Is there a way to feed four cats the same (even though they have different dietary needs)?

Hello!

Okay so as some of you know one of my cats has just been diagnosed with small cell lymphoma.

I'm switching him to the Royal Canin Z/D combined with Nature's Variety in Duck, Rabbit, Venison formulas.

I also have a cat named Harley who had struvite bladder stones removed last year and is on Royal Canin Urinary S/O. 

Oh side note - this is also the cat who I wanted to put on personality meds as he had test after test done for his improper urination and defecation issues. I switched vets per a lot of this forum's advice and the new one (who I LOVE!) found the stones via ultrasound; before nothing showed up in his urine, blood, or x-rays. She performed the surgery and out popped three large (the size of jelly beans!-I saw them, it was horrifying) crystals. We've waited a year to see if his stress and anxiety would go away and it hasn't so he is on some anxiety meds. But that's a whole other story. 

And I have two other cats who can eat anything and are totally fine.

So... we had all four cats on the S/O since my vet said they could all eat it. But now with the new one on the Z/D is there a way to feed all of them the same diet? Will Harley have a higher risk of stones if he is off the S/O? 

We've had difficulty in separate feedings, they hate it and two like to free feed.

Dry food is OUT and we will be only feeding a canned diet from now on. Except for when Harley gets his medication. I usually give him some dry S/O to eat as a treat. 

Any suggestions on how to tackle this? My worry is when I go on vacation, the pet sitter is only coming once a day and I'd like her to leave out some frozen food so once it defrosts they have a meal.

My understanding was that the S/O made Harley drink more water, if he is now on a canned only diet would that accomplish the same thing? 

Hun, do you mean Hill's Pet z/d? (Canned?) Or if you mean a prescription Royal Canine, can you provide a link?

The only wayvI was able to feed one food for my cats' varios needs was with raw. For my cancer kitty, it is low carb, high protein, and easy to feed novel proteins, if that's the goal. My FIV kitty with "allergies" and food sensitivities needed the same: unprocessed foods, no unnecessary ingredients... and my crystal kitties needed wet foods that target a pH of about 6.5, which is best done with a raw diet, it naturally targets the proper pH.

Because all of my cats have done so well on raw with their diverse needs, of course I recommend it. But feeding the best commercial raw can cost a lot, and they don't have a wide variety of proteins (RAD cat).

Hopefully others can help if you want to stick to commercial canned. But I know raw will do the job.

Your crystal kitty should do fine on almost any wet diet, so long as it is high animal protein, low carb.

But a raw diet naturally targets the correct pH: he may stop drinking water. But the diet is so moist, and so digestible, they use little water to digest/metabolize it, that in all my cats, when we switched to raw, their pee volume went up (and they'd been eating all canned for a year), and they stopped drinking water. I leave it out. But they just don't need it. The vet just commented on how hydrated Ming Loy and Flowerbelle are. And they don't drink, but pee two huge clumps daily.

There should be a way to do it canned. But for your Kinko, I think low carbs is one of the most important considerations. So a link to the actual food would be helpful. Oh - and the same is true for your struvite kitty, as carbs raise the pH, which is the environment in which struvites are created.

:heart2:

Whoops! My bad, it is Hill's. Everything we had been using so far had been Royal Canin so I assumed it was the same brand. Duh. 

So if it is the Hill's plus Nature's Variety (which is super moist and juicy), that should be ok for both?

Harley doesn't love moist food which is why I'm using the dry S/O I have as a treat for when I have to give him his Fluoexotine meds. He's the only one who gets it since I shut him into the laundry room with me and it's a way to distract him and bond (I think).

I understand the vet prescribed the z/d because it's supposed to be highly digestible and not trigger inflammation die tovthe hydrolized proteins, but it is 41% carbs on a dry matter basis according to Dr. Pierson's food chart. We didn't have a good experince with it, but others have. I do question that it would he OK for your FLUTD kitty.

That's what I'm worried about.

Is Nature's Variety okay on its own for all 4?

