

What pro-urinary health food would you recommend to anyone who owns a cat that has these problems?

~STORY TIME FOR ELABORATION~

A mere few months ago, I took my darling Omnigul -- affectionately known as "Om-nom" -- to the vet because she started urinating outside of the litter box quite often, primarily on the sofa. The vet confirmed that she had a urinary tract infection as well as traces of crystal build-up, and she was given an injection to battle the infection. The vet prescribed Hill's Prescription Diet for urinary care. However, despite the multiple samples offered to her, there wasn't a single flavor that she liked enough; the only two samples that she actually ate a somewhat considerable amount from were the canned tuna and the dry chicken. But she didn't like them enough to eat from them very often, even when she was hungry. I called the vet to ask her what to do, and she told me that I could go back to feeding my cat her regular diet as long as she continued to drink a healthy amount of water. After that vet appointment, my cat stopped soiling the furniture for the next few months.

The food I regularly feed Omnigul is the Blue Buffalo Indoor Health dry cat food. I did some research, and apparently, Blue Buffalo cat food has seen an increase in contributing to urinary problems. Unfortunately, I did not do this research until just recently (irresponsibility on my part -- I feel like such a horrible cat mom now) because Om-nom has started urinating on the sofa again. I live with my girlfriend, however, and she has two cats of her own, who have also been eating Blue Buffalo -- for nearly their entire lives, might I add -- and have had no issues with it, so that's why I didn't necessarily expect it to be the leading cause of these issues with my cat. But my girlfriend and I have talked about it, and we have decided that it would be best to change our cats' diet.

I'm going to schedule another vet appointment for Omnigul this week, which will unfortunately put another extensively large hole in my wallet (but my baby's health is worth it). She will likely test positive for another UTI, and I will likely be recommended to change her diet. I think I want to get all three of our cats started on a high-protein, low-carb canned food. The last time I tried to give Om-nom a different food, she didn't take so well to it, so perhaps if the other cats get a change in diet (because they're gluttons who will happily eat anything), it will encourage her to accept the change a little better. So this leads me to my afore-mentioned question above this little story.

I'm anxious to receive your recommendations, and thank you all for reading!

RampantDesires

Ungh, that is brutal.  I hope your next vet appointment goes well dovaholic!

I had a hard time getting food for my guy, not because he didn't like it, but because he needed a grain and chicken free diet. 

We settled on This Stuff since it met our needs and had a low amount of Phosphorus, Magnesium, and Ash which were are all bad for UTI stuff.   It is also in a gravy and not a pate so I felt like he was getting a bit more moisture/water which was also a bonus and it was super easy to mix his lysine supplement in.  It isn't perfect, but it was fairly affordable and he loved it.

I hope things work out!

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Kuroneko

It can take a whole to get rid of a long standing UTI, so it could be possible that your baby simply wasn't on the medication long enough the first time to get rid of the entire infection. Despite having an injection, which is fast acting and immediate,when my kitties have had a UTI they have always been on antibiotics for a period of time, so you might want to ask your vet if the shot was enough - or even if it was the correct med for the bacteria. Having the urine cultured to determine which bacteria is causing the infection allows the vet to use the right antibiotic. If this was happening to my kitty, I'd insist on a culture. Of course, peeing outside the litterbox can also be a territorial issue, as my good friend Jackson Galaxy would say ;-). Do you have one litterbox per cat plus one more?

As Rampant mentioned, phosphorous, magnesium and ash are all detrimental for urinary tract health in cats, and can contribute to the formation of crystals, so its important that food be low in these components. Most quality foods are these days. After that, it's about finding a food that your cat tolerates and will eat. Fish is also hard on the kidneys, and should be avoided. I have kitties with food allergies, so I feed them a grain, soy, dairy, potato etc. free food made with limited ingredients from Instinct for dry, and a variety of limited ingredient, allergy free wet foods - though several of my kitties will eat Instinct raw rabbit food. Soultastic has several good canned foods that are limited ingredient, as does Wellness, Tiki Cat and several other brands. Become a good label reader at your local Petsmart or Petco. There are good foods out there. 
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dovaholic

Quote from: RampantDesires on March 12, 2018, 01:20:39 PM
Ungh, that is brutal.  I hope your next vet appointment goes well dovaholic!

I had a hard time getting food for my guy, not because he didn't like it, but because he needed a grain and chicken free diet. 

We settled on This Stuff since it met our needs and had a low amount of Phosphorus, Magnesium, and Ash which were are all bad for UTI stuff.   It is also in a gravy and not a pate so I felt like he was getting a bit more moisture/water which was also a bonus and it was super easy to mix his lysine supplement in.  It isn't perfect, but it was fairly affordable and he loved it.

I hope things work out!

Thank you for the suggestion! I'll definitely look into them! c:


Quote from: Kuroneko on March 15, 2018, 11:04:09 PM
It can take a whole to get rid of a long standing UTI, so it could be possible that your baby simply wasn't on the medication long enough the first time to get rid of the entire infection. Despite having an injection, which is fast acting and immediate,when my kitties have had a UTI they have always been on antibiotics for a period of time, so you might want to ask your vet if the shot was enough - or even if it was the correct med for the bacteria. Having the urine cultured to determine which bacteria is causing the infection allows the vet to use the right antibiotic. If this was happening to my kitty, I'd insist on a culture. Of course, peeing outside the litterbox can also be a territorial issue, as my good friend Jackson Galaxy would say ;-). Do you have one litterbox per cat plus one more?

As Rampant mentioned, phosphorous, magnesium and ash are all detrimental for urinary tract health in cats, and can contribute to the formation of crystals, so its important that food be low in these components. Most quality foods are these days. After that, it's about finding a food that your cat tolerates and will eat. Fish is also hard on the kidneys, and should be avoided. I have kitties with food allergies, so I feed them a grain, soy, dairy, potato etc. free food made with limited ingredients from Instinct for dry, and a variety of limited ingredient, allergy free wet foods - though several of my kitties will eat Instinct raw rabbit food. Soultastic has several good canned foods that are limited ingredient, as does Wellness, Tiki Cat and several other brands. Become a good label reader at your local Petsmart or Petco. There are good foods out there. 

Thank you for offering information. I've actually fed Omnigul small cans of the rich Tiki Cat wet food for treats/special occasions (i.e. her birthday). She absolutely loves anything with fish, which is why I only give it to her in such strict moderation, because you're correct, fish is notorious for being bad for cats' kidneys. I mostly feed her a chicken based diet.

I don't necessarily think that her litter box issues are territorial. She's lived with my girlfriends' cats for nearly two years, and they all get along fine/are 100% okay with sharing a litter box (I also use liners and clean their litter every day). She's never started soiling the sofa until just a few months ago, and it was only the sofa, which led me to believe that she was trying to tell me something because I work from home, and the sofa is where I usually do my work all day. So, I took her to the vet, and that's when they diagnosed her. A couple of days after they gave her the shot, she was using the litter box normally again, and all was well for the next few months.

However, since I've made this board a week ago, she hasn't gone outside of the litter box again. Though we actually got rid of the sofa and purchased a brand new sofa & love-seat set. Maybe the old sofa just smelled so much like cat urine (because that smell is so hard to get rid of, despite how quickly you clean it or how much vinegar/baking soda/enzyme cleaners you use) that it just prompted her to do it habitually? To be safe, I've sprayed both the sofa and the love-seat with a marking deterrent.