Feeding a caw with flutd...

I'm so confused now. My cat Daniel has Flutd. And I've tried everything. He keeps having issues. Just got back from the vet today, ph is 8 and he's got another infection. (Sample taken from the bladder) I've been feeding him hill's c/d wet, one can a day divided into 2 meals. He also gets Kirkland Signature dry, though out the day to nibble on. (For the other cats) That seemed to help but he keeps having issues. I tried raw (nature's variety) for a few days and he started peeing on the floor. The vet says to feed him the RX dry. And he's going to be one of those cat's with chronic problems..... From what I've read that is bad. I was thinking about feeding him a really good wet food and no rx wet or dry. What is the best wet food? The Hill's wet has corn in it?!?  How long before his condition improves? Maybe I didn't give the raw a fair try. To top it off he is a finicky eater, who knew that eating the food was so hard. Please help, he's a young cat, and I can't battle with this for 10 more years.

brillobee said:

I'm so confused now. My cat Daniel has Flutd. And I've tried everything. He keeps having issues. Just got back from the vet today, ph is 8 and he's got another infection. (Sample taken from the bladder) I've been feeding him hill's c/d wet, one can a day divided into 2 meals. He also gets Kirkland Signature dry, though out the day to nibble on. (For the other cats) That seemed to help but he keeps having issues. I tried raw (nature's variety) for a few days and he started peeing on the floor. The vet says to feed him the RX dry. And he's going to be one of those cat's with chronic problems..... From what I've read that is bad. I was thinking about feeding him a really good wet food and no rx wet or dry. What is the best wet food? The Hill's wet has corn in it?!?  How long before his condition improves? Maybe I didn't give the raw a fair try. To top it off he is a finicky eater, who knew that eating the food was so hard. Please help, he's a young cat, and I can't battle with this for 10 more years.:doh3:

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Hi
I am sorry you have been going through these troubles
Well...... here is the thing..... if you fed him C/D and signature dry at the same time, then you might as well have not fed C/D. It only works if you feed it exclusively.
Also, NO DRY. No dry AT ALL.
IMHO, either you transition him for a good grain free, low carbs canned (100%), or raw. Meat is a natural acidifier and will keep his urine pH low. In the other hand, carbs/grains will do the reverse. A canned/raw diet with a high moisture content will keep his urine dilute, and prevent crystals to form. Dry will do the reverse..... For those reasons, a low carb grain free canned, or raw diet IMHO will be your best bet.
If you chose to feed a prescription you will have to make a choice to feed that and that alone.
If you want to feed him raw and need help, more information, we do have a raw forum ad you can open a thread there - we will be glad to help you out with any questions you might have
Here is the raw forum: http://www.thecatsite.com/f/65/raw-feeding-for-cats

Ugh! I am sorry you're going through all this. I had the same issue with one of my kitties. They are both a year old. We fed 50/50 wet/dry before, but he was still having crystal issues. He was on a prescription diet for a month. (that was fun with feeding two cats two different diets!) I echo Carolina - you need to feed exclusively the prescription for it to work. It did work for our boy - they didn't find any crystals after a month on the diet (Royal Canin SO). You definitely want to nip this in the bud - crystals can cause blockages, which can be fatal and/or require surgery. Especially since you have a boy.

Based on the recommendations of the wonderful community here, we've transitioned to an all-wet diet - it has the appropriate amount of moisture that keeps them flushed out. Finding a good-quality food that is low in carbs is definitely the way to go (grain free does not equal carb free). It's also important to have a couple different kinds in rotation so they don't become fixated on one product. We're spending more on food than we had anticipated when we adopted them, but we prefer it to the vet bills! (I can now tell you it costs $72 a pop to extract urine from the bladder, then test for crystals and bacteria!) We do keep some of the low-carb Friskies mixed in the rotation so if we ever have to go cheap for a while (job loss, unexpected huge medical bill, etc.) they will be able to tolerate it.

I recommend this whole website: http://www.catinfo.org/. There is a ton of good reading. After you've done a lot of reading on there, this chart will be really helpful: http://www.catinfo.org/docs/Food Chart Public 9-22-12.pdf  to find food that is low in carbs. We also keep away from fish-flavored food and food that is higher in phosphorus. 

By the way, peeing on the floor could just be a sign of bladder issues, not necessarily a reaction to the raw. I know our boy peed EVERYWHERE to tell us that he was having problems. When he chose to pee in the tub, I thanked him for peeing there if he had to pee outside the litter box. Then he peed in our bed! 

Sorry your're going through this

Ritz was diagnosed with stress-induced FLUTD.  And to Ritz, stress = new people in house, new routine/food, new anything.

Definitely, avoid fish based wet food.  And definitely rotate foods.  I didn't--and Ritz paid the price (one reason I transitioned to Raw feeding).

What has helped Ritz is using Feliway and Rescue Remedy (it's a drop I put in food).  You might try those--works for a lot of cats, doesn't work for other cats.

You can buy Feliway and RR for MUCH cheaper on Amazon than you can in big box stores. 

Good luck.

I understand the all wet or the all rx. But how do I feed just one cat? I have 11. I'll go broke feeding the all rx only. Not to mention it's not necessary. Any suggestions?

Timed feedings, even if you're feeding the others dry. I have 8. 3 more wouldn't make much of a difference. It's a PIA vs. free feeding, but given you don't want him suffering, you don't have much of a choice.

My cats had been free fed for 8 years when I switched to timed feedings. It wasn't easy. The first step is as many small meals as you can manage with your schedule, because they don't know to eat enough at one sitting.

Oh - actually, the first thing I did was pull the dry food during the day. I left it out at night until they were eating more at meals during the day. Once they "got" that food was coming at specific times (and the key here is ROUTINE. Feed at the same time every day), I pulled the food at night.

Then I worked to reduce the number of meals I was feeding them. I got them down to three: morning before work, at around dinner, and a late night meal before bed.

brillobee said:

I understand the all wet or the all rx. But how do I feed just one cat? I have 11. I'll go broke feeding the all rx only. Not to mention it's not necessary. Any suggestions?

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You just have to figure out some way to separate the cats when you feed them. The other thing is, no free feeding for any of them or your sick cat will eat their food. I had two cats who had this same issue. For years they ate only the prescription Hills dry food. One lived to age 14 and one is still living and is 14 now. He currently is eating Purina Ur from the vets office which is a urinary wet food., From time to time, he holds out and wants the Hills dry prescription and I give it to him. with some water over it in the bowl. He gets no other food at all. The other thing is he only drinks filtered water from the kitchen faucet. You might consider that.