Can't stop obsessing over cat's health

sara457 · Feb 21, 2014

I wish I could stop obsessing over my cats urinary health. Two years ago he had crystals, and since then I worry about on a weekly basis. He usually pees at the back of the box and when I cleaned the litters today there was only a small amount...about the size of half a golf ball.

There were 4 other normal looking pees, but they were in the spots that my other cat usually goes. He seems relaxed and normal, I just wish he'd pee so I knew for sure!

beckbjj · Feb 21, 2014

I feel your pain...my Quincy had crystals and a blockage back in August and now every time he goes near a litterbox I watch him like a hawk. Sometimes I stop whatever I'm doing so I can hear how much he's peeing. How pathetic is that?!!

sara457 · Feb 21, 2014

Not pathetic at all, I'm the same. Though it's now gotten to the point where I don't watch him like a hawk, it's more down to what is in the boxes. If I don't see enough pee then I panic. I even boiled some chicken with carrots and potatoes so he could have chicken and broth (without the sodium) to ensure he's getting enough water, and I feed him 80% wet food. But I know that once they get crystals, they are super high risk to get them again! I just can't keep taking him to the vet every time I suspect he has crystals again. I've done that 3 times...not cheap. I think part of it is the guilt, that I didn't catch it when it happened. I didn't see *any* of the signs until he was completely blocked. I can't make that mistake again

beckbjj · Feb 21, 2014

Wow, I bet your kitty loved the broth! That's a great idea, I should probably make some kitty broth. I make a lot of broth, but for people so it's got onions and garlic.

I know just what you mean about guilt. When Quincy blocked, we had been out of town having fun visiting friends for the weekend. So while we were having a good time, he was miserable. Our cat sitter came once a day, but our kitties hide from anyone but us. When we got home on Sunday I noticed right away he had a problem and we rushed him to the animal ER where he stayed for a couple of days.

Quincy had had crystals a couple times since we got him in early 2011, despite being on 100% canned food that I had researched for quality and nutritionals that at least on paper should've prevented him from getting crystals. He'd get crystals, be on prescription food for a month, then back on the high quality food. But after he blocked, that was that, it's all canned prescription food for him now. Every time he comes off it, he gets crystals again, so I have no choice even though I hate how low quality it is. It works for him so I'm gonna have to live with it. I mix it with water (I did the non-Rx food too) so it's just about soup. And I bet the poor fella has been dragged to the vet about five times since his hospital stay in August because I'm so paranoid!

cprcheetah · Feb 21, 2014

Golf ball is normal sized pee for a normal cat. I know what you mean though I have some crystal kitties who are well regulated and I keep a close eye on them. however with 5 cats it gets difficult to monitor pee all the time.

raintyger · Feb 21, 2014

My kitty had a struvite stone and I know what you mean. I was so worried afterward, and it seemed like you had to make all these decisions about what to feed and would it be right, or would you wind up with more stones?

I switched to 100% wet with additional water, and it worked out fine. You can also test the urine with urine pH test strips. I tested urine about 3 or 4 times a week and never had a problem. Not as complete as a urinalysis, but better than no feedback. There's supplements that can help if the pH is wrong.

southpaw · Feb 22, 2014

Same boat here! JInx has blocked twice - once in 2010 and once in 2012, so I feel like we're due this year - and it makes me sooo aware of his litter box habits. I float his kibble in water so I know he's getting plenty, but I know that at least his 2nd blockage was just caused by a mucus plug and they're not sure why that happened, so I don't think anything I do can prevent that.

Thankfully he's my only cat, so pee in the box never leaves me with questions.

ritz · Feb 22, 2014

Yes, I was a little (hyper?) worried after Ritz' first UTI around three years ago. At that time, her litter box was in the kitchen, so I could easily observe her behavior. I called it the kitty littler dance: go in the box, turn around squat, pee a little, exit the box; repeat several times.)
Now the litter box is in the never-used shower stall (I moved), and the only real way I can tell if a problem is developing is frequency of peeing and to some degree amount. The other one--which I observed about ninth months ago--was when she didn't want to eat and when she peed maybe every 18 to 30 hours. (I thought at the time it was a side effect of Prozac.)
Also I know that Ritz is prone to stress-induced UTIs. Ritz will pick up on my worrying/obsessing over her littler box habits, and she'll get stressed out too. So I *try* not to worry too much, feed her a species appropriate diet (I feed raw), and when she is in the mood to play, I drop what I'm doing and play with her. (Play time reduces stress.)
I think it's okay to be vigilant, but if worrying interferes with your day to day life (you stay home watching your cat go to the bathroom instead of, say, going to the movies with a friend), then that's not good either--for the human or feline.

