Struvite crystal diet

So I have two cats. One, Galen, has food allergies, so I put both him and Marcus on Natural Balance because Marcus will eat anything. Then I had to take Marcus to the vet because he had a blockage in his urethra. Vet told me he has struvite crystals and needs to be on a special diet. I figure, well, it is unfortunate, but at least my cat is coming home alright (I had a cat die in November in the vet while I was 800 miles away, so yeah, some trauma there). They put him on Hill's s/d for two months and want to put him on c/d for the long term.

Cue my issues:
1. The fat content in s/d is wicked high. 23% fat and 30% protein.
2. Expense! I've got over $2700 of vet bills to pay off. The expense for prescription food is...intense.
3. By product >.< The Hill's has meat by-product in it and I don't like to feed my cats anything with by-product. Also, since I've started feeding them this, Galen has started scratching again.
(When offering the Hill's and the Natural Balance, Galen blatantly ignores the NB despite the fact that he's been eating it for the past two months. He also ignores the NB wet food. Marcus, on the other hand, eats anything)

So, ladies and gentlefolk...any tips on what I can do about this? Is there a diet that doesn't have by-product that can help with struvite crystals that won't make Galen scratch? I need your help, feline nutrition experts.

(my vet insists on putting him on the Hill's)

My male senior is on Royal Canin SO. It is for urinary issues, including struvite crystals. It contains no by-product, but does have a lot of corn stuff. Label shows 14% fat, 33% protein.

I had some concerns about the ingredients in this food (as posted earlier today), but my cat is doing fine on it so far. My foster kitty is on d/d for skin/allergy issues, but steals a few bites of the SO whenever possible. It has not caused her any problems so far. Of course, YMMV.

IIRC the Royal Canin was slightly cheaper than the Hills food at my vet's office.

You might ask Otto for her advice. My boy had struvite crystals. My strong advice - at least try the Hills C/D for the period of time suggested by the vet before the urine re-check.

While the ingredients may not look good to you, or me - the test is whether the prescription food works. For my Dante - it does. He's healthy, happy and shiny. The good news for me is that Hills C/D can be safely eaten by my other cat as well.

I had been feeding a mid-premium food prior to the switch to Hills. I haven't noticed a major expense rise, since the Hills is so calorie dense - I feed a lot less (after work out amounts with my vet).

Again, my strong advice is to work with your vet on this issue, including the scratching. If the Hills doesn't work, there are other prescription lines you can try.

That is exactly what the vet ordered for Beeba, my struvite kitty. S/d and then c/d.

You have to look at the food as not food, but medicine. Yes, the ingredients probably are not the best. But it works. Beeba will be on it for however long the vet wants. They have years of experience with this crystal deal. I am thankful my cat is thriving.

Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. And the good is a healthy, unplugged kitty. I buy a four lb bag for 17.00 and it lasts almost a month. I don't think that is too terrible.

If you put him on something and it does not work, there you are at the vets again and big bills.

Please don't make any changes without the input of your vet.

Originally Posted by darlili

You might ask Otto for her advice. My boy had struvite crystals. My strong advice - at least try the Hills C/D for the period of time suggested by the vet before the urine re-check.

While the ingredients may not look good to you, or me - the test is whether the prescription food works. For my Dante - it does. He's healthy, happy and shiny. The good news for me is that Hills C/D can be safely eaten by my other cat as well.

I had been feeding a mid-premium food prior to the switch to Hills. I haven't noticed a major expense rise, since the Hills is so calorie dense - I feed a lot less (after work out amounts with my vet).

Again, my strong advice is to work with your vet on this issue, including the scratching. If the Hills doesn't work, there are other prescription lines you can try.

Click to expand...

other makers
Royal Canin( many had awesome luck with this)
Purina
Iams
Eukanuba
Wysong( ingredient wise look this up)

Cats are made to digest Fat and Protein so too me 23 is a good level for fat

30 protein IMHO = senior in dry food

I have had two cats who have done extremely well on the Hill's foods. Sometimes we just have to do what works.

One of my cats got struvite crystals 4.5 years ago. I did a lot of reading, and found a couple places online that said that high urinary pH was due to grains in the diet. Cats haven't evolved to eat grains. I had Vlad on the science diet S/D on the recc of the vet, and after I used up two dozen cans of it, bought some Innova Evo kibble and canned.

He happily ate the Evo, and didn't have any relapses, so I started shopping around. At one point he stayed with my ex for a year, and got fed a kibble that had brown rice in it, but he was still fine. He spent about a year on a Natural Balance green pea and ??? formula that initially was grain free, and is now no longer made (they added rice protein to the formula; I dodged the Chinese poison event by sheer happenstance). He's been eating Taste of the Wild venison and salmon kibble for 2.5 years now, and has zero health problems. TotW costs about as much as Iam's per pound, if you buy the big bag, and the ingredients are better. TotW does have peas and sweet potato, but I haven't read anything bad about them, and like I said, no health problems after 2.5 years.