Help me find alternative to SD C/D

Hi all!!

I have been reading here for a bit, TRYING to find a better solution for our issue, but I just can't keep it all straight. Here is the low down.

LB has been at the vet 2twice in less than a year for pretty serious struvite crystal issues. This last time was pretty bad. They now have him on a monthly (once we get to maintenance, right now it's weekly for another 4 weeks) injection to increase the mucus lining and decrease inflammation in the bladder, as well as an anti-anxiety med.

We have 2 other female cats with no health issues.

Vet has him, and consequently everyone, on SD C/D. I HATE SD!! I think it is just crap in a bag/can! I look at the ingredients and I cringe! I don't like ANY of the prescription foods. I bought Royal Cannin (waltham) SO this last time, got it home, it's crud too. *grrr*

I really want to go back to a better food, but am at a loss of what to do.

I thought about putting everyone on a better dry and keeping them on the C/D wet (they LOVE it. it's the only wet I have been able to get them to eat)

I would feed them dry in am, and dry plus one can of wet (split between the three of them) in eve.

My questions...is there a better wet out there good for Urinary issues?
Could I lessen the impact of the poor quality food, but keep the benifits of it being a urniary specific food, by feeding higher quality dry and c/d wet??

For dry I have been thinking of the following: (I do NOT want to go grain free. I used to. But found research suggesting grain free diets lead to crystals)
spots stew (sensitive) Polly has an issue with puking...I think this might benifit her, and the ingredients are whole and orgnic. Plus the cranberries will help with LB's bladder

Katz-n-flocken I dont' like the chicken meal and fish meal in this one, but my husbands mother uses it for her kitty that had struvite crystal issues and it has been great. (her cat used to be on c/d)

Maybe I can mix the two??

*Sigh*

I don't know what to do. Ideally i would love to get them on a dry AND wet that wasn't SD. But I know that wet is good for LB and it is the only one I have found that he (everyone) will eat.

Thanks so much you guys.

I wouldn't switch him off the C/D. Katz-N-Flocken, in my experience with my UTI kitties, is not UTI friendly (and caused re-occurances in 3 of 3). Spot's stew - no one here will eat it & it's not UTI certified.

Squishy will piss blood the moment he is taken off C/D. Crap food - yes. Will he die without it? Yes. I would personally feed the C/D dry & mix in high quality wet 2x a day.

I agree with whitecatlover.
Everytime I tried to take Coco off C/D her problem would come back.
My sisters cat has to stay on C/D also and he had surgery.
My Coco we had to take a chance and put her on kidney food because the bladder problems led to Crf.
You can try Purina Urinary food also.
I have used it with my cat.

Originally Posted by white cat lover

I wouldn't switch him off the C/D. Katz-N-Flocken, in my experience with my UTI kitties, is not UTI friendly (and caused re-occurances in 3 of 3). Spot's stew - no one here will eat it & it's not UTI certified.

Squishy will piss blood the moment he is taken off C/D. Crap food - yes. Will he die without it? Yes. I would personally feed the C/D dry & mix in high quality wet 2x a day.

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Hey girl!

Thanks for this! What about if I kept them on the C/D wet with higher quality dry? Basically half and half. Feed dry in AM, and wet with a LITTLE dry at night?

Are your UTI kitties on any other meds for UTI??

Originally Posted by Yarra

Hey girl!

Thanks for this! What about if I kept them on the C/D wet with higher quality dry? Basically half and half. Feed dry in AM, and wet with a LITTLE dry at night?

Are your UTI kitties on any other meds for UTI??

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Maybe try it the other way - C/D dry and a high quality wet? I say this because the C/D wet seems to have the same protein/fat/carb values as a dry food so, other than the moisture content, I don't see how it's any better. I wouldn't get too worried with my UTI kitty eating a high quality non-CD canned food, but I cringe at the thought of feeding him a non-UTI dry food. I know what you mean about the CD wet, though. My cats love that stuff, but tend to be sort of 'meh' about other canned. I suspect SD puts the same sort of flavor enhancers in their wet food that are normally put on dry kibble to make it appealing. You can check out http://www.catinfo.org for some tips on how to get your guys to eat other wet food.

