For those buying water for cats... what kind do you use?

tru

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I dropped my Stinker off this morning to be checked for a UTI and sure enough, he has crystals really bad. The vet said he'd never seen 'em so bad before.

That makes the 4th cat that I know has had crystals in my group, (one of those a female), so I am coming to the conclusion that is is the water contributing to the problem. We have a problem with a high lime content in the water and I am thinking that is the culprit causing the problem. My cats eat some Sportmix dry, but their diets are predominately wet food, with two and sometimes 3 feedings a day of wet in hopes of preventing crystals.

So now you know why I am asking the question. I have 15 catsm, (actually 20), that I need to be concerned about and have kind of avoided the thoughts of purchasing water. (Shoot, supplying their food keeps me plenty broke!)


So I will welcome all suggestions and see where they take me.
 

persi & alley

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Originally Posted by tru

I dropped my Stinker off this morning to be checked for a UTI and sure enough, he has crystals really bad. The vet said he'd never seen 'em so bad before.

That makes the 4th cat that I know has had crystals in my group, (one of those a female), so I am coming to the conclusion that is is the water contributing to the problem. We have a problem with a high lime content in the water and I am thinking that is the culprit causing the problem. My cats eat some Sportmix dry, but their diets are predominately wet food, with two and sometimes 3 feedings a day of wet in hopes of preventing crystals.

So now you know why I am asking the question. I have 15 catsm, (actually 20), that I need to be concerned about and have kind of avoided the thoughts of purchasing water. (Shoot, supplying their food keeps me plenty broke!)


So I will welcome all suggestions and see where they take me.
My fridge has a very good filter system according to Consumer Reports. It does not dispense Evian, but the water is well filtered if you change the filter regularly which I do. This is the water I drink and give to my cats to drink.
 

twstychik

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Evian isn't really that great of water actually. I have a faucet mount Pur filter and that's what the cats get. If it's good enough for me it's good enough for them. I strongly recomend an at home filter for several reasons. Convience is the big one. You don't have to worry about running out and the filters have a pretty long life and give you plenty of warning when they near the end. Another big thing is that bottled water isn't really good for the envrionment. There's the plastic (which lets chemicals into the water), the fumes from transportation... you get the idea. If you can't do a faucet mount the pitchers are good too.
 

white cat lover

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Our water is rusty, among other things. I buy drinking or distilled water in 1 gallon jugs. For 2 large dogs (plus any foster dogs) & something like 15 or 16 kitties.
 

pookie-poo

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Originally Posted by twstychik

Evian isn't really that great of water actually. I have a faucet mount Pur filter and that's what the cats get. If it's good enough for me it's good enough for them. I strongly recomend an at home filter for several reasons. Convience is the big one. You don't have to worry about running out and the filters have a pretty long life and give you plenty of warning when they near the end. Another big thing is that bottled water isn't really good for the envrionment. There's the plastic (which lets chemicals into the water), the fumes from transportation... you get the idea. If you can't do a faucet mount the pitchers are good too.
I also have a faucet mount Pur Ultimate filter. This is what I use to water the cats and for my own drinking water. I also use filtered water in my warm mist humidifier during the winter. It uses about 3-4 gallons of filtered water/day. My faucet filter usually lasts 10 to 12 months (I write the date on it when I change it) so after the inital investment, it doesn't really cost that much to use. I have two cats with renal failure, so I'm pretty particular about what they eat and drink!
 

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I live somewhere with very hard and nasty-tasting water so we already have a Pur purifier installed on our kitchen sink faucet. I just use that for them. No need to waste plastic bottles.

What are you feeding the cats? I would think that food would be more of a contributing factor than their water. If they aren't drinking enough water, that could be causing it too I think. Have you ever used a water fountain?
 
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tru

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Originally Posted by Sakura

I live somewhere with very hard and nasty-tasting water so we already have a Pur purifier installed on our kitchen sink faucet. I just use that for them. No need to waste plastic bottles.

What are you feeding the cats? I would think that food would be more of a contributing factor than their water. If they aren't drinking enough water, that could be causing it too I think. Have you ever used a water fountain?
I talked to the vet today and he said there is no way it would be the water, that it has to be a combination of their diet and predisposition to the crystals. I had to laugh as I was reading the responses.
The reason you ask?
I have a huge filter in the basement that takes care of the whole house that we are not using at the moment. (I'll correct that in the next day or two.)
I bought it a few years ago when we started having problems with an odor in our water. Come to find out the holding bladder had a pin hole in it and needed replaced, so we never bothered refilling the media once it ran out. Prior to the water with the odor and since, we've always had great water that is clear and good tasting.

