One of my cats has previously had one UTI. Since, I have been staying away from fish altogether. I do not feed them any food that contains any fish at all- I mostly stick with chicken, turkey, duck, quail, and rabbit, and mix lots of water into it. I was wondering though, for the sake of variety, do you think it'd be ok to feed them a fish flavor if it's a food made for urinary health? It wouldn't be often- I was thinking maybe once a month or so? One of my guys tends to like the cheap foods better than the premium ones, so I was also thinking that mixing a teaspoon or so of a "smelly" food such as fish into it could entice him to eat better foods.
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Fish flavor urinary health foods
- Thread starter krysta
- Start Date
I don't really see why not. Mine get salmon flavor for 1 meal every 3 days.
I think with the variety of food you're already feeding -- and what a good mommy you are for doing so! -- it's not necessary to add fish to the rotation for the sake of variety. Can you find beef flavored food? Or maybe lamb or venison? Alternatively, you might offer a cheap food that has some fish in it. (Fancy Feast Classic isn't a bad food, and is low in carbs.) It's somewhat of an oxymoron for a manufacturer to offer fish flavored food for urinary health. What is the name of the food and where does fish fall in the list of ingredients? When Ritz had a UTI I was surprised how many chicken, beef, and turkey foods actually had fish in them. (I now feed raw, for reasons including but not only the UTI problem.)
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #4
Haha, that's exactly what I thought, and why I was asking that question!
They do actually eat some beef, lamb, and venison, but not as much. I mostly lean toward the poultry and rabbit since that's what Dr. Pierson suggests on catinfo.org. So I guess you're right, they are getting a good variety already, it's probably not worth chancing it with the fish.
I know, it's crazy! There are so many foods that I think "That sounds good" then I read the ingredients and it has fish in it, so I'm like "Well, darn!" I pretty much have it down to a science now, I have a mental list of exactly which flavors of which brands don't have fish.
My two cents. I actually do not worry that much about magnesium content and FLUTD anymore. That seems to be outdated thinking. I think that adequate water intake to flush out the system and keep urine dilute as well as feeding a species appropriate diet that will not cause an alkaline urine pH are more important. Urine that is acidic provides a less favorable environment for the formation of struvite uroliths and crystals. Keep in mind that most FLUTD cases are idiopathic in nature (meaning no cause can be determined). There are certainly other good reasons not to feed a diet high in fish, but I don't stress over feeding fish occasionally anymore.
Information from the January 2006 issue of Catnip newsletter from the Cummings school of veterinary medicine at Tufts University. This is what Rebecca L. Remillard, DVM, PhD Veterinary Nutritionist and Catnip Advisory Board Member had to say about it in her words.
"The statement that cats, especially male cats, are at high risk for developing bladder or kidney problems from eating fish-based foods is not correct for all diets containing fish, or even all cats. If a cat food is made of "trash" fish (fish species you and I would not eat, but the type that gets caught up in the nets), it most likely uses the entire fish, including the bones (all ground up). If the cat food product is not monitored and adjusted for magnesium level, it can be quite high in products using fish bones. Crystals containing struvite can form in the bladder of some cats. These crystals can accumulate and obstruct the urethra, or develop into bladder stones (but rarely form in the kidneys). Because magnesium is a component of struvite crystals, we recommend NOT feeding diets containing an excessive amount of magnesium. This problem, called FLUTD, however occurs in about 10% of the cat population. In only a fraction of those of cases is it related to struvite crystals. In the majority of cases, the cause of FLUTD is undetermined. So, it's a long stretch to say that cat foods containing fish actually cause bladder and kidney problems."
Some additional reading - http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/resources/brochure/urinary.html
Information from the January 2006 issue of Catnip newsletter from the Cummings school of veterinary medicine at Tufts University. This is what Rebecca L. Remillard, DVM, PhD Veterinary Nutritionist and Catnip Advisory Board Member had to say about it in her words.
"The statement that cats, especially male cats, are at high risk for developing bladder or kidney problems from eating fish-based foods is not correct for all diets containing fish, or even all cats. If a cat food is made of "trash" fish (fish species you and I would not eat, but the type that gets caught up in the nets), it most likely uses the entire fish, including the bones (all ground up). If the cat food product is not monitored and adjusted for magnesium level, it can be quite high in products using fish bones. Crystals containing struvite can form in the bladder of some cats. These crystals can accumulate and obstruct the urethra, or develop into bladder stones (but rarely form in the kidneys). Because magnesium is a component of struvite crystals, we recommend NOT feeding diets containing an excessive amount of magnesium. This problem, called FLUTD, however occurs in about 10% of the cat population. In only a fraction of those of cases is it related to struvite crystals. In the majority of cases, the cause of FLUTD is undetermined. So, it's a long stretch to say that cat foods containing fish actually cause bladder and kidney problems."
Some additional reading - http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/resources/brochure/urinary.html
Vball911 raises a good point. Ritz was diagnosed with FLUTD, stress induced. I kind of err on the side of what I can control, which is diet and water intake. I can't do too much about how Ritz reacts to stressful situations, which for her includes visits by repairman, a change of diet, hours I work.
It would be interesting to learn if there is a high incidence of UTIs in a country like Greece (Santorini, Mykonos) where there are a lot of feral cats being fed by fishermen.
It would be interesting to learn if there is a high incidence of UTIs in a country like Greece (Santorini, Mykonos) where there are a lot of feral cats being fed by fishermen.
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #7
With Finn's UTI, he had white blood cells and blood in his urine, and it responded well to antibiotics, so I assumed it was truly bacterial. I have since read that those symptoms could also be from inflammation of unknown cause, so who knows.... The vet suggested no diet change at that point, since it has so far been a one-time incident
. But, them being males, I am paranoid about them possibly blocking, so I took it upon myself to eliminate fish and mix lots of water in the food, plus they get D-mannose every few days. Aerys is very "chill", but Finn is a little more easily spooked. Things are pretty calm in our house, just me and my fiance, not too many strangers coming in the house-- but we live right across the street from a baseball stadium that has fireworks every weekend game- neither one of them like that!
