Cat Food (please, Im in need of advice)

All right all, Im going to give you all a little history of my cats so You can help me out!

Alright I didn't want to start a new thread but I have a food question! My BooBoo is 7 years old, and right now he gets Nutro natural Choice for kittens, because I have two kittens! But this is how things went in his 7 years-

I got him and Tissy and gave them purina kitten chow not knowing it wasn't good for them. Then they got older, but I got a new cat named Kitten so I left them on the kitten chow. Then Tissy got a UTI and died of it( September 3rd 2005) so I switched to Hills Science Diet CD (by word of vet) because BooBoo also had a UTI. Then I got Glitch, and so kitten food was needed. Then Kitten got Distemper and died 24 hours later, but I still had Glitch so I left them on the kitten food. Then I got Moocha, he died of Coccidia a week later, then a month after that Glitch passed away of FIP(Nov 16th, 2007, 2:35pm), so back to Hills Science Diet CD I went. But BooBoo no longer liked it! Then 6 days after Glitch died of FIP I got Eek, so this time I switched to Nutro Natural Choice For kittens, and then later, added HoBoJax to the family! Now my vet says that Nutro kitten is okay for BooBoo and UTI safe. But my BooBoo has been on kitten food pretty much his whole life! He has actually started losing weight since I put him on Nutro, he went from 14lbs to 13lbs, which I dont think is too bad because he's so long & tall! He had weighed 14lbs for years, right down to the exact ounce! He has also had way more energy!
My question is, is Nutro Natural Choice for Kittens really UTI safe, and is it safe to have him on it his whole life??? I mean, he's literally almost always been on kitten food! I just want to make sure that I dont lose BooBoo to something stupid like a UTI... When I lost Tissy, my 19day old baby had just had surgery, so I was in the hospital with him for a few days, and when I came home Tissy was in the bathtub just lying there, I petted her and didn't think anything of it. My DH came home and told me she was sick so I took her to the vet right then, the vet had obviously been drinking, and drove up in a corvette, then told me I had to have every penny right then and there! I didn't care how much it cost though. Then he squeezed Tissy's belly really hard, exploded her bladder, she screamed, rolled over and died. I told him to do whatever he could to save her (not realizing that he had exploded her bladder) and he went to try to save her because I was screaming hysterically at this point, then he got the stuff out, looked at me and said she was dead and to get over it and pay my bill. I could not handle losing another that way! Its also really hard to seperate BooBoo's food from the kittens, because they free feed! So What do you do?? I mean, obviously if the kitten food is really UTI safe I will keep using it, but if its not, I really need to know!!

After losing so many cats, Tissy in 2005, Then in 2007 Kitten Died, then Moocha died, and then Glitch died. So Im very over paranoid when It comes to my cats! I want to do everything right, so they have a future with me, and can live long, full, happy lives!!

Right now I have 2 with ringworm (check out my thread "I have a question on anatomy" which maybe I should just start a new one there too because no one has been there in a couple days) and I just want to be cautious! Any help will be appreciated!!

I know I wrote a book here, but this is the abbreviated version!

~Amber~

Wow! What a horrible series of events you and your kitties have been through! It does sound that some of your kitties ailments were avoidable though. With out a doubt, the listed diets are not a factor in most if all complications. Besides vaccinations, there may also be an environmental factor, obvious outdoors factor. You need to vaccinate, worm, flea, mite....list goes on, treat your kitties when they are allowed outdoors.

Alright, I guess I didn't make myself too clear... They do not go outside! Kitten got out on accident! I have 3 kids, doors get open, things happen.
I dont know how you got the idea that my cats are not dewormed, and dont have the shots and vaccinations. Nor do I understand how you got the idea that my cats get out. Kitten was a complete accident. All their shots are UTD and the only reason they have ringworm right now is because I rescued HoboJax from outside.

WHAT MY QUESTION WAS~ Is it safe for BooBoo to remain on the Nutro Natural Choice for Kittens when he is UTI sensitive.

And honey, Id like to see how much attention you pay to anything else when your 19 day old baby has surgery. Why dont you look at these pics and then tell me what you would pay attention to.

http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...-R1-23-23A.jpg
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...-R1-22-22A.jpg
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...-R1-21-21A.jpg
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...-R1-20-20A.jpg
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...-R1-19-19A.jpg
http://i224.photobucket.com/albums/d...sma/joesiv.jpg

The kitten was not designed for UTI s ... I would call the 800 number and ask for the mag calcium and phos in the kitten

Thanks for all the help Sharky!! Now that I know all the numbers for the things that cause UTI's, When I have to switch food I will know what to look for!! Much appreciated!!

