A neverending urinary battle?

Okay I do not like silica litter s which is what the senior is if I remember right...

Does he have any type of crystals ?> or is it Just bacterial?>

what are you feeding and has it changed from the last time

I didn't catch your other threads, what's he eating?
And pills aren't that bad! They're incredibly easy to pop down a cat's throat once you know how to do it and if they'll eat them (and can) pill pockets make it even easier.

likely at least for a bit he needs to be on RX urinary food

I had one on the NB duck and pea that got crystals, too. As sharky may point out, that can be a problem for some cats.

Your current foods are good foods, but it may be that you need to try him on a urinary script food for a bit. They come in wet and dry if you want to provide both.
My crystal kitty eats Hills C/D and hasn't had a problem since the initial partial block. ...Just a warning though, that C/D canned, if you try it, is funky looking and smelling!

I've only used Hills, so that's the only brand I have experience with. But, if your kitty is picky about wet food nothing says you have to buy a whole case - trying one can is enough. You'd be out all of $1.50 at the most if he won't eat it.

I do know Mars does positive release (no shipping it to consumers until it passes tests) on all their foods, though. If I could get it without ordering it I would prefer RC.

No first hand experience( my vet carries NO Rx foods anymore, when she did she carried Royal Canin) ... But it seems Royal canin is tasty

My cats have been on RC for years, and they love it. They only eat the dry, though.

I'm sorry if I missed it or already asked, but is Simba a long hair kitty? Just curious. Am sorry he is having these troubles again. I hope the crystals are not coming back.

he is gorgeous

Beeba was on Natural Balance original when he came down with struvites. Now on c/d dry and all is well.

Your kitty is beautiful.

They do not need a large quantity of urine.

Your vet needs to send the urine sample to a lab to have cultures grown and to positively identify what type of crystals Simba is forming.

A prescription diet is really the only answer, especially for males, who can block so easily (a urinary tract blockage is fatal if not treated within 24 hours)

Mazy is on Hills Prescription c/d. Wellness, in my experience, is not good, in fact terrible, for cats with FLUTD (feline lower urinary tract disease)

Simba needs to be on a special diet, for life.

Simba, keep us posted.

UTI (Urinary Tract Infection) and crystals in the urine are two separate problems, that often go hand in hand.

A UTI is treated with antibiotics. Crystals have to be treated with diet.

A cat can get a UTI from many things, too much washing, dirty litter box (not saying yours are) stress, kidney problems, or crystals to name a few.

Crystals are caused by an improper balance in the urine, the pH too high or too low, not drinking enough water, or the cat is prone to forming them, it's in his or her genetic make up or stress, to name a few.

When a cat has repeat UTIs the vet needs to look further. A cat forming crystals may get bacterial infections because he's always running to the litter box, straining, and washing, the irritation alone can cause bacteria to form.

Has Simba had blood work?

But a cat can have crystals with no UTI or a UTI with no crystals, that's why the lab work is so important.

A blockage can happen because a male cat's urethra is so narrow. Even excessive irritation can cause the urinary tract to swell enough to block (inflammation). Or stones, or a group crystals, or mucus, can cause the blockage. Emergency catherization is needed at that point, and ia blockage is terribly terribly painful.

Some cases can be managed by putting the cat on a canned only diet, and adding water to the canned food, the more water the better. But most cats will need a special diet all their lives.

I am not a vet, these are just my unscientific conclusions from doing my own research, since I have a female who forms crystals. I've tried many diets for her, but Prescription food is the only thing that keeps her crystal free.

^Not to derail - but what the heck do we do if a cat with IBD/allergies/food intolerances gets crystals. I hope I never find out. I have one that can't have any chicken and another who vomits corn foods - he already sneaked some of Sherman's C/D before, it didn't stay down.

I don't know the answer. I worry about Mazy and when she gets older. What if she gets diabetes, or kidney disease?

C/d is high in carbs so not very good for a diabetic cat and c/d is not a food you want to feed a cat with CRF. What will I do then? Mazy is only 6, so I try not to borrow trouble, but I am a worrier, and I worry.

He truly is a cutiepie.

