Royal Canin Vet Diet Urinary SO

I just adopted a cat who is on this food.  The owner mentioned that previous to this they bought his food at Walmart but they couldn't remember the brand/name.  I do plan on speaking to my vet about this, however since the new cat came with a brand new bag of this food I can wait for a week or so to schedule an appointment with my vet (the cat is healthy otherwise, have all vet paperwork, tests, microchip info etc.).  

What I will be speaking to my vet about, and what I'm asking here (as there is tons of experience here that I do value input from).  Will this cat have to stay on this food forever, or will a good quality food work just fine?

I have only had cats for 3 years, have had dogs my entire life and how I was raised in regards to feeding is, feed a good quality food and you'll minimize health issues.  Granted things come up from time to time that requires a vet's attention, but feeding a decent quality food will go a long ways.

With that said I have been feeding both my dog and cats NutriSource and I haven't had any issues with intestinal health, overweight issues, hairballs, not using the litter box, etc.

For those not too familiar with NutriSource, here are the first few ingredients of the food.  

Chicken meal, rice, salmon, chicken liver, chicken fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols), flax seed, tuna meal, pea protein, pea flour, dried egg product

So before i go in and talk to my vet regarding this food bit, what has others experienced with this sort of thing?  I have to admit I am not as up to speed on cat food ingredients as I am dog ingredients, and with a dog's nutrition in mind (and as I understand it, cats require even less grains) the Royal Canin Vet Diet Urinary SO, 3 of their first 4 ingredients is something I would look to steer clear from when picking a food for my dog.

If the cat had experienced a urinary blockage, then he most likely will have to stay on the urinary so. Do you have any of his medical records? If he had crystals, they are usually due to a too alkaline or too acidic urine. The SO food creates an ideal urine ph. I have seen many cats in the clinics where I work have to go on this diet and their owners switch foods due to the price and their cars have to come back for another $1500 stay in the hospital. I know the ingredients leave much to be desired, but if it is the only food that works, I would suggest continue feeding it.


Having said that, if you find a food that has better ingredients and keeps your cat's urinary issues at bay then by all means. Wysong is another brand that makes both rx and regular foods. The foods are for the most part what most would consider natural and many of their foods have good ingredients (I find that some of their non-rx foods have questionable ingredients). They do make a food called Uretic which is sold over the counter but they also may sell a rx food. Google Wysong and you'll be able to find out. I know when my dog had crystals, I was going to order their Struvatrol diet. I ended up getting one of their supplements called Biotic ph-. She had struvite crystals which are typically caused by too alkaline urine ph. I was supposed to feed her urinary so but switched back to raw. (However, urinary problems are somewhat different between dogs and cats and some cats seem to be more susceptible to urinary problems and urinary so is the only diet that works for them.) Calcium oxylate crystals, another common type of crystal, are typically caused by a urine ph that is too acidic. Wysong makes a supplement called Biotic ph+ which you add to the food and it makes your cat's urine more alkaline. Struvite and calcium oxylate crystals are only two of the crystals that can affect the urinary tract but are the most common. The latter is more difficult to treat if they are present and often require a cystotomy. I know in dogs, struvite crystals usually are accompanied by an infection and most times, can be eliminated when the infection has been treated. In cats, especially males, urinary issues are common and expensive to treat, whether it's a case of having a urinary catheter inserted or surgery (cystotomy). I have also seen cats have their penis amputated in order to make their urinary tract wider. Even this in some cats doesn't help.

An important thing in keeping your cat healthy, is to keep him hydrated. Even though he may drink he may not drink enough to keep him hydrated. So I strongly suggest feeding him canned food. Your best bet is to feed him an all-canned diet (whether is is the Urinary SO or not). Canned food provides moisture whereas dry food will keep him chronically dehydrated which may cause other issues as well such as kidney failure.

I would suggest that you have his medical records sent to your vet and then discuss it with him or her. As most vets are 'trained' in the rx diets, you can still do your research and then have your cat's urine tested regularly to make sure he's not developing problems. A costly venture yes but if you are concerned about ingredients then it is something that I would suggest. I am not a fan of rx diets (though Wysong's ingredients seem to be ok- not sure about their efficacy) but sometimes the rx diet is the only thing that works. Vets cannot possibly know all of the foods out there. Sorry for the long post; just wanted to make it clear that some cats are more susceptible to urinary problems than others. Good luck and congratulations on your new furry friend!

Thank you for the response, I will go over his medical records tonight as it was late by the time I did get home yesterday.

I do want to do some research before visiting my vet, not because I don't trust her (I have found a local vet that is just great) but I want to have a conversation on this where I have some understanding.
 

Oh, and I was told that he doesn't like wet food and is strictly a dry food kind of guy.  He will however, go for some tuna but that's about it.