I really dont believe that Glitch did anything wrong with her kitties... They are all vaccinated, they see a vet regularly, and Cheylink apparently not ALL humans are as smart as you and we ALL do not know everything about what food is best. From where I come from everyone who had cats for my first 35 years of my life (I am 35 now)have been told that Purina is the best food and anything cheaper is not as good, it wasn't until I came to this forum 2 months ago that I even knew anything about the different food. I as well want to do what is best for my furbaby but not everyone eats from a silver platter and can't afford all the expensive food and do the best I can. Well times have changed we are in a different century and there are new foods out there but for most people there are other things like the amount of money one has, the cost of rent of mortgage, utilities, car payments and insurance and above all medical bills for you, your kids, and furkids and the most important thing is yourself and your human babies, that can hinder the amount of money one can spend on food for their furbabies. AND furthermore i believe that a sick 19 day old human baby is far more important of a concern than what kind of food a person buys for their cats. Glitch was in the hospital with her human baby and things like this do happen, and when you do have 3 human children in the house who go outside to play its only natural for a cat to run outdoors with the kids.... Glitch loves her furbabies with all her heart and tries to do what is best for them as do ALL of us. But when all animals are vaccinated and see a vet regularly there is no reason for you to criticize and accuse her of neglect or even murdering her own furbabies because she wasn't giving them the right kind of food.... did you ever consider that maybe something was wrong with them before she brought them in her home and that it was something that the vet missed. Didn't you read her thread completely? Didn't you read that Tissy died because she DID take her to the vet and the vet was DRUNK and squeezed her bladder causing it to explode which IS what caused her death. Tissy died because of an INCOMPETENT DRUNK who called himself a vet.... That is Glitch's fault? I didn't think so. She certainly did not previously know he was imcompetent until this incident she did what she was suppose to by taking Tissy to the vet at the first moment that she knew something was wrong and he killed Tissy. This is a cat forum, a place where we ALL come to get advice on WHAT IS BEST for our furbabies, not a place to get criticized and accused of being a bad person. And keep in mind tho we do come here to learn what it best that doesn't always mean that what is best is affordable to everyone.... Please think about that and place a little more consideration to that.

Thanks HammeyandWaf!!! I appreciate that!!

I did what I could for Tissy, with me being in the hospital with Jacob, my DH had to come home and feed the cats and stuff and we weren't thinking about checking every organ to make sure she was okay! We were worrying about the surgeons slicing and dicing our son!! It was really hard because the surgery went wrong, and he didn't handle the anestheshia well so when he came out he had to be on oxygen, pain meds, IV's and so on and so forth! I was probably only home for a couple hours when my DH told me I needed to go to the vet with Tissy! I was so upset that I called the vet, and no one answered, so I got out my phone book, found a number for the first emergency vet I could find, WROTE THE NUMBER ON THE WALL WITH MY EYELINER (didn't have a pen, didn't have time to look for one)
And brought her in right away, the vet met me there, but took twenty minutes after I got there to show up! He had booze on his breath and it was apparent he had been drinking. Her dying was a horrible experience that I had to try to work through, I have always had issues with blaming myself for it! Finally after enough people told me it wasn't my fault, I started to believe that maybe it wasn't my fault! I had no idea the kind of food I was feeding them could cause UTI's!! If I did I wouldn't have been feeding them that! I worked at the Humane Society, and they feed the cats anything!

Thanks for the support hammeyandwaf, it means the world!

Not a problem Glitch! It was never your fault I am glad you are not blaming yourself anymore! All you can do is keep up the good work doing your bestest. As long as you know you did your best, good things will come to you. I mean look you got little Eek and the others to remind you of everything you do good for your furbabies. Eek is definately proving that some kittys do have nine lives!!

All of that would be difficult to endure, plus with your baby being ill at the time... I can't imagine.

I always look at the food for the things that increase UTI issues. I hadn't noticed that kitten dry may not list ash, magnesium, etc.

My adult cats snarf the kitten's dry unless I'm hovering over the kitten to prevent them from eating her food.

Eek sure does have nine lives! I can't even believe him somedays! :rainbowheart:

hopefully Eek has 10 lives

No kidding huh Sharky! I think he went through the nine lives already!!!

Im so worried about him! I just want him home!! I can't believe they are keeping them over night for neutering and scraping his ringworm! Im glad they are giving him good pain control and stuff but oh its lonely without him on my lap while Im typing! And Hobo is the number one reason I have typing errors! He likes to type also! So I can't wait to get them back in the morning!

awww hobo loves to share in all you do.. squisy sits on top of the monitor cause its under a window. she will look outside for a while then she will curl up and go to sleep til i get up from the computer then she follows me where i go. I'm sure they will be happy to be home too they probably think they have missed out on everything. lol

That's horrible! I can't believe the vet didn't refer you to someone else or send one of the other doctors. If that had been someones child that doctor could lose his license and possibly face criminal and civil charges. *sigh* IANAL but have you considered small claims court? It's not just about what you've suffered but that vet needs to be taught a lesson about responsibility. Then again it would probably be difficult to prove anything after such a long period of time and small claims court usually depends on a preponderance of evidence.