Again I read that Wellness is not good with urinary issues. Is there any more info on that anywhere? Also, I had not heard that NB Duck and Pea might be bad. This makes me wonder because 2 months before our first hit with UTI I had Teppo's brother on trial for Duck&Pea and of course Teppo got some of it too. Would something change, pH or something that fast? How do 'bad for the pee system' foods work?

My vet told me that they only need a tiny spoonful of pee. The thing is though that the older the sample is (the longer it takes it to get to lab), the harder it is to tell whether some crystals that are found were formed after the sample was taken. Do you know if Simba had a lot? In our case Teppo had very few crystals and the vet was very vague about the need for future treatment. Actually the vet has been pretty dang useless for aftercare, and I am just hoping the same does not happen to us that just happened to you and all of a sudden we have a second round

I am so conflicted about going on the Hill's c/d because I hear stories abourt weight gain. Teppo is in need of a diet and I am struggling to find a food I could change him to - especially if Wellness grainless is supposedly bad for him. Does anyone know if the Royal Canin Urinary formula is any better for a tubby cat? Our vet is not eager about it but I am already thinking of getting second opinion anyway. Also, how much help would it be just to change part of the diet to urinary formula, ie just feed dinner (wet) as Rx but otherwise keep regular diet? Could it be enough? Any way to know?

The prescription diets are formulated to work as the sole diet. Mixing with other foods defeats the purpose of the special food.

Once a cat has been stabilized, with several years of good annual urinalysis, adding occasional other foods might be okay. But in the beginning the prescription food should be the only food.

Royal canin is higher in fat than the Hills c/d so the weight gain issue is the same, or more so. Yes, when Mazy first went on the c/d I did have to make adjustments to her daily quantities.

She now eats just under 1/2 cup of c/d kibble a day (5 tablespoons). That amount is spread out over many small servings throughout the day. Mazy is a very active cat, part of that is on her own and part is my diligence in seeing she gets enough exercise.

If I am ill, or very busy with work, and as I result I slack off on the interactive Game time for a while, Mazy does gain weight.

Weight, by the way, is also an important factor in FLUTD. Kitties carrying too much weight can be prone to urinary tract problems. I forgot to mention that before.

There's lots of terrible what if's. My worst fear at the moment is "what if my kittens actually do have chronic bronchitis?", it's progressive. In the meantime I do my best to get wet into all the cats and hope it keeps urinary issues away (didn't work with Sherman). Diabetes is at least preventable in part that you can watch Mazy's weight closely.

piikki: The problem with the C/D is that it's carby. Fat isn't as big of an issue as the carbs are. If you have to switch to a urinary formula you simply have to put more effort into getting Teppo's weight down. Better yet if you can start working on that soon. While you shouldn't play with food on your own, you can at least work on an exercise schedule.
If you're not happy with your current vet you may want to use this time to look for one that follows up with you better. A good test would be talking to a vet concerning Teppo's weight as that would require a vet to work on a plan with you.

talk with your vet ... many OTC no longer state this claim as too many used them instead of Rx foods

It's just better to go with the script foods on this. They may not be cheap, but they're still cheaper than vet bills.

I'll chime in that my Muddy didn't like either the SD or the Royal Canin urinary foods, but absolutely loves the Purina UR. I think it's more like junk food and he just took to it immediately. He's on prescription urinary food the rest of his life - he has idiopathic cystitis and can flip between crystals and UTI's if I don't stay on top of it.

I, personally, am not too concerned about the cost. I would willingly pay extra and put all of my boys on the script food if I got some sort of unanimous vote of confidence that it was good food. However, my vet seems to be of no use at this point (total bail out) and I have very little to go on with previous Rx food experience.
We have only been exposed to Hill's dental diet and with that vet said "This is NOT good food in general, so do only feed it as snacks, not as a main diet". I read the package only later and found several crappy ingredients and was horrified I had given it as a snack to Teppo (who most needed it for oral health and least for the crappy ingredients from our cats).

Let's just say I am not so strong in my trust with vets and Rx diets at the moment. What's the point of treating one problem and possibly creating another or more than one in exchange? I realize UTI:s/blocks are incredibly serious issues but so is eg diabetes.

Needless to say I am again looking for another vet for a second opinion. It just seems a lot of vets are not too into nutrition here.