How to you deal with Idiopathic FLUTD?

I am sure many cat owners have cats who develop FLUTD, Cystisis, UTI with no known causes. Culture Sensitivity tests always come back negative. Antibiotics seems to help alleviate the symptoms for a while but the condition always almost flare up again within a short time frame.

Does a change of diet help? Or do you just continue alleviating the symptoms with meds everytime? If you have a cat with the mentioned condition, how long has the condition persisted? Are certain cats more genetically disposed to it? Or could it be a congenial defect?

When Raven was alive he had that. He would be stable for a while, then have relapses of repeat UTIs with no cause.

What worked for us:

• Diet change- went to mostly canned food, they still liked a nibble of dry so we cut it back a lot
• Any dry food we used was approved for urinary tract health
• Cosequin- supposed to help repair the bladder's protective lining.
• Amitriptyline was prescribed for Raven, we did that for about 3 months and he stabilized for several years after that.
• Feliway diffusers
• Rescue Remedy- I had some problems with the Feliway diffusers, they scared the heck out of me when 2 different units went bad. So we switched to Rescue Remedy in the water and it helped as much as the Feliway.
• Water fountain- initially we had the Petmate Freshflow, then the CatIt, a cheap one from Collections Etc, and now we have the Drinkwell. The Drinkwell has a better more durable motor, IMO. And there was more agreement by the cats on the Drinkwell than the other fountains. A cat fountain really helps encourage them to drink. I run our Drinkwell without Filters, it saves on money. I clean it thoroughly every week and use filtered water from our Pur pitcher.

Edit: Raven had off and on issues with it his whole life. Once we knew how to manage it effectively, it made a big difference. I'm not sure why he had it. He was a "high stress" cat, and that had a lot to do with it.

My cat Fang develops the struvite crystals. He was kind enough to urinate in front of me onto a piece of plastic, so I could see them and feel them. He is being well managed with carpon once a day. I check his urine ph periodically, and if it gets above 7.0, i will give it twice in a day, and then he is good with one aday for weeks.

Now Pansy has a UTI. what little bloody urine I could touch, did not seem to have the sand in it, but I don't think there was enough. His PH though was perfect, so I am thinking his problem is not the crystals, since they dissolve in an acidic urine. We are on our second course of antibiotics in three weeks, I am considering the cosemein with him, but I can't figure what it will do to his ph, and I do not want to over acidify him. My vet is of little help with this, he just wants me to give the meds and do what he tells me. I did get out of him, bloody urine does not neccesarily mean crystals. HE says no one knows what causes these issues, and he doesn't offer any management techniques other than the course of meds. HE is getting antibiotic, and prednisolone. Instead of stopping the pred after the 7 days, I am cutting up the last three, and giving half a day for 4 days and then every other day.
I know weaning of this is better than abruptly stopping, not sure why, but maybe there will be longer lasting benefit this way.

I knew I didn't want male cats. Can't believe I did this. I know females get this too, but you don't have to live with the fear of a blockage.

This may sound bad but I am afraid to get Male Cats because I have bad luck with them. Frisky died from a blockage and so did Bogart. My Yoshi they think had Fip and he had Kidney Stones. My Oldest Male wa 5 and taht was Yoshi. My Coco is a Girl and she has Bladder Problems. She went to Er on Monday. There are Crystals in her Urine again. She was in the Pan so much and even quated in her. The good thing is she is a Girl so she will not block. Her Son Midnight has clogged up two times already. Cocos Bladder Infection is from the Depo Shot. The Vet said no more Pred and no more Depo. She is getting a Inhaler for her Asthma now. Her first Bladder Infection was when she was 9.5 The next time she had a Bladder Infection was in 2006 when she was 14. she had Strovide Stones and we gave her S/D for a month. She has been on C/D ever since. I am getting another Cat this year and am scared to get a Male.

I have just started having this problem with one of my cats as well.. Had a UTI that took 2 courses of antibiotics, now he's started having painful urination again and has gone outside of the box, so back he went to the vet today and she said no stones on x-ray, so probably a FLUTD. She's perscribing antibiiotics again and a change in diet to a nasty Rx hills CD. I really wanted to avoid Rx diet if possible, but looks like I'll be stuck with it for a while. And now, another cat (don't know who) has gone outside of the box, so looks like we may have ANOTHER UTI. Fun.

My vet gave me the cosequin to try also, but I can only get him to take it by pouring the powder in his mouth...so that's no fun for either of us.

*sigh*
and he's only 11 months old. just my luck I guess.
Art

My Muddy was diagnosed with idiopathic cystitus this past week. We thought he had a UTI and 3 rounds of antibiotics provided temporary relief (btw, antibiotics can serve as a temporary anti-inflamatory to the bladder, which makes it seem like it is causing a cure when it is only a mask). He has no stones, no crystals, and no bacterial infections. But the biopsy showed an inflamed bladder and his disease has a really long name. But it basically amounts to idiopathic cystitus.

We're just starting our trial and error journey with him. Grain free wet foods are the most gentle on the bladder, so we have switched over to those. Am working out Innova and working in Wellness Core for those moments he likes to nibble on dry food. The vet basically told me to get him on a diabetic type diet.

Cosequin can be used as an anti-inflamatory, but Muddy hates it thus far. My vet just consulted with a specialist and they recommended a human grade medicine that would need to be formulated for cats. I'm not sure that I want to go a medicine route but would rather like a holistic approach. I'm going to dig into things with high anti-oxidants to keep his immune system up.

So, I'm going down the diet change path, more things to reduce any stress he has, and holistic things to boost his immune system. What Muddy has isn't curable, only controllable.

As far as genetic based? I have his sister and my best friend has his 2 littermate brothers. No one else has shown any sign thus far. But we are keeping an eye on all of them just in case. Muddy is also the only one that developed herpes. This was an orphaned litter and it could be that he had more difficulties during weaning than the others.