Kinko was doing fine on the Nature's Variety and he's fine on the Hill's too. I'm wondering if during the day I can leave out just the Nature's Variety and do separate feedings in the morning and evening. 

My kitties that blocked from crystals all did fine on the NV canned. I always added a little water and picked out the peas and carrots. FYI, two had struvite, one had calcium oxalate, and believe it or not, one of my boys also had a struvite stone embedded in his bladder wall that had to be removed surgically! His, however, was so small that it couldn't be seen on ultrasound, we had to have a high resolution MRI done!

Yikes! I hope that never happens again for your kitties. What's the chance of the stones reoccurring?

I think if this is the case, I'll give them the Nature's Variety when I can't be around but continue my nightly ritual of just S/O to the one with the stones/anxiety meds. It's a nice bonding time too.

I have no idea what the chance of crystals recurring. Are you ever around when he pees? Would you be able to put a urine pH test strip in his urine stream?

For many kitties, just giving them a meat-based, wet food only diet that is low carb with extra water mixed in is enough to stop the crystals/stones from forming. Meat is naturally high in methionine, which is the urine acidifer used in the Hill's Pet prescription urinary health food. So if it's not offset with any carbs, and you keep everything moving through them with a lot of water, crystals shouldn't be a problem.

I have one kitty, Spooky, who has issues with FLUTD and crystals, and it is an ongoing problem. But hers isn't diet-related, it's stress related. Stress can raise the urine pH, and it's that alkaline environment in which struvite crystals form. Meat = acidic urine; Carbs = alkaline. I keep tabs on her urine pH by using pH test strips. But she doesn't mind - I'm not sure she even notices. And it's easy with her, because she just steps into the box to pee, so her back-end faces the front of the box. I prevent any problems by adjusting her pH by using methionine. It's a supplement you can buy - it's just an amino acid, actually. But I do this with the knowledge of my vet, and when we started this method, I had her guidance on how much to use and how often. I also just sometimes proactively give her fluids once a week, just to keep her flushed out.... a kind of safety measure.

But if you have a ritual set up with feeding the s/o with Harley, I'd definitely keep that up. Kitties love the routine, and the bonding time is nice! :rub:

When Spooky needed fluids every day, she actually loved getting them. So when she didn't need them any longer, I kept the ritual going by just sitting with her in the bathroom and brushing her when I would have been giving her fluids. :heart2:

So if you think you'd be able to test his urine pH every once in a while, these are the strips I use:
Don't bother testing his pee if it's been less than 3 hours since he ate something. pH can fluctuate a lot during the day/night, but especially depending on when the pee is measured for pH in relation to a meal. The most "accurate" measure is at least a few hours after a meal. It should be in a range of 6.25 - 7.0. The number that makes me happy is 6.5. If her pH is over 7.0 more than two days in a row, I use a little methionine to bring it back down. The only problem is that you don't want to overdo it, because a low pH can result in oxalate crystals. So far, my "fine tuning" has worked though. :cross:

Oh wow! I didn't know crystals could be stressed related. That explains so much with Harley. I will definitely try to check his PH.
Thanks for the advice!

Yep, stress can be the source of the problem! Have you ever used Feliway in your home? To help things around here, we bought the plug-ins. They're expensive. But I also found they work best if we don't use them all the time. I use them the first two weeks of the month, basically "pulsing" them, two weeks on, two weeks off. :nod: If you've never tried Feliway, it makes sense to buy the spray first. You have to spray it every 2-3 days, and if it's going to help, you should see the results within a few days, not right away. But we have 8 cats in a small space, and there is definitely a difference with the feliway (for us, the way we use it. I think they became "immune" to it when we just left it going all the time).

I have a history of passing kidney stones, and was given the instructions to drink at least 2 quarts of water a day. It makes me visit the bathroom a lot, but after having surgery to remove an 11mm stone, I will drink lots of water. It is the same with cats, especially males. If you have any questions about stones or stone surgery, send me a PM and I will respond the same way.