I'm starting this thread after just reading another thread on here where someone had actually put their cat to sleep just because the cat had stones and its bladder was enlarged.  I am actually upset that any vet would advise this to their client when this is such an easily corrected problem and I hope that noone else will listen to a vet like this and make this type of mistake.  Any vet can easily correct this issue.  The bladder only becomes enlarged because it's full of urine, which is easily expressed by vet once the stones are removed!

Let me start by saying that I have 4 cats, 2 who have cystitis (1 male and 1 female).  This can be a very frustrating and even costly condition, but it is manageable and there is always hope.  My female cat began having issues when she was around 5 , which is very common.  The very first time I realized that she had any issue at all, I took her to my vet and found that she had large stones in her bladder which were non-passable and her bladder was enlarged.  The vet performed a surgery to remove the stones and he emptied her bladder.  You can find an inexpensive vet and mine charged less than $200 for this procedure.  My cat was fine for afterward.

Several months later I noticed she was urinating blood.  I took her in again and the vet thought she had an infection and put her on antibiotics.  The medication did nothing for her and this went on for a few weeks.  I brought her back each week to test her urine and after about 3 weeks, it suddenly corrected itself.  He then diagnosed here with cystitis.

We put her on Hill's C/D.  She had several more flare ups over the next 2 years, even being on the C/D. During some of her flares she had crystals in her urine, but the stones never returned.  The vet told me that females VERY rarely get blocked because they have a much larger urethra. He checked every time to make sure she didn't have stones, which NEVER came back to this day (she is now 10 years old).  He also told me that with cystitis of FLUTD there is rarely any bacteria so there is no need for antibiotics.   He also said that as long as she as no stones she doesn't necessarily need to be seen because, as happened before, it can suddenly clear up on its own.  After a while he switched her to Hill's W/D because she developed acid reflux which was aggravated by the c/d. She has had no flares for over 2 years.

One thing I want to mention is that everyone will tell you that the cat must eat wet food.  While the vet did recommend this as a first choice, my cat refused to eat the wet food.  So, he told me that I can feed her the dry, but just wet it a little (don't believe the blogs that tell you not to wet dry food because of bacteria- my vet actually laughed when I told him I had read this and said that is not true unless you don't change your cat's food daily-which who doesn't anyway?).  To my surprise, my finicky cat ate it and has been all along.  This proves that a cat can certainly eat the dry prescription food if they must, and it will still help.  So don't worry yourself if the cat won't eat the wet food. 

Another thing that I tried (which did help) was glucosamine.  I read research that was conflicting saying it may help or may not, so I asked the vet about it and he said go ahead and try it.  I had to buy a couple of different brands to find one that my cat would still eat her food with it on, but I finally found one.  It comes in a capsule which you open and can sprinkle on the food.  You can also try a product like Uromax, which is a liquid, if your cat is not picky (this is what the vet had recommended, but my cat wouldn't eat it).  This, in combination with the dry prescription food (with water on it).  These 2 things together seemed to stop her chronic cystitis after about 8 months.  Like I said, she is now flare free for over 2 years and she had a severe, chronic case!  She has now been off the glucosamine for about a year!

Now my male cat was just diagnosed last week.  Males are of course different, because they have the danger of being blocked.  But, if you take them to the vet AS SOON as you notice any urinating issues, it can be easily prevented.  Again, no reason to put the cat to sleep because this is a very manageable condition!  With my male the vet had to clear the blockage and he is now on the W/D as well.  He was a feral for the first year of his life and he refuses to eat the canned food.  So, again, I am giving him the dry w/d and wetting it a little.  He also is eating this.  He is not on any medication at all and doing fine so far.  If he has another flare, I will start him on the glucosamine as well.

Moral of the story- find a good vet who knows about cystitis and is current on research.  Don't ever think that you need to put a cat to sleep because of this very common, manageable condition.  It is only deadly if it is ignored and leads to kidney issues.  A few simple adjustments can manage this condition for life!

Hi and welcome! I do agree with you that euthanizing a cat with a treatable condition is a sad thing to do. I don't agree with you about the Hills "prescription" dry foods though. Cats should be on a wet or raw diet. Cats CAN be transitioned. It takes time, patience and work, but it CAN be done.

