Urine pH

Just got some urine lab results back and would like some advice.

Background: My kitty, Poppy, had a struvite stone removed last spring. The doctor there was really pushing the Hill's, which we did not want to do. Since then I've taken her off kibble completely, started adding 1 tablespoon water to her canned meals (Wellness), added a very small amount of Wysong's Biotic pH- (lowers urine pH, has dl-methionine in it among other things; I am only adding about 1/32 teaspoon to her meals, 2x daily). I have also tried to convert her to raw, but she ate it for about a month, and right now she's being fussy, and is only eating about half her meal raw.

Her lab results were mixed. No crystals, no bacteria, but urine pH is 7.

I've consulted the catinfo.org website, and it says I should be more worried about properly hydrating the cat, and that urine pH can fluctuate throughout the day.

So should I be concerned about the pH? The vet (not the same one from the spring) did recommend I start feeding Royal Canin prescription, which he says is better nutritionally than Hill's, but I'd rather not go on prescription diets at all.

My first inclination is to increase the amount of the Biotic pH- or perhaps get some dl-methionine (the Biotic pH- has other ingredients in it, so you can't tell how much of the dl-methionine you're adding), then retest. I'm going to post separately on how much I should add.

I am also curious why her urine pH was higher than previous tests in the spring even though she's eating some raw now, which is supposed to acidify. She had 3 or 4 tests which were all at 6.5.

Thanks for any advice. My apologies if I don't respond to replies right away. The DSL in our area is horrible right now. Had to tromp out to the library just to post this.

Internet problems are so frustrating!

The urine pH fluctuates. It's most accurate four hours or more after having eaten. For the canned portion your kitty is eating, you might want to consider switching from Wellness to By Nature 95% foods. Another TCS member found that her kitty's urine pH remained more stable with the By Nature 95% foods.

When I needed to acidify Spooky's urine to dissolve some struvite crystals, I bought NOW L-methionine (the natural form of the amino acid, not the synthetic - which is what the "d" in front of the L means), 500mg. My vet looked it up, and said that to use it as an acidifier, it should be given at 1,000 to 1,500mg per day - short term, not long term. I gave her 500mg with each meal (3 meals a day) every other day, and 500mg with just two meals a day every other day. :lol3: I used it for a month, and gave her sub-q fluids at home every other day for 20 days, to help flush her out so there was no "struvite sludge" left.

I also bought pH test strips - I'm able to just hold the strip in her pee stream when she pees, so I can keep track of it at home.

THANKS SO MUCH, LDG!

She got her urine sample taken around 11:30 a.m., about 3.5 hours after eating, and not at the usual late afternoon/early evening time that the 6.5 readings came from.
 

I was also able to find this info:

http://www.drugs.com/vet/dl-methionine-tablets.html

For anyone else who is reading this, methionine in higher doses can cause Heinz anemia, so use with veterinary advice (I'm calling the vet later this evening, just want to get as much info as possible.)

Did you give her any methionine as part of a maintenance diet?

And your kitty doesn't mind if you put a urine stick underneath her while she is peeing? I would think mine would run out of the litter box.

Well, she's on a fully raw diet, which is naturally high in methionine, so no, I don't have her on a maintenance dose. But I do keep an eye on her urine pH.

And I don't think it's that she doesn't mind - I think she doesn't notice. :lol3: She walks straight into the box and doesn't turn around - so when I see her headed for the box and it's before a meal, I grab the pH test strip. Her rear end is toward me, and I just hold it there for a second or two...