My vet said NO dry food at all for my cat with crystals....he went so far as to say ...he would be better off on canned grocery store food than any dry....but each vet is different...but my cat hasn't had any crystal issues since taking him off dry...."knock on wood "

Oh I should add..this was after he was crystal free for a few months....we had done the sd/cd/so..and so on ...then I just placed him on high quality canned grain free food....mostly chicken/turkey and beef

Originally Posted by Grogs

Maybe try it the other way - C/D dry and a high quality wet? I say this because the C/D wet seems to have the same protein/fat/carb values as a dry food so, other than the moisture content, I don't see how it's any better. I wouldn't get too worried with my UTI kitty eating a high quality non-CD canned food, but I cringe at the thought of feeding him a non-UTI dry food. I know what you mean about the CD wet, though. My cats love that stuff, but tend to be sort of 'meh' about other canned. I suspect SD puts the same sort of flavor enhancers in their wet food that are normally put on dry kibble to make it appealing. You can check out http://www.catinfo.org for some tips on how to get your guys to eat other wet food.

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I tend to agree with this...ask your vet what he/she thinks about it. Obviously you want what's best for your cat, because you're concerned about the quality of the ingredients in the prescription food, but keeping the urinary issues under control is of primary importance - it's really not a good idea to make any changes in his diet without your vet's approval.

Our cat with UTI issues is on Royal Canin SO. The few times he's gotten even a few bites of our other cats' high-quality dry food, his problems have reoccurred. We let him have some of the other cats' high-quality canned and he does OK, but the only dry he can have is his prescription food, or we run into problems.

In addition to the Prescription Diet C/D, you can also find urinary formulas by Purina, Eukanuba, and Royal Canin, if you want to compare ingredients.

The last time I took my cats off of Hill's c/d it was under a veterinarian's supervision. Have you talked to your vet at all? There are other prescription urinary foods and some over the counter urinary foods to choose from.

Truthfully - I had one kitty who had re-occuring struvites for awhile. I tried high quality dry with C/D canned - UTI again. I tried all commercial canned - UTI again.

He eats half C/D dry - half Pro Plan Urinary (neither are very good foods). He also gets high quality canned - avoiding fish & food high in magnesium, ash, & calcium. He eats 50/50 canned & dry - if I can get him to eat more canned he does.

I don't do anything else for the UTI. But when I took him off the C/D - we were back at the vet - crystals, pissing blood, almost blocked - x-rays done....it cost me $300 to try something different. I decided then crap food it was - he was utterly miserable, & almost died.

Talk wit the VET ...

Wysong makes a RX with decent ingrediants

My Chaos is on the Purina version of the urinary food and yes it is crap and very expensive crap at that and i am feeding 14 cats this food but after going thru what I went thru with Chaos, not to mention what Chaos went thru there is no way that I would risk taking him off the scrip food, at least for a few months. At that point I may switch to a half and half mixture like Natalie. I also need to start feeding Chaos the urinary wet, but only he will get that

anyway, with LB having recurring issues, i would just resign myself to having to feed him the scrip food- yes it may be crap, but it has been engineered to combat urinary issues and the expense of the food is far less than the expense of emergency vet care and the well-being of your kitty, just MO

Flint River Ranch CLAIMS their cat food (http://www.flintriver.com/ProductInfo.asp ) is designed to prevent struvite crystals....and I know quite a lot of dog who have urinary trouble are doing well on their dog food. Might be worth a try. But make sure your vet is working with you, so that if your cat reacts badly, your vet knows what's going on.

sharky said:

Talk wit the VET ...

Wysong makes a RX with decent ingrediants

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I was thinking the same wyson is better.its on the top lisit for urinary the only i wonder if it is blances ph in it