diet to prevent crystal in bladder

i just lost my captain jack to a urinary track blockage and i don;t want to loose spike to the same thing.
i am currently using special kitty urinary track maintance and i know it is a low quality food what i want to know is what wet and dry foods would be good for spike

I would double check with your vet but I believe you want to look for food with cranberries as an ingrediant. I know Wellness does, but I also think Science Diet may as well.

i heard that as long as the food has meat (not by-products) as the first 3 ingredient spots then it should be good for preventing crystals.

I can tell you what I feed my cat that has had crystals 3 times....(b4 I switched his food).....and its worked so far ..he hasn't had a flare up in over 2 yrs....he eats mostly wellness grain free canned...chicken/turkey and beef...and about 1/8 of a cup of wellness core dry...I tired to totally get him off dry but its something he really likes...so I let him eat alittle...and I try to get him to drink drink drink...I bought a fountain and have 4 water bowls thought out my house they I change daily..sometimes 2 times a day...

I have a repeat blocker in my house. We've tried a variety of foods and what it comes down to is this: prescription urinary tract food from your vet. I personally hate Science Diet, but I feed C/D dry and for wet have been giving them Purina Urinary Health, and just tried Royal Canin Urinary (Duck flavor) over the weekend. The cats LOVED the Royal Canin so I've ordered a case of it. The cats threw up S/D canned but will tolerate a can of C/D once in a while. If I don't feed either of these, I try to get a better quality canned food. Since mine won't eat things like Wellness, I give them mostly Authority.

Prescription diets will help keep the PH lower so that crystals do not form. An alternative to a prescription diet is using a product like Urikare which lowers the PH.

Im not expert here, but some things I did had catched.

Here is my try to add some 2 cents worths:

One big difficulty with urinary stones is they are of two different types. One is loving rather high ph, but the other prefer low ph... Thus, while low-ph food is often useful yes, as it helps against the most common urinary-stone. But it is no absolute rule, as some cats tend to develop the other type...

Of course, if your cat is known to have urinary-stone problems, your vet can tell you what type it is.

But there is another "remedicum".

Many experienced cat-people feels much of the stone problemacy is because many cats dont drink enough much. Ie, eating dry food, they should drink much, about 60 ml/ kilogram and day. As many cats tend not to drink enough, their urine is more concentrated then what is healthy - and - if they tend to get urinstones - they DO get urine-stones.

So the easiest way out is to simply give wet food of good quality (or BARF). Cats eating wet food do have enough with water, so it doesnt matter if they dont drink much.
Thus, no or seldom problems with urine-stones. They say.

OK.

If you do have a cat with tendencies for urine-stones, and want or must give it dry food as main food, then make sure the cat is drinking enough
(60 ml/kilogramme and a normal, not hot, day.
Ie a medium female cat about a normal glas of water a day, medium male a little more.)

Some sort of drinking fountain works often marvellously here! Even cats who dont like to drink water, tend to drink enough from a water fountain. (Drinkwell, Cat-It or other brands)
Or do have several watering cups around your place. Say 3 with fresh water, 2 with old stale water. As some cats want to drink stale water sometimes...


Oh, I think it was more then 2 cents... It seems to be more like a dollar worths... But I give you a price-reduction today!

It does depend on type .. struvite is fairly well regulated by OTC urinary certified foods or rx foods .... Oxalate needs RX for most

Water consumption plays a part

Wet food is HIGHLY recommended as many types and kinds fall into UTI safe or friendly guidelines

Dry foods need corn or corn gluten( this is the easiest method) to help balance poultry

Many have found homemade and raw to help prevent problem, but this is something requiring alot of study and consulting

i am thinking i will switch to authority or science diet though i like the looks of authority

Originally Posted by the godess bast

i am thinking i will switch to authority or science diet though i like the looks of authority

Click to expand...

