I had a scare with one of my 6 year old domestic short hairs resently. he was having problems urinating .. you can amagine what he must have felt like . I found him straining to urinate in the sink , and on my bed which is very unusual for him , i knew something was not right , he could not relieve himself. Took him into the vet hospital and they had to rush him to the emergency table , had to knock him out and put a tube down his throat with anesthesia to work on this urinary blockage problem, his penis was so inflamed they could not insert a tube up it to relieve the blockage , was a very tense moment , i was watching the whole thing. We believe the blockage was at the end of the urinary track near his penis. finally she was able to get the urine to flow and relieve the bladder. later we viewed the urine samples under microscope and sure enough it was calcium oxalate crystals. very tense but then to learn this event is life threatening due to urine backing up into his kidney makes me worry. are the cat companies to blame on this one? i believe so .. because Friskies wet food has been my main food for them since i've had them since birth. And we are not out of the woods yet .. $330 later for a vet fee and this blockage can re occure! I hate to think that this could of happened when i was out for many hours .. can you amagine his pain waiting !, and he could have had the urine back up into his kidney and cause death .. not cool! I was lucky to catch it quickly and i live next to a vet hospital that was open.
Purina - Friskies manufacture and many commercial cat food producers have products with high acidic levels
heres why
In older times (20 years or so ago), cats virtually never developed calcium oxalate bladder stones. Cat bladder stones could reliably be assumed to be made of struvite (a matrix of ammonium-magnesium-phosphate). In those days, feline lower urinary tract symptoms were generally caused by struvite crystals in urine (or at least this was the assumption). Also in those days, feline lower urinary tract symptoms were extremely common. The pet food industry responded by acidifying cat foods to prevent the development of crystals. In a way it worked. Feline lower urinary tract symptoms declined. Male cats with struvite urinary blockages became far less common. The trade off was that calcium oxalate bladder stones began to develop. Acidifying the body leads to an acid urine pH and more calcium loss into the urine, both factors in the development of a calcium oxalate stone. Currently most bladder stones formed by cats are calcium oxalate stones.
ref. http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body...er_stones.html
so the key is not to have an acidic urine to keep these calcium oxalate crystals from forming stones is to try to get it balanced around 6.6 ph . (first written as 7.0 ph which was incorrect)
so now i have to feed them (he has a brother from same liter, both black)
a special diet formulated for this urinary problem.
not cool . plus Gar could be dead right now it was that serious.
Purina - Friskies manufacture and many commercial cat food producers have products with high acidic levels
heres why
In older times (20 years or so ago), cats virtually never developed calcium oxalate bladder stones. Cat bladder stones could reliably be assumed to be made of struvite (a matrix of ammonium-magnesium-phosphate). In those days, feline lower urinary tract symptoms were generally caused by struvite crystals in urine (or at least this was the assumption). Also in those days, feline lower urinary tract symptoms were extremely common. The pet food industry responded by acidifying cat foods to prevent the development of crystals. In a way it worked. Feline lower urinary tract symptoms declined. Male cats with struvite urinary blockages became far less common. The trade off was that calcium oxalate bladder stones began to develop. Acidifying the body leads to an acid urine pH and more calcium loss into the urine, both factors in the development of a calcium oxalate stone. Currently most bladder stones formed by cats are calcium oxalate stones.
ref. http://www.marvistavet.com/html/body...er_stones.html
so the key is not to have an acidic urine to keep these calcium oxalate crystals from forming stones is to try to get it balanced around 6.6 ph . (first written as 7.0 ph which was incorrect)
so now i have to feed them (he has a brother from same liter, both black)
a special diet formulated for this urinary problem.
not cool . plus Gar could be dead right now it was that serious.
