Struvite Crystals - Prescription Cat Food Ineffective? Purina UR Urinary St/OX

Hello,

We have four cats and one of them (a three year old female) was recently diagnosed with struvite crystals and they recommended we put here on Purina's UR Urinary St/Ox Feline Formula which we have been doing for the past three weeks. Prior to this prescription diet she would urinate in our tub almost every day (a large amount) and she also would use the litter box to urinate as well. Now, she doesn't urinate in the tub every day, but probably 4 days a week -- so I'm not sure that this prescription diet is working?

She'll go in to the vet to have her urine checked in another week or so -- but I'm curious if any of you have used this Purina wet food and if it worked, how quickly did you see improvement? We were a bit uncomfortable putting her on it as we have had our cats on Avoderm wet food for about five years and we did a lot of research making that decision -- it doesn't have any animal by-products and seems to be pretty healthy (the next best alternative to raw food) -- but the prescription food they are having us feed her is animal by-products and it seems to be more likely to make her put on some pounds...

So any experience with Purina UR Urinary St/Ox Feline formula (wet food) would be greatly appreciated. I just thought we'd see a more drastic improvement by now (about three weeks in) and I'm not sure that we are seeing that -- and I'm worried about putting our cat on this for the long-term as it really doesn't seem like the best nutritional-choice for cats. I'm pretty convinced our normal food is higher quality/healthier for them -- and I am also concerned that if she's not improving with this I don't want to wait too long (out of fear of doing long-term kidney damage/etc.)...

I look forward to hearing from any of you!

Well, first thing would be to re-test to see if the crystals are still there. . .it may be that she just likes peeing in the bathtub :lol3:. If they aren't, I guess it's working, but you're right about the ingredients--ugh. There are other options as well, such as Iams, Royal Canin, Hills (all prescription), so you can see if any of the others are more agreeable. I think RC has the least objectionable ingredients, though they're nothing special, either.

Are your cats eating all canned food? Do you think they'd eat raw? Apparently a diet with appropriate meat content balances the urine pH and can be helpful for crystals, and a commercial raw diet isn't much more trouble or more expensive than a good canned food. Might be worth a try anyway.

A friend has a couple of cats that are perfectly well but love peeing in the sink.  Bathroom sink, kitchen sink are equally favoured.  Having maybe started peeing in the bath because of the crystals, maybe she just likes doing it there!  I wish mine would pee in the shower tray, so long as they don't then stand in their pee.  It would save me a lot in cat litter.

I have never had purina offered to me by multiple vets.  I have always had science diet or royal canin offered.  My cats have done great on the RX foods-personally hills as I have used k/d, c/d, w/d and a/d. My father used royal canin for a dog but cant remember which one-worked very well and she lived a few years older then the breed normally did.

I have a cat (Muddy) with chronic bladder issues and he eats most of a can of Purina UR every morning. I know its not the best, but he's blocked when I tried to take him off of it, so I continue to give it to him. I tried other prescription brands and he simply didn't like them. He pigs out on the Purina every day.

I can't tell you how long it took for him to respond to a prescription food diet, as his problem wasn't simply crystals (he has an auto-immune condition that causes his bladder to swell, which in turn causes crystals and infections). I would say it took months to stabilize him. He's also on steroids every other day (for the last 3 years).

He's also been on Science Diet C/D dry since the start of his illness, and I am currently switching him over to a grain free dry. All the cats in my household have been eating that food and all of the ones that have had blood work done recently showed signs of inflammation. With that, I decided to drop the grains out of their food to see if that helps them and does not hurt Muddy.

My cats also get a grain free wet food at night, including Muddy. As soon as our transition to the grain free dry is done, the only prescription food left in the house is his Purina UR. I will continue to feed that to him to maintain his health.

So once your girl is stabilized, you can try to incorporate regular food back into her life, but if she relapses, I would stay with the prescription until she is fully stabilized. Only your vet will know how serious her condition is and whether this is something they would recommend. I decided to ignore my vet at first and Muddy ended up blocked in the ER.

I have two that have had issues with struvite crystals.  

One male, and one female.  

The female had to have bladder surgery to remove the stone.  

The male - it's been so long - 2008 - I hardly remember the details - but the Dr said he'd need to be on the diet "forever".  He prescribed the Royal Canin Urinary SO - because it wasn't as fattening (KiKi was a little overweight at the time - he's just right, now) as the other he would prescribe - can't remember which one, sorry.  

ANYway I started giving him the canned, and he became constipated, so I added the dry - that worked.  He loved both, but naturally started only wanting the dry.  

Because the female now had crystals, too - I started her on the same diet after her surgery.  The Royal Canin Urinary SO treats both forms of crystals - or so I am informed.

I was cautioned that in order for the prescription diet to be effective, no other food should be allowed other than the prescription.  

