Bladder Stones!

Hi,

On Thursday, our 4 year old male cat, Rufus, peed on my husband and in the bathtub (completely out of the ordinary)...I suspected a possible UTI, so we made an appointment for Saturday to visit the vet. He was given an x-ray at the vet where it was found that he had three large stones. The vet quoted us at $1,000 for the surgery in addition to the $200 we already paid to diagnose him, plus the monthly cost of a special diet. Having worked in the veterinary industry I am very familiar with Hill's prescription diets, and I am amazed at the cost (almost $60 for 20 pounds), when the diet itself is lower quality the my current food (Dick Van Patten's Natural Balance).

We have a baby on the way, and just paid $600 last month to treat our dog who developed meningitis, so we are very overwhelmed at the moment. If we go ahead with the surgery, the vet said the likelihood of reoccurence is very small as long as we change his diet.

Right now we feed primarily dry food, and so from what I read it would be better to feed canned, but is there another alternative to the pricey, and typically crappy prescription diets the vets endlessly promote?

Thanks,
Amy

Right now we feed primarily dry food, and so from what I read it would be better to feed canned, but is there another alternative to the pricey, and typically crappy prescription diets the vets endlessly promote?

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It depends on what the stones are made of. If it's just from struvite crystals you could probably go on a wet diet and add DL methionine tabs to acidify the urine and be fine. If the stones are different then the s/d and u/d diets are your best bet. I would look at it this way you could spend $60 on a bag of food every so often, or spend $1,000 the next time your cat gets stones again.

I completely agree and I am perfectly fine changing the diet and spending the money for a quality food. Bottom line: Hill's foods are not a good quality food for the $:

Hill's c/d first four ingredients:
Brewers Rice, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken By-Product Meal, Pork Fat

Natural balance first four ingredients:
Chicken Meal, Chicken, Brown Rice, Duck Meal

The other diet the vet recommended was Purina which is no better and just as expensive. Vets recommend Hill's because they make money to do so, not because it is best for pets.

Any suggestions for a different diet (other than Hill's or Purina) that is good quality and is low ash?

Thanks,
Amy

I completely agree and I am perfectly fine changing the diet and spending the money for a quality food. Bottom line: Hill's foods are not a good quality food for the $:

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Yeah but there are no other diets proven to prevent the formation of stones. It doesn't matter if the food is low in ash, there are other properties in the food that change the urine PH etc. that prevent your cat from forming stones. It depends entirely on what the stones are made out of as far as what yuo can do food wise. Crappy ingredients or not when it comes to bladder stones you are a bit limited.

My cat had food allergies and struvite crystals. The recommendation is to put him on c/d. He's allergic to corn and chicken and everything in general so I add water to his food/he also gets wet food and he gets DL methionine every day to make his urine more acitic to break down crystals, but he only has struvite crystals, as far as I know with the other types of stones diet is super important and dogs and cats with stone problems tend to have to stay on something like s/d, u/d, x/d because if they eat anything else they will form crystals.

The other diet the vet recommended was Purina which is no better and just as expensive. Vets recommend Hill's because they make money to do so, not because it is best for pets.

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They recommend Hill's because they are the ONLY company who has diets that are PROVEN to work. They have scientific proof they help pets with the according disease. The k/d diet is proven to help with kidney failure, z/d is the ONLY hypoallergenic diet out there. I'm not promoting these foods, I don't feed them because none of my animals have problems and the allergic one even reacts to z/d but if my dogs got kidney failure or diabetes I would put them on a prescription diet in a heart beat because they are proven to work.

There are other prescription diets that are just as credible as Hill's, but as a vet I used to work for once said, "they don't take me out to dinner". Not to say, that some vets do not promote the company because it is one of the few recognizable names in the prescription diet industry, but most get tons of incentives from them, and they lead consumers to believe that it is the only option.

I am struggling though, because I don't know of the other options, as our vet is only recommending Hills and Purina. That is what I was asking in my first post....what other diet options do I have OTHER than Hill's or Purina...regardless of cost, I'd like to hear about other diets

Amy

Hi there - I think, I am not sure, Royal Canin has a choice as well. Sharky is our food expert in here, so I would send her a PM with food questions if she doesn't reply to this post soon. Are you going to have the surgery done?

I will look into those mentioned. Thank you very much for contacting the food pro

We are not sure what kind of stones he has, although I believe struvite often leaves crystals in the urine, and Rufus' urinalysis did not show any...grrr...so it may be calcium oxalate.

We are pretty sure we'd like to do the surgery...and have scheduled it for tomorrow. We love Rufus and he is really a one of a kind cat. It is hard money wise because my husband is a full time student, we are expecting a baby, and we had to pay and are still paying for vet visits for our almost three year old Italian greyhound who has been treated for meningitis over the last couple of months. It is just so hard when they all get sick at once!

Amy

I have been using Sanabelle Urinary Diet for a year after Wellington had two episodes with bladder stones. He gets that as dry food with Hilife 60% meat as wet food. The Sanabelle is similar to RC but cheaper. I get it online through Zooplus but I do not know if it is available inthe US. He has been fine since. I also researched water in my area and found it was very high in calcium so now I give the cats the lowest calcium-content mineral water I could find. That is rhe cheapest thing yet as a preventive measure.

Originally Posted by reptilicus81

We have a baby on the way, and just paid $600 last month to treat our dog who developed meningitis, so we are very overwhelmed at the moment.
Amy

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Wow! Sorry, I don't have any answers but it sounds like you could use all the support you can get!
to your family and to your furbabies!!

Hi,

Rufus has had his surgery, and the vet sent us home with Waltham S/0...not necessarily better than Hill's, but we'll try it for now, and research into other options later

So, I am guessing he did well on his surgery?

As Carolina suggested, you might want to send sharky a private message. If you don't know how to do that, just ask. One of us will talk you through it.