Unless the previous owner had an another cat that was prone to crystals and for ease decided to feed it to all their cats then your cat must have a history of crystals in his urine. If so, it is critical that you be very careful about feeding a non-prescription diet especially since he is male. Males have a narrower urethra that is more easily blocked by crystals. A blocked urethra can kill a cat very quickly. 

As SweetPea said, the prescription diets keep urine at an optimal pH and will prevent crystal formation. I have a female cat that is prone to struvite crystals. I choose to feed her a raw diet which keeps her urine acidic enough to prevent crystals. After seeing what she went through, painful urination, I would not consider feeding a commercial, non-prescription pet food unless I also closely monitored her urine pH to make sure it was acidic enough. 

Going through the records I have, he was healthy prior to this and it just started 2 months ago.

From my reading there are several factors that could cause this and two that stick out in my mind is stress and diet.  This cat in it's previous home (the one he just left) two small dogs constantly chased him (which is why the owner wanted to find a new place for him) and a Walmart diet of dry food doesn't bold well (I'm thinking lots of carbs, corn, etc. in his previous diet).

I am going to start feeding canned food to ALL my cats now after researching yesterday.  Going to start mixing canned with dry until all my dry food is gone (I do feed a low grain 'quality' dry food) and make it a slow process to fully canned for all three of the cats.

My Bonaparte is on RC Urinary SO following an operation last JAnuary to remove bladder stones that blocked him completely until he peed pure blood. The vet says he must stay on it forwever. But I do not like feeding dry food to a male cat with urinary problems because it is unlikely that he will ever drink enough to compensate for the dryness, whatever the ingredients. So I feed him the RC urinary diet in wet sachet form. The vet knows this and is happy. It is not too expensive compared with other sachet foods if I buy it online, and the wet form has better ingredients than the dry. But if your cat does not have such a history then I do not see why he would need it. Is there any way you can find out from the previous owner? But IMO wet food is the way to go if you can, especially for males.

Talked briefly with the previous owner, he had crystals in April and since then he has been on this food.  Looking at the ingredients I am not impressed whatsoever, and at that price I feel like I'm getting robbed!

The previous owner did mention that she tried to feed him wet but he refused, so I think this might be a slow process to transition from dry to wet.  After reading so many articles I am putting my two other boys on wet as well - transitioning now and going not too shabby.  One accepts wet with zero transition, the other is ruled by his stomach so he eventually eats the mix of wet and dry.

I did buy a new bag of Nutrisource Chicken (the big bag) right before posting this thread and reading up on this whole wet vs dry food for cats.  It kills me because I recently (a few months ago) I did look into switching both my dog and cat food and what makes a healthy diet...I thought I did good too :/

For my dog went from Iams to Eukanuba Naturels to Nutrisource Grain Free

For my cats went from Purina to Eukanuba to Nutrisource

I went with Nutrisource because it's a Minnesota company with zero recalls in their history and are known for good ingredients.  And there is a local little pet shop that supplies Nutrisource straight from them so I know I'm getting it pretty fresh.

They offer 3 different canned cat foods, which of these three looks to be the best?

I'm not a nutrition expert, so I'll let someone else weigh in on which one of the 3 varieties looks best, but I did just want to mention a couple things about switching from dry to wet food. I found that all 3 of my cats hate the pate style food. I can get them to eat just about anything with chunks of shreds of meat in it, they just don't like the pate. So that's something to keep in mind as you're switching - to try different textures of food. I couldn't tell from the can for sure, but it looks like the NutriSource might pate?

You shouldn't try to pick the "one best"---it's not healthy for anybody to eat the same thing every single day for years and years. Pick a good variety. . .at least 5 or 6 different brands/flavors.

http://catinfo.org/         

If your cat had crystals in the past he cannot be taken off a Urinary food without the symptoms coming back. Trust me you do not want him peeing all over your house rather then in the litter box. Also, the Urinary SO ingredients may look "bad" to you but that food is a well balanced food to help with Urinary problems and it is complete and balanced to be on it long term. Some people see ingredients and get so scared but instead thinking its bad do research on how benifical they are to your pet. Urinary SO is THE top food you can feed your cat. It has saved my cats lives. Also, dry food is beneifical in cats to help with dental problems. The kiddle acts as a brushing action to help with tartar forming as quick as the wet food would allow. Its all about preventative measures. If you keep him on Urinary SO you will not have to pay hundreds of dollars on vet bills having to get him cathatorized and unblocked.  

Your post goes against everything I have read recently and in the past.

Chicken meal, brewers rice, corn gluten meal, corn, chicken fat, natural flavors, soy protein isolate, powdered cellulose, salt, dried egg product

The first ten ingredients and two of them are corn - not impressed at all especially for the hefty price tag.  I have no doubts that the Urinary SO food has/does help cats with crystal problems, however I do then have to question what they were eating prior to getting crystals and if they were drinking much if any water.  Luckily, my two boys drink water out of the fountain and anytime I go near a facet they hop in it and make me turn on the water for them to drink - and they have had no issues.