I have another cat that hasn't been diagnosed with crystals, but I have been told the RC is okay to feed him the prescription, too.  

Feeding all three the same food is the only choice as they are all in the same "zone" together and trying to feed different foods just would be a nightmare.

They are on 95% canned now, and get some dry as a topping for the canned.  I grind the kibble into powder to make a topping.

KiKi - male cat - has been on the RC since 2008 - that's 4 years - and thus far he has been crystal free, Phoebe's surgery was in Dec of 2010, and so far she's been doing good, also.  Simon - Phoebe's brother - has not been troubled with stone issues - perhaps it's because he's also on the Diet???

I've cut expenses quiet a lot by ordering online (petflow.com), they ship free with a minimum order, and the special diet will sure meet that minimum quickly.    

I found a code that works so far: SHIP49, which allows the minimum order to be $49.00

I have been cautioned by reliable members here about giving prescription diets to other cats without them being prescribed this diet, so, I passing on the same caution to you - please check with your vet before feeding other cats a prescription diet.

I hope this helps.

g

KiKi - in black, Phoebe - calico, and Simon

Hi everyone. I am new to this site. I have been reading the all the posts and would like to share some information. I have a holistic vet plus a local vet who practices homeopath and western medicine too.

Last year my cat whiskers got blocked up. He came close to dying. I didnt catch the signs right away, but when I saw something was wrong, I rushed him in. My local vet works with our holistic online vet. They are so wonderful. We did everything, but nothing worked. Whiskers had to go for surgery. I would like you all to know that he was on a raw diet and still got struvite crystals. He never ate dry food. He was on suppls to. One would never have thought anything was wrong. Well when they did the surgery on him, his problem had to do with the way he was designed. he was exceptionaly small. After the surgerys, we switched to paper litter. We take him in for urine tests etc. Recently, my vets and I wanted to change his diet. Whiskers doesnt like royal canin wet. So we started added a very small amount of raw into his wet. Well, he got a bladder infection. He was leaking blood. I rushed him in. So off the raw... He went through antiboitcs etc. He got sick right after he went off. I rushed him to the er. The er vet decided he needed to be on antibitoics again. I really don't like any of the commerical RX foods. However, whiskers is doing ok. I just switched him this week to iams vet urinary. He seems to like it. We are still using the royal canin dry so.

This year  my three year cat ozzie got sick. I caught this fast. Well, as it turns out, he has FLUTD...Feline idiopathic lower urinary tract disease. This started in April of this year. I rushed him to the er. His ph was fine etc. I took him to my vet. We did sub q fluids and phenoxybenzamie on him...we moved and he got sick again...I just kept doing the maintance plus cantharis on him. I thought things were going ok....Two weeks ago, I saw him in his box and he wouldnt come out. I knew. My vet was out of town. I took him to a local vet where we moved. I thought we were going to have to put him down. I was a basket case. Well, Ozzie made it...I put him on royal canin wet. He hated it. He likes the dry. I hate dry food. I had always fed my cats good grain free food etc. I put ozzie on the iams vet food. He seems to like it. I have had to get appetite stimulant pills from the vet to get him to eat the RC wet. And that wasnt working either. Our holistic vet has whiskers on suppls and ozzie too. The goal here is to make the urine more acid. Things must be working because Ozzie's ph is 6.5 and whiskers was around 7. We do subq fluids on each cat now. Each gets 100cc once a week. And if I see ozzie straining, I have pills to help him plus I am supposed to run subq fluids too. My local vet says, we have to figure out what stresses the cats out and keep it down.

I can only tell you that I have had my share of illness and have lost 6 cats in 13 years. Most were to renal failure. One was IBS and one was asthma. At present I have seven cats. One came to me with vaccinosis. (rabbies vaccine almost killed him) That was when I contacted the holistic vet. No steroids were used on him..It took her ten months but she cured him without drugs. Diet was extremely important. She was able to extend the lives of two of my cats longer...I am very lucky because I have two wonderful vets who work together.  I am not real big on allopath med for humans and pets. I have read that all those vaccines arent good for our pets. I started my journey by reading a number of well versed holistic vets.  No one knows for sure why our cats get these diseases. But I did read, that dry food is just about the worst things we can feed our pets.

I guess time will tell how the cats do. But, at least, ozzie is eating the iams vet food and so is whiskers.

My two are on Hills C/D as the boy had struvite crystals.  Both have semi-annual senior check ups/panels and both, thank goodness are doing well.  

Your female may enjoy the cool surface of the porcelain. Another thought is that she may still associate the litter pan with the discomfort she felt before treatment.  My boy had box issues when he was uncomfortable. I bought new pans and switched to Dr. Elsey's Cat Attract litter.  So far, so good, after almost three years.

