Need alternative cat food for feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD)

ne of my cats has FLUTD and we have been buying Purina UR St/Ox from the veterinarian at about $42 per 18lbs. If we had only one cat this would not be a big deal at all, but we have five cats and we found that it was impossible to seperate the food so we have had to feed them all this cat food and we are going through it vry quickly.

I find it hard to believe this is the only cat food that will prevent further aggravation of my cats FLUTD. I was hoping some people on this forum had some good ideas. I really appreciate any input.

-Rob

Oh boy can I relate. I have one recently diagnosed with it and feed 10 cats. I'm switching all of mine over from Innova to Wellness Core right now. You want to look for something that is low/no grain and high in protein.

FLUTD is a generic term for lower urinary tract disease. Does your cat have crystals, stones, bacterial infections or cystitis? There are subtle tactics that you use with each of these diseases. I'm just learning myself, but do know that feeding wet is a much better option for any of these. Something that is high protein, no grain, low magnesium and phosporous. While switching them to wet may be daunting, I find its much easier to give mine extra wet food a couple of times a day to keep him full rather than trying to separate dry foods.

There is a yahoo group dedicated to FLUTD that you might want to look into. You'll find people like yourself looking for the same answers and others that have worked thru them.
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/FLUTD/

I have a large word document that talks about switching cats from dry to wet. If you are interested, right click on my nick and send me a PM with your e-mail address. It is too long to post here.

I have to fed Coco in here because she eats C/D. I am getting Can Royal Cannin for Urinay problems to try. My Coco hates the Can C/D. My Vet ordered it yesterday to try. I use the dry C/D too. Coco stays in here and the other Cat stay in another Room at Night.

I can only echo what Momofmany has said about wet foods.

Everything I have read points in that direction.

Common sense should tell us that, if we want healthy cats, we should be feeding a diet that is as close as possible to what our cats would eat naturally.

I once said to the manager of my Vet practice (who was pushing one of the so-called "Prescription Diets") that, if we pet parents could only feed mice to our cats, her food shelves would be empty!

Take a look at grain-free, low carbohydrate, high protein and fat wet foods. One of these is Wellness and it is (relatively inexpensively) available in large cans. This is one that I use and I add additional water to make it soupy.

Remember...when you see the words "switch to..." you need to read "transition slowly to..."!

I'm feeding Royal Canin for Urinary cause of Charlie. So far he has no reoccurances from last fall.

I going to try the Royal Canin next week. Coco is in the pan crying again so we are going to the Vet.

I am feeding Royal Canin Urinary SO 30 to fifteen cats because I don't want to take a chance that my Boo will need surgery again. She had had urinary problems that I attributed to nerve damage as a result of poor breeding.

Finally my Boo was leaking bloddy urine and after an ultrasound and an X-Ray it was found she had a huge phosphate stone, (Struvite). Seven hundred dollars later you can bet I am doing my best to give her the necessary diet so as not to have a repeat of that problem.

The vet was very good about answering my questions and helping me address possible issues. They are aware I have a multi, multi cat household.
The Royal Canin Urinary SO 30 is not so strong it will cause problems either way with otherwise healthy cats. It is designed to cause cats to drink more and help keep their ph balanced. Royal Canin gives a good description of their foods on their site.

When I am thinking about the cost of the food, I remind myself that it's better to afford the food now rather than wonder how to afford the surgery later.

I know it's tough these days with prices skyrocketing, but for me I have to figure my priorities and do the best I can. Somehow things always seem to work out so everyone can live as healthy as possible.

Good luck with your situation.
BTW... I did try all the other foods that should have helped prevent crystals in the past, but like humans and their health problems, some cats are just more genetically predisposed to certain health issues and all of our positioning to avoid those problems end up like spitting in the wind... back in our face and a bigger mess to deal with.

Again, good luck and healthy vibes coming your way.

Coco had Struvite Stones in 2006 with Infection. How is teh Royal Canini. The Vet ordered me some Cans to try. She is staying on dry C/D. She finished her Meds on Sundau and todau she was screaming and Squating again. The Vet did the Ultra Sound and was nice and didnt charge me for it. She got two more bottles of Cefa Drops.