Also, when it comes to crystals you do want to up the intake of water (which makes sense) and the easiest way to do this of course is feeding wet food.  I have read, which I do believe, that once a cat gets crystals that he is more susceptible to getting them again (just like someone who has kidney stones).  The cause of the crystals can be hard to find a direct link for, but many believe it's due to diet and a lack of water - which makes sense to me and I believe this as well.

Yes, as other have said--the ingredients ARE terrible, but for some cats it's the only way to keep him from blocking. Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. TBH, if he'd eat canned or raw food I personally might be comfortable switching him to a non-prescription canned or raw diet. But since he won't (I do think it's possible to convert him to eating canned, if you really want to put the time and effort in), I don't think I'd risk a non-prescription dry food.

I am in the process of switching him to a full wet diet right now as I think it's possible to transition him as well.

The previous owner told me he wouldn't eat wet food - this is just what I was told. 

I had a problem with my babies as the vet said wet only, but, they wouldn't settle till they had there fave dry food for dinner, so..... I added a full saucer of water each then added the dry and they drank and ate the lot, never gone back since, two full saucers of (filtered) water each a day... All that extra water done! Please note the point about filtered water, this is a must if your cat has struvite crystal prob,SMS, but even a healthy cat, tap water is not good for them. On a plus the last test for each was the best results yet and I believe it is down to the e extra hydration.

pawsandclaws said:

Also, dry food is beneifical in cats to help with dental problems. The kiddle acts as a brushing action to help with tartar forming as quick as the wet food would allow. Its all about preventative measures. If you keep him on Urinary SO you will not have to pay hundreds of dollars on vet bills having to get him cathatorized and unblocked.  

Click to expand...

This is in fact not true, though it used to be thought so. Kibble sticks to the teeth like sweets do to human teeth, and can actually cause a build-up of tartar. AS everyone has said, water is the key to health and it must be good water. Mine all get a low calcium bottled water as we live in a hard water area and we have had problems with calcium stones. Lots of water cleans teeth too.

Just wanted to toss in my .02 ...

I have two cats, one had struvite crystals. We put him on the Urinary SO for a month, and the crystals cleared up. Based in large part from advice here and from http://www.catinfo.org , we decided to transition to an all-wet diet. My boys already got some wet and some dry, so the transition was pretty easy ... I just stopped feeding the dry one day and increased the amount of wet, and they didn't object. We try to buy decent quality, but we throw some Friskies in the mix, too. Avoid fish flavors, too - they can be high in phosphorus which can increase the risk of crystals.

My cats love pate and will only eat about half of any other type of texture, so I second the advice to make sure you try different varieties and brands if they don't seem to like one kind.

My vet thought this was adequate, but I'm still going to go back and test in a couple of months to make sure the crystals are still gone. ($72 well spent - I went with him to the vet so much that I know the price for the urinalysis!) The catinfo.org site is really, really helpful with transition tips to wet food and ways to look for a decent cat food. The biggest word in preventing crystals is WATER. 

You can also try making some homemade chicken broth to increase liquid intake - just boil the heck out of some chicken wings (good meat/fat/bone ratio). Human chicken broth generally has spices (onion, garlic, high salt) that are not great for or harmful to cats. We freeze it in ice cube trays and take a couple out every now and again.

Good luck!

it really is sad that its $72 for a pee test. Its probably much the same as people testing their pools with test strips. 5 minutes of actual work, comparing numbers to numbers, or in the pool water scenario colours to colours. it kind of is a ripoff.

but that being said, i suppose its worth it.

my cats are on urinary so and i am not a fan of the price. what do  you guys pay? Where do you buy it?

My vet doesn't charge for a strip test that he does in t he surgery during an exam.. The full urinalysis is a microscopic examination that has to be done in a fully equipped lab, and can show up all sorts of things.

On the RC SO diet, my Bonaparte is on it and I buy it online, half the price the vets charge. But I am in Europe so I guess there is no point giving the details. But I am sure you can do the same wherever you are.

jennyranson said:

My vet doesn't charge for a strip test that he does in t he surgery during an exam.. The full urinalysis is a microscopic examination that has to be done in a fully equipped lab, and can show up all sorts of things.

On the RC SO diet, my Bonaparte is on it and I buy it online, half the price the vets charge. But I am in Europe so I guess there is no point giving the details. But I am sure you can do the same wherever you are.

Click to expand...

What about the fact that most people are saying the ingredients are horrible? How do you deal with that? lol.

I mean, in my case *touching wood* it IS working... its been over 5 years, and only have had one UTI. been on that food and been fine ever since. for this reason im hesitant to try anything else.