Authority IMHO is a entry level premium

SD IMHO is junk food with a $$

Depending on the type of crystals, you need to make sure the magnesium, calcium, phosphorus and protein levels are in a certain range. I usually avoid feeding a fish-based food because of the high magnesium (it's unnatural IMO for a cat to eat fish anyway). My dog had struvite crystals and was supposed to eat C/d but I bought Wysong Biotic ph- and added it to her raw food. It helped acidify her urine thereby dissolving the crystals. Struvite crystals are usually ok but are usually accompanied by an infection. Calcium oxylate crystals occur when the urine is too acidic. Wysong Biotic ph+ helps make the urine more alkaline.

There are some foods out there that actually say low magnesium. Go! makes two wet foods - chicken and vegetable and I can't remember the other one but they're low magnesium. I know Wellness makes sure their foods are low in magnesium. I would stay away from grains but also from a food with too high a protein.

You could add some chicken or beef broth (low -salt - I make my own with no salt) to their drinking water to encourage them to drink. Foods like S/D and Royal Canin Urinary SO contain salt which encourages the cat to drink but if your cat has kidney problems, these foods aren't good for them either.

A good option, if you're up for it, is to feed raw. Chicken, with bones, has the ideal calcium to phosphorus ratio. Plus you can control what your cat eats.

since i just started a new job i am starting with authority once i can ford the more expencive brands like wellness then i will try that

Purina One and Pro Plan both make a urinary health formula, that, while not the greatest quality, are better than Special Kitty.

Mittens had a PU done in 2005 and it's been a constant battle with his urinary issues. A year ago the vet put him on a low dose (50mg) of Amoxicilin. It worked until recently. He's been straining when he uses the restroom. I rushed him to the vet last week thinking he may have a huge stone that was blocking him, which he wasn't. His bladder still produces the stones which make it VERY uncomfortable for him. He's on three types of medicines right now. I see him still struggling, so I am thinking about switching his food again. He's been eating three different flavors of wet food-Fancy feast. So, I am thinking I am going to try Authority since it seems to be popular, especially on this thread....does anyone disagree that this isn't the best choice? I want to make sure I am doing the right thing. This food is about the same price (and can be purchased at Petsmart), so it will work. Also, how should I make the transition with the new food without him getting sick?

Anybody?! No one has any thoughts?

What type of crystals

It certainly couldn't hurt to try. Do you know if he has struvite or calcium oxalate crystals? Because they're different problems.

We have kitties with both problems. We went the easy route, and feed them the Science Diet c/d prescription - both the dry and the canned. Since switching to this diet, none of them have had any problems, and two of them had constant problems - one an issue with struvite, and one an issue with calcium oxalate.

So I haven't tried any of the other foods on our kitties. I just know the Science Diet C/D works - for us. But it is expensive, and it is not very high quality.

Laurie

I believe struvite, the vet recommended Hills prescription diet c/d

then I would look at the UTI certified foods then talk with vet ... Nutro max ( better ingredients).. Pro plan and One also have cerified formulas in dry /....

wet is much easier

Originally Posted by LDG

It certainly couldn't hurt to try. Do you know if he has struvite or calcium oxalate crystals? Because they're different problems.

We have kitties with both problems. We went the easy route, and feed them the Science Diet c/d prescription - both the dry and the canned. Since switching to this diet, none of them have had any problems, and two of them had constant problems - one an issue with struvite, and one an issue with calcium oxalate.

So I haven't tried any of the other foods on our kitties. I just know the Science Diet C/D works - for us. But it is expensive, and it is not very high quality.

Laurie

Click to expand...

yeah, I just called and that's what she recommended. The vet tech said it was $2.09 a can!! My homecooked meals aren't even that expensive!

It's expensive, but it seems to work well. I do know Purina Urinary Tract Health did not work for us, but I think it's an even lower quality food. I don't know Authority, but if you want to try a high quality food, I'd try the Royal Canin Urinary Tract Health (or whatever exactly it is called).

With Struvite, the issue is lowering the pH levels of his urine.

Laurie