The way I look at prescription foods is that they're just that - a medicine.  Sure, the ingredients may not look good to me, as a layperson - but is my cat healthy?  So far, behavior and  blood & urine tests say yes...that's enough for me now.

IMO, whatever you do, keep your vet in the loop.

I just put my cat on this after his cystotomy to remove some stones (still waiting lab results to see what type).  The only thing I can tell thus far is that it appears to make him thirsty.  He's drinking much more water than he used to.  But getting him to drink water was always a problem.

I took my cat, Lucy, in to the new vet who has supplanted the kindly neighborhood veterinarian who serviced my cats for years. The new vet immediately built a large, new, modern, sterile office, which has no magazines in the lobby and is about as welcoming as Antarctica. The vet, herself, is always overly solicitous, acting just SUPER concerned to the point that you have to question the sincerity. I first took Lucy in for her normal country-required rabies vaccinations. Within one week, she was straining to urinate and the urine had a bloody show. She also began defecating in places other than her litter box, including, but not limtied to the bathroom tile (that was the best of the lot). I took her back immediately, within one week of this vaccination episode, and X-rays were run and a variety of pills was given us. I should also mention that, when I took her in for the vaccine that the county requires, she had been displaying some syptoms of the inability to urinate at that time, and I asked the vet to give her some sort of antibiotic for a potential urinary tract infection, which was done (via shot).

The veterinarian agreed that an antibiotic shot wouldn't hurt the cat, and we had high hopes that she would stop urinating (and defecating) inappropriately.  That, however, didn't happen. In fact, the problem got worse after the first shot (rabies and antibiotic) and continued, unabated, with the onset of inappropriate pooping, in addition to the inappropriate peeing.  I took the cat back immediately (3 visits in one week) and the veterinarian kept Lucy overnight to try to get a urine sample to test and to X-ray her.

I was called in and shown an X-ray that showed something that looked to be approximately the size of a nickel within a fist-sized bladder. The veterinarian told me, in almost hushed tones, that the only treatment would be surgery (for $800-$1000) but added, "We'll respect whatever else you might choose to do." The only mention of diet was as I left, when the vet said, "There's also some special food you an prescribe, but we don't have any of it." We had a male cat with FUS (feline urological syndrome) and he was put on a special diet which did nothing at all. We were giving our cat primarily dry food, at the time, although we also gave her some wet food in the mornings, and at no time were we advised that dry cat food was anathema to many cats. We were told that "some cats just develop these" and the first vet indicated that this "stone," as she termed it, was probably rattling around inside Lucys bladder, banging into the sides of the organ causing the bloody show. So, the 2 options I had were: 1) Pay $1,000 for surgery or (2) have the cat euthanized.

I'm still upst that there was no real attempt to mention or suggest dietary therapy.

My husband and I had some discussions about the cat's problem, and, since his mother is currently in hospice and the strain on us both, as we care for her at home is tremendous, he said, "This is on you. Do it if you want." I called the first vet back to commit to the surgery, despite the cost. Not only did she not return my phone call for over 30 hours, but, when I called back, she had left the office and was not going to be in the office at all for 4 days!

My schedule was such that I had ONLY the days of Wednesday and Thursday to get some sort of help for my animal. I was promoting a Christmas book and every weekend night was devoted to signings and appearances. Therefore, I began calling other veterinarians and, at the recommendation of a woman who is helping care for my mother-in-law in hospice-at-home, I took my cat to a vet in a nearby town that she said really cared about her charges. (There had been a situation where the first vet refused treatment without payment in full for a $600 procedure, but the second vet agreed to a payment option of $200 down and payments thereafter).

Long story longer, the second vet put Lucy on Purina UR St OX and she showed improvement within a week. We left her at the second veterinarian's while we traveled to Mexico for 2 weeks. The X-rays showed the crystals were all gone. The second vet said the reason it appeared that a large nickel-sized growth existed (on the first X-ray) was that they lay the animal on its side and the crystals tend to congregate in one spot. All I know is that Lucy has had a second X-ray, has had her urine monitored and---although she seemed "off her feed" for the first 2 days after we left her at the veterinarian clinic where she was boarded (and, no, she was NOT in a cage. She had a room of her own with cat toys, cat pedestals and windows to look out of) for January 3-17---she now seems "normal" and is no longer doing her business in inconvenient places.

I feel that being given a choice of surgery or death was rather severe and possibly misrepresentation. I had all the records (X-rays, etc.) transferred to Vet #2 (the one who accepted the payment option of the hospice worker) and I doubt seriously if I'll ever believe the overly sympathetic-sounding veterinarian who never even mentioned diet therapy to cure my rather young cat, but was willing to euthanize it or cut it open without even giving dietary therapy a try (and never once mentioned that dry food was anathema to cats, in general.) (And, no, this isn't my first cat. I've had 6 over the years----really all of my life.