sara457 · Feb 22, 2014

cprcheetah said:
Golf ball is normal sized pee for a normal cat. I know what you mean though I have some crystal kitties who are well regulated and I keep a close eye on them. however with 5 cats it gets difficult to monitor pee all the time.

Wow, that would be very hard with 5 cats! What worried me was that it was half a golf ball sized, which is not normal.

Beckbjj, your story sounds remarkably similar to mine! I too had Gayden on prescription food. He hated the urinary forumla though, I think there are two or three of them. He wouldn't touch them, even with water added - and he *loves* food! So we had no choice but to put him on W/D. We also added water, so it was like soup. However, because it was like soup it took him a really long time to "eat" it because it was just lick, lick, lick. So because of his new pattern of eating really slowly I failed to notice that he had developed anemia and wasn't actually eating all of his food! They diagnosed him with feline Leukemia virus, at which point I took him off of the W/D. I decided to feed him Wellness instead, as it seemed to be the food he enjoyed most.

What food do you feed Quincy? Wow, I didn't know a cat could still get crystals on a wet only diet. I agree about the prescription diet thing though. I too did a lot of research and was convinced that the prescription food was vile. However, from what I've learned, is that where they fail in ingredients, they make up for in research and feeding trials. The food works, it's just low quality.

sara457 · Feb 22, 2014

Raintyger said:
My kitty had a struvite stone and I know what you mean. I was so worried afterward, and it seemed like you had to make all these decisions about what to feed and would it be right, or would you wind up with more stones?

I switched to 100% wet with additional water, and it worked out fine. You can also test the urine with urine pH test strips. I tested urine about 3 or 4 times a week and never had a problem. Not as complete as a urinalysis, but better than no feedback. There's supplements that can help if the pH is wrong.

I remember looking into the PH strips in the beginning...do you still use them? Do you get them online, or would something from the pharmacy work?

sara457 · Feb 22, 2014

Southpaw said:
Same boat here! JInx has blocked twice - once in 2010 and once in 2012, so I feel like we're due this year - and it makes me sooo aware of his litter box habits. I float his kibble in water so I know he's getting plenty, but I know that at least his 2nd blockage was just caused by a mucus plug and they're not sure why that happened, so I don't think anything I do can prevent that.

Thankfully he's my only cat, so pee in the box never leaves me with questions.

Yes, one cat would make that a lot easier to detect early problems!

sara457 · Feb 22, 2014

Ritz said:
Yes, I was a little (hyper?) worried after Ritz' first UTI around three years ago. At that time, her litter box was in the kitchen, so I could easily observe her behavior. I called it the kitty littler dance: go in the box, turn around squat, pee a little, exit the box; repeat several times.)
Now the litter box is in the never-used shower stall (I moved), and the only real way I can tell if a problem is developing is frequency of peeing and to some degree amount. The other one--which I observed about ninth months ago--was when she didn't want to eat and when she peed maybe every 18 to 30 hours. (I thought at the time it was a side effect of Prozac.)
Also I know that Ritz is prone to stress-induced UTIs. Ritz will pick up on my worrying/obsessing over her littler box habits, and she'll get stressed out too. So I *try* not to worry too much, feed her a species appropriate diet (I feed raw), and when she is in the mood to play, I drop what I'm doing and play with her. (Play time reduces stress.)
I think it's okay to be vigilant, but if worrying interferes with your day to day life (you stay home watching your cat go to the bathroom instead of, say, going to the movies with a friend), then that's not good either--for the human or feline.