On to their diet. They eat mostly wet food which is Friskies and mostly I've been giving them the Special Diet for Urinary Health to prevent crystals. They eat that two to three times a day. Their dry is Sportmix Original, but none of them eat all that much dry because they are allowed to be such piggies with the wet food.

I know Friskies is not a great food, but I cycled through so many other higher quality wet, (canned), foods in the past that they would turn their noses up at and I finally got myself in major financial trouble trying to give them the very best that they would waste most of, so I finally settled on those two foods thinking I was doing the right thing. I know that tomorrow the vet is going to be pushing a special diet at me and what it will cost to feed one that food could probably feed all twenty cats out here.

I'm just feeling caught between a rock and a hard spot at the moment.


I will probably go talk to the one woman I visit at the pet supplies plus. She was telling me that they carry a dry food that's not too bad of quality that is something like $15 a bag for 15 or 20 lb. Certainly not as cheap as the Sportmix, but maybe a better way to go. As far as wet food I'm not sure which way to go. Friskies was never part of the recall food, but maybe there is something in there that is causing problems for my crew.

One thing I do have on hand is Carpon that I have been giving Nugie and Buddy every day and neither of them have blocked since I started them on it. I can't imagine being able to afford enough of that to give 15 cats daily.

I guess I've written a large enough novel about my indecision.


I really do appreciate the responses. Anything that will get this old grey matter working in the right direction is definitely a positive.

Thanks so much for anyone that actually reads this and doesn't vote to have me committed to the loony bin.


BTW... I do have two fountains, besides a little personal cup of water that sits in the bathroom sink for Stinker and my guys do drink plenty of water.
 

jaws808

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I'm pretty sure that buying some sort of purification system would save you $$$ over time compared to bottled water.
 

sakura

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Isn't Nutro Max supposed to be good for urinary issues?
 

saya

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I've used both the brita filters and the pitchers.
I prefer the sink mount because the pitcher gets nasty and is a pain to clean.

I also bought the brita over the pur because it was cheaper and the filters lasted longer and filtered out more yucky stuff than the pur did.
(you can read all this info on the packages)
 
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tru

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Originally Posted by Sakura

Isn't Nutro Max supposed to be good for urinary issues?
Yep, it's supposed to and that's what I was using when my girl Boo got crystals.
 

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We talked to our vet about water - and with the propensity in our home for both struvite crystals and calcium oxalate crystals, we now give our cats distilled water. The problem with calcium oxalate crystals is that you must use diet to help prevent them (though of course the same with struvite, only they can be dissolved when they occur with meds that lower the pH where calcium oxalate cannot be dissolved), so we free feed ALL the cats with Science Diet C/D. Haven't had a problem in over a year now.

Laurie
 

yosemite

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I buy Spring Water for ours because I won't drink my tap water so why should they although my husband says our water is fine.

I have heard (and I don't know how true it is because I'm no scientist) that it is not good to give distilled water. Apparently the lack of minerals in distilled water causes the cat to lose needed minerals in their systems. I never bothered researching it further since it's not an issue for me but you may want to if you decide on distilled water.
 

ldg

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I discussed this with the vet and he feels that they get enough nutrition - minerals & stuff from the food to offset any potential issue with that. Of course, researching spring water to find one with low magnesium, low calcium IS possible.

Laurie
 

blueyedgirl5946

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I have two male cats, one 10 years old and one 12, with urinary issues. They both eat only dry W/D cat food which is prescription from the vet. I give them water which comes through a faucet mount Pur water filter in the kitchen. Since I started with the filtered water, neither cat has had a problem.
 
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tru

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Originally Posted by LDG

We talked to our vet about water - and with the propensity in our home for both struvite crystals and calcium oxalate crystals, we now give our cats distilled water. The problem with calcium oxalate crystals is that you must use diet to help prevent them (though of course the same with struvite, only they can be dissolved when they occur with meds that lower the pH where calcium oxalate cannot be dissolved), so we free feed ALL the cats with Science Diet C/D. Haven't had a problem in over a year now.

Laurie
Laurie,
Is the Science Diet C/D prescription?
 

angelyco

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I know the original query was answered, but since everyone seems to give their cats different water for different reasons, here's my two cents:

My 17-year-old gal can ONLY drink spring water. Can't be tap, drinking, or distilled water. For whatever reason, she throws up if she has any water besides spring water. Thankfully it's not really expensive, 58 cents a gallon at Walmart. The two other cats living with that girl also drink the spring water just because it's easier.

The cats living with me right now though drink the water from our Brita pitcher. I'm not really concerned about tap water (and I don't drink plain water myself), but since my roommates use the pitcher, it might as well benefit the cats.
 
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