Originally Posted by mews2much

Coco had Struvite Stones in 2006 with Infection. How is teh Royal Canini. The Vet ordered me some Cans to try. She is staying on dry C/D. She finished her Meds on Sundau and todau she was screaming and Squating again. The Vet did the Ultra Sound and was nice and didnt charge me for it. She got two more bottles of Cefa Drops.

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I keep the dry down for all the cats and Boo gets the canned food. Sometimes she digs right in and other times she doesn't seem too excited by it. (I figure she gets bored with the same thing sometimes.)
If she doesn't seem to want her wet food then a lot of times I will put a dab of catnip on it and that usually draws her in. I also have some Salmon Oil in the fridge that I sometimes put on the cats food to give them a change and it's supposed to be very healthy for them.

I just had Boo in for a check Tuesday before buying food in case she needed to be moved up to a Disolution formula, but she has no crystals or infection, although she does have a bit of inflamation so I am giving her Cosequin for that for a while. (The vet said one a day should do since she is only nine pounds). I am still using a box I had.

I wouldn't wish this problem on anyone, but if they are dealing with it, I would highly reccommend trying to follow your vets reccommendations for your kits sake and your own peace of mind.

The food will be in next Friday and I will buy a few Cans. We want her to eat more Cans. Coco cant have anything with Fish because she is Allergic. How old was your Cat when she got the infection the first time. Coco had one when she was very sick and almost died at age 9.5. She was in Er then the reg Vet for a week. She had fia. Then the next Bladder Infection was in 2006. She had Struvite Stones with Staph Infetion. Ever since then she keeps getting them.

Originally Posted by mews2much

I have to fed Coco in here because she eats C/D. I am getting Can Royal Cannin for Urinay problems to try. My Coco hates the Can C/D. My Vet ordered it yesterday to try. I use the dry C/D too. Coco stays in here and the other Cat stay in another Room at Night.

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My cats liked Pro Plan Urinary Health canned when we had to feed special urinary food. I also used Hill's c/d dry at the time. Now PP Urinary Health comes in bigger cans, too. When we used it, it was only available in the expensive little cans.

The vet said any of those are fine.

Sorry for not replying sooner, had a crazy busy couple of weeks. Just wanted to thank you all for the responses. To answer a couple of them.

My cat had crystals, which I believe is the least of the symptoms caused by FLUTD. We luckily noticed that he was spending an extraordinary amount of time trying to use the bathroom, and before that had actually urinated on my clothes and new something must be up so we took him to the vet. It turned out he had a blockage and the vet was able to relive it right there in the office.
After the blockage was removed he proceeded to urinate ALLLLL over me and the office floor. Poor boy. Since then and the new cat food he is doing well, but as I said the food is expensive and we are going through it at a crazy rate.

Anyway, I did look up royal canin and wellness core, but they were just as expensive. We live in Maine and as you all know oil and gas are insane right now, so sending $80 a month on cat food just seems ridiculous. There is now way I am going to do anything different until I KNOW I can find a healthy substitute because we are not going to jeapordized Fenway's health (yes, his name is Fenway, the others are Remy, Pudge, Nixon, and Stevie).


Thank You everyone.

I echo you thoughts.....the royal canin SO is expensive, but  if my poor little Dusty can avoid the pain and suffering and multiple vet visits and potential life threatening reality of FUS  the added cost worth it.  I have researched this problem extensively... and I converted to canned royal canin S/O and just a little bit of Royal canin so kibble....  Since I have 2 cats and they share everything , both are now on it without issues

robp2175 said:

ne of my cats has FLUTD and we have been buying Purina UR St/Ox from the veterinarian at about $42 per 18lbs. If we had only one cat this would not be a big deal at all, but we have five cats and we found that it was impossible to seperate the food so we have had to feed them all this cat food and we are going through it vry quickly.


I find it hard to believe this is the only cat food that will prevent further aggravation of my cats FLUTD. I was hoping some people on this forum had some good ideas. I really appreciate any input.


-Rob

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With so many cats, you need to figure out a way to feed then separately, not feed them all the same food. I had that problem too. To solve the problem, my boy who had to eat the urinary prescription food got his food twice a day inside the cat carrier I use to take him to the vet. My other cat got his regular food in a bowl twice a day. Any prescription food that will helpl your cat with the crystals is going to be too expensive to feed all of your cats.

Hi I am interested in any info you have on convincing my new FLUTD cat that RC feline wet food is not the worst tasting food of all time.