You've got a good point, I think my worrying about does stress him out. He peed twice overnight, good amounts, so I probably needn't have worried. I try to get in daily play time too, as he definitely has anxiety issues (they started immediately after returning home from the vet after having been hooked up to a catheter for two weeks). I have considered prozac for him, do you notice a big difference? My cat will hold his urine in for as long as possible because he still associates the litter box with pain. I've tried moving the boxes (small place with no nooks and crannies and galley kitchen so nowhere to easily put boxes except upstairs in the spare room) but he's still stressed and also sprays.

ritz · Feb 22, 2014

Ritz was on Prozac due to the, feline hyperesthesia syndrome. For anxiety stress there might be more appropriate medications. For utis certainly a change of diet is the first step, after or concurrent with antibiotics.

abbyntim · Feb 22, 2014

Sara457 said:
Wow, I didn't know a cat could still get crystals on a wet only diet.

My cat Tim did not develop crystals until he had been on a wet only diet for over six months. How lucky were we??? We switched to all wet because he had had two really bad episodes of constipation.

So I am right there with all of you, obsessing over his health and his box habits. I am thrilled when I can witness him going pee, and check the size of the urine ball, and when I can witness him going poop, to see how it looks and how much, if any, effort he expended. We have two cats, so I'm not always luck and many times have to guess based on the number of pee balls and pieces of poop.

abbyntim · Feb 22, 2014

Sara457 said:
You've got a good point, I think my worrying about does stress him out.

I worry about this with Tim, too, and am trying really hard to not stress over his health and activities. I spend time playing with him and petting him - this, in particular, calms us both. I also use lavender essential oil - I don't apply it to Tim, but I let him breathe when I apply it and I swear he relaxes!!!

raintyger · Feb 22, 2014

Sara457 said:
I remember looking into the PH strips in the beginning...do you still use them? Do you get them online, or would something from the pharmacy work?

Well, my kitty has passed, but if she were alive, I would still be using them. (Her passing had nothing to do with UTI or even kidney problems.) You can get them online, no prescription needed. If you want some for immediate use, the aquarium section in the pet store has them. Many here like the Phinex brand because it measures in .25 increments. It is on Amazon. I found the Phinex brand a little hard to read, so I got some from eBay that were in .5 increments.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IGEN-100-pH...020?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a343388cc

You want kitty's pH to be around 6.5. If it is too high you can add dl-methionine to the food, but to do this you need to work with a vet. What I did was get an initial urine test at the vet. We found it a little high, so we added the dl-methionine in an extremely small quantity (I think it was like 1/32 tsp. or even 1/64 tsp. depending on her urine reading.) I tested with the urine strips at home for a month. After a month I went back to the vet for lab retesting. This time it was right on. It does not take much dl-methionine at all to lower the pH, so that is why you need to work with a vet. DL-methionine is an amino acid. Its natural form, L-methionine, is found in meat, which is why a higher protein diet naturally causes less UTI problems. DL-methionine should not be used if your kitty has kidney disease.

If you have problems with the pH being too acidic, Wysong does sell a product call Biotic pH+ that is supposed to help raise the pH.

sara457 · Feb 24, 2014

Raintyger said:
Well, my kitty has passed, but if she were alive, I would still be using them. (Her passing had nothing to do with UTI or even kidney problems.) You can get them online, no prescription needed. If you want some for immediate use, the aquarium section in the pet store has them. Many here like the Phinex brand because it measures in .25 increments. It is on Amazon. I found the Phinex brand a little hard to read, so I got some from eBay that were in .5 increments.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/IGEN-100-pH...020?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2a343388cc

You want kitty's pH to be around 6.5. If it is too high you can add dl-methionine to the food, but to do this you need to work with a vet. What I did was get an initial urine test at the vet. We found it a little high, so we added the dl-methionine in an extremely small quantity (I think it was like 1/32 tsp. or even 1/64 tsp. depending on her urine reading.) I tested with the urine strips at home for a month. After a month I went back to the vet for lab retesting. This time it was right on. It does not take much dl-methionine at all to lower the pH, so that is why you need to work with a vet. DL-methionine is an amino acid. Its natural form, L-methionine, is found in meat, which is why a higher protein diet naturally causes less UTI problems. DL-methionine should not be used if your kitty has kidney disease.

If you have problems with the pH being too acidic, Wysong does sell a product call Biotic pH+