Cats were not meant to eat all that corn. Those foods are just full of corn. Awful. Nor are their teeth or bodies designed to eat or digest hard dry pieces.

And it is just completely contradictory to put a cat with urinary tract problems on a dry diet. It makes no sense, no sense at all.

My Mazy cat ate Hills c/d kibble for 6 1/2 years. She wouldn't eat the Hills canned and my vet at the time insisted she needed the c/d. It just about ruined her, destroyed her digestion and her quality of life was deteriorating. Daily regurgitation, constipation, dull rough coat, no energy at all. The ONLY thing that food did was keep her urine acidic, but at a very high cost to Mazy cat.

She has been on a commercial wet diet for just over a year now, and raw for 6 months. It took a long long time to find even one canned food she could eat and keep down. I tested her urine pH daily during the initial months. Once I finally found a canned food that she would eat, that she could eat, that was all she ate for quite a while but I was not happy with her eating only one food, and any variation caused her to vomit, until I turned to raw diet.

Now: no more alkaline urine, no more struvite. And her life is soo much better. She still has some acid reflux problems from the damage the corn laden Hills food did. But she's down to regurgitating only about twice a month. She feels so much better, running and playing all day long like she used to do, (she is almost 9 years old) lovely soft coat, bright eyes, pooping normally.

I had a male cat with idiopathic cystitis in 1983. Back then, very little was known about this illness. With the first symptoms I rushed him to the vet, the first treatment was antibiotics of course. But his problem continued and the vet I was using back then said "You need to feed him a wet diet. No dry food ever. And no fish". That vet was ahead of his time I guess. I followed his instructions and Baby never had another problem, nor did Sissy , who, when I took her in, it was because she was being dumped because she was "peeing all over the house". She also did not have any bacteria or stones, she just needed a wet diet.

Here is some more information, complied by a vet who specializes in feline nutrition, on why a wet diet is so important. There is also a page devoted to how to transition a kibble addict to wet food

www.catinfo.org

PS For what it's worth, I used to feel as you do. While all my cats, except for Mazy, were, have always been, on a canned diet, I thought the c/d was the only thing that would keep my Mazy cat "healthy". I thought that, even though those "prescription" foods are full of awful ingredients, sometimes one had to make the choice of the "lesser of two evils".

Boy was I wrong. It took watching Mazy's health and quality of life deteriorate at a faster and faster rate before I really started to understand how bad the foods are. Now, I no longer think those corn laden kibbles are good, for anything. If one must feed "prescription" feed the canned, if the cat won't eat the "prescription" canned, keep searching for a better diet.

Welcome to TCS, cyctitis sucks!

I'm going to post here for the benefit of any other member who may believe (following your advice) that feeding dry food to our cats is/will not be detrimental to their health......and, that serious conditions which often result from such a diet are easily remedied.

Along with otto's excellent recommendation that you take Dr. Pierson's free Feline Nutrition 101 course, I want to suggest that you pursue her superb educational site a little further and take in this section:

Feline Urinary Tract Health:
Cystitis, Urethral Obstruction...

Lisa A. Pierson, DVM

If I could have the reader of this webpage take away just one word from this discussion, it would be "water".  If your cat is on a properly hydrated diet of 100% canned food - and no dry food - you stand a very good chance of never needing to read this webpage.

A cat's normal prey is ~70% water.  Canned food is ~78% water. Dry food is ~5-10% water.  Cats have a low thirst drive and do not make up the deficit at the water bowl.  They are designed to get water with their food.

It makes absolutely no sense to feed dry food to any cat - especially one with urinary tract problems.

...glucosamine/chondroitin sulfate products...such as Cosequin, Dasequin, or Trixsyn may help but studies have not supported them as being beneficial...

The good news is that cystitis often resolves within a few days to a week.

The bad news is that it tends to recur - especially in patients that are fed dry food

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

Click to expand...

One thing I want to mention is that everyone will tell you that the cat must eat wet food.......

This proves that a cat can certainly eat the dry prescription food if they must, and it will still help.  So don't worry yourself if the cat won't eat the wet food.

Click to expand...

Sorry, but I have to say that I find it utterly counter-intuitive to feed exclusively dry food to a creature which has evolved - is "hard-wired" -  to obtain its hydration from what it eats.

