Hellllpppp ! Cat with FLUTD and the various foods available.

Hello,

My 6 year old cat has been on Hills C/D dry for 3 years now. He refuses to

touch the canned (very few will as I understand). Several months ago he

became blocked up. The vet found a large amount of calcium oxalate crystals

in his urine. He had occasionally been "stealing" regular food from his sister

so I cut that out and kept him on the C/D.

He blocked up again last week. 5 days and $3300 later, he is home and

much happier. This time his urine had no crystals, but his bladder was full

of this "sludge". The new vet said they don't know what causes this (seems to

be the general concensus for FLUTD). The vet prescribed Royal Canin S/O.

So I will see where that takes us. My question - I couldn't get the Royal Canin

the night I brought him home since everyone was closed (my vet is 24 hour)

so I gave him some Purina Pro Plan Urinary Diet to hold him over. He actually likes this stuff.

(I had thrown out the remainder of the Hills earlier).

Does anyone have any experience with this food ? He actually liked the canned

food. I've seen a few positive reviews out there but nothing terribly professional.

JD

Oh I 'm so sorry about your baby! I have three boys that blocked at various times - two with struvite crystals and one with calcium oxalate crystals - and a girl with FLUTD. Well - she used to. Lazlo blocked several times in a row, and was going to have the PU surgery if it happened again.

Our vet had us put them on c/d, and we did. I free fed kibble, but they did like the wet. I fed them one meal of wet food a day at first, then two a day to increase their water intake. I did get fountains, and they did drink more (though honestly, I think putting out like 20 small bowls of water so they were EVERYWHERE had more of an impact). The vet made it clear that keeping their urine dilute was the best thing I could do. :nod: I've changed their diet since then, and no longer feed prescription food. We've had no problems! :cross:

All of that said... the Purina Urinary stuff - any "urinary tract health" that isn't prescription, has urine acidifiers in it. This may help if it's struvite crystals, but doesn't help with oxalate. The prescription urinary health foods create a pH neutral environment, which is what helps with both types of crystal problems.

Many, many people have taken their cats off the prescription foods by finding canned, grain-free, low-carb foods that have roughly the same phosphorus and magnesium content that the c/d has. :nod: This ups the quality of the diet by leaps and bounds (given that cats are carnivores and meant to get their nutrition from animal proteins and fats, not corn, soy, or grains that are in most prescription foods) AND helps by keeping their urine really dilute. :nod:

More information you may find helpful:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/246865/can-anyone-help-me#post_3231497 (for higher quality foods with a similar mag/phos profile as the prescription c/d)

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

Hope this helps!

You might also want to join the Yahoo FLUTD group.  Lots of helpful people there and great support.  http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/FLUTD/?yguid=353539644