Help needed - bloody urine

I'm at my wit's end with Jessica. She's 8 years old and for the past 12 months on and off has been having blood in her urine. She has been eating a mixture of Nat. Balance and Evangers wet, no dry apart from a few Greenies as treats (1-2 a day). She has seen the vet on multiple occasions and they always put her on antibiotics which sometimes help and sometimes don't. Most of the time it comes and goes by itself. I've tried herbal and homeopathic remedies with no effect.

She visited the vet last week - her urine ph is around 7.5 so he prescribed antibiotics and DL-Methione. After a week I'm not seeing any change - her urine ph is the same and still bloody. She had a full urinalysis and blood panel last week and the only 'off' things were high protein and cholesterol.

Does anyone have any advice?

I would suggest changing her food. Try something specifically for urinary tract health. Purina makes a UT health food which I mix with Chicken Soup for my cats and all is well. Chester did have a UTI years ago but no problems since new food.

I think you're doing the right thing, feeding the wet food and ditching the dry.

How much (and what form and/or specific product) DL-Methionine was prescribed?

Has her bladder been xrayed?

She's been prescribed Methigel, 1/2-1 teaspoon daily. This is supposed to provide 400mg of DL-Methionine.

She hasn't had a bladder x-ray recently but has never shown any problem when done before and has nothing in her urine to suggest struivite crystals.

Re the food - we've been 99% exclusively wet food for about 2 years to try and prevent these urinary problems

Fluffcat, I PM'ed you a really informative link that answers some of your questions.

I hope this helps!

Urinary tract problems arent caused just by lack of moisture in the diet. Now its been a long time since Ive looked all this up so I cant say exactly what is what but I think Magnesium and Ash are some of the things that can cause problems if the % is too high in your cat food. If you get a specific UT health cat food these levels will be lower. Im sure if you do a google search you'll find loads of info on it (I'd look it up myself and post it here but Im at work). You also might want to consider buying a kitty water fountain to encourage her to drink extra, it cant hurt! But I really think the food is key.

Originally Posted by MonaxLisa

Urinary tract problems arent caused just by lack of moisture in the diet. Now its been a long time since Ive looked all this up so I cant say exactly what is what but I think Magnesium and Ash are some of the things that can cause problems if the % is too high in your cat food. If you get a specific UT health cat food these levels will be lower. Im sure if you do a google search you'll find loads of info on it (I'd look it up myself and post it here but Im at work). You also might want to consider buying a kitty water fountain to encourage her to drink extra, it cant hurt! But I really think the food is key.

Click to expand...

UTI issues all these work together

WATER consumption... easier if on wet only

Phosporus
Calcium
Magnesium and to a lesser degree
Mangense
ans the one we have no control over
GENETICS
ASH IS NO longer a REAL issue as MOST all AFFCO foods are in the SAFE levals ... ASH is merely the % of minerals in the food WAY MORE IMPORTANT IS the AMOUNT OF THE LISTED ABOVE...

Your Kitty really really needs to get back to the vet .... you may need a different antibiotic ... an xray wouldnt hurt either ....

Has kitty HAD SENIOR blood work in the last six months>>>??? Often times a senior issue will contribute to UTI issues...

PS your wet foods are NOT UTI friendly but they fall into the normal guidelines.. AVOID ANY fish

Thanks for the replies. She has 2 water fountains and water available in bowls (I have 4 cats and they all prefer different things!)

She has been on 3 different antibiotics now (Baytril, Clavamox and Amoxicillin(?)) She had a senior blood panel last week and was last x-rayed about 2-3 months ago. This issue has been ongoing for

I forgot to say she has been on Royal Canin S/O since last Tuesday but is being very bad about eating it. We have tried to avoid foods with fish hence we feed Evangers Pheasant, Organic Chicken and Organic Turkey. We stopped feeding Nat. Balance because of the fish content.

Genetic wise I have her mother and her brother - they both eat/drink the same and are perfectly healthy.

The vet is confused and so am I He has seen raised levels of glucose in her blood but believes these are down to the stress of visiting the surgery. She shows no signs of diabetes or kidney issues.

What with me giving her different medicines and going to and from the vet, poor Jess is stressing out as well now and I'm sure that isn't helping.