Hi Otto,

Thanks for your reply.  I do agree that for some reason, the C/D was not helping.  My female cat actually did eat the canned, wet C/D for at least 8 months when all this began several years ago.  I was very strict with only giving her the C/D canned and absolutely nothing else, not even treats.  This is what my vet initially recommended.  However, for those 8 months, she had CONSTANT flare ups of cystitis.  They were severe.  Every few weeks she either had crystals in her urine, or blood, or both.  This went on for close to a year.  The wet food did absolutely nothing for her.  When she developed acid reflux, the vet switched her to the W/D.  Then she refused to eat the canned food.  So, that's when he said at least try the dry and be sure to wet it every time prior to giving it to her.  When I started doing this, and adding the glucosamine, her condition cleared up.  So, while I realize that vets and most people will say that canned will heal the cat, it did not in my cat's case.  But, the dry food certainly did as she has been flare free for over 2 years now (she's 10 years old).  I say this to give some people hope out there who for one reason or another cannot give the canned food.  There is still hope and the dry food can work (perhaps it's only because I wet it, I don't know). 

I would love to feed my cat a raw diet some day, I am just very concerned about changing anything now that she has a delicate balance in her body and has had no issues.  But, I will definitely read the article that you provided and hopefully someday transition.  I agree that cat food, like processed people food, has all kinds of junk in it that cats don't need (just like our food).  But, I also know that feeding cats dry food is not deadly to their health.  I have 3 other cats, 2 of which eat high end, but store bought, dry food and they have had no health problems ever (they are 11 and 12 years old now).  I also had a cat that lived for 18 years as a kid when the best my mother could afford at the time was cheap, store bought dry food.  That cat was never sick a day in her life to our knowledge. Now obviously, each cat is an individual and has different needs.  But, there is definitely an alternative to wet food that can help heal a cat with chronic issues.  It also may be different for female/male cats, I'm not sure.

Also, can I ask what commercial canned food you give your can with cystitis?  I would be interested in finding something that I can give my female cat other than the same old w/d every single day.  I'm also looking for something to give my male cat that now has the same condition because he is actually a feral cat and he refuses to eat canned food as well!  I think for him I'd feel most comfortable giving him the wet since it has much more moisture in it and I don't know how much he actually drinks during the day, but my vet insisted that research says natural diets don't work for cystitis. With him being a male I am really concerned since he has the ability to become blocked.  Also, since he is feral it is very difficult to get him to the vet (which I did last week so that they could unblock him).  I think at least for him he would love to eat raw since he was born a feral and didn't come to me for food until he was almost 1 year old (he's 3 1/2 now).

Hi and thanks for your reply.  Well, like I mentioned earlier, my vet DID recommend wet food.  However, the wet prescription C/D did nothing for my cat.  She was on it for quite a while and it did not help at all.  She was at the vet every weeks for close to a year.  He told me that her condition was severe and chronic and that it would most likely continue for the rest of her life due to the rate it was going and that the canned food was not helping.

So, we cannot say that all advice fits generically to all cats, just like we can't say that about humans as far as what we consume.  However, what I also mentioned is that when she was switched to the W/D DRY food (because after several days she still refused to eat the wet food of that condition, even with all the tricks that the vet told me to try), her condition started to get better.  This was also the time that I started her on the glucosamine, which like you said, the vet told me may or may not work since there was conflicting research.  But, the combination of the W/D dry food and the glucosamine absolutely did work for her.  Within a few months of that course her condition started to improve and probably by the 6th month or so, she was healed.  She has eaten nothing but the W/D dry food for the last few years and has absolutely NO issues.  The vet did tell me, like your post says, that wet is ideal and is shown in research to have more benefit for cystitis, but he also said that they know that the dry does help, too, and is still far better than store bought brands for these cats.  Looks like he was right since she is fine now!  Also, I gave her the glucosamine probably for about a year.  She has been off of that for about a year as of now, and still no issues at all with the dry food.

While I would certainly give the wet food if I could, there is also another option for people/cats who can't do the wet food.  And I do have the proof- my kitty with chronic, severe cystitis who eats nothing but the dry W/D.

P.s.---also, like I said, I do wet the food prior to giving it to her which may also be key.  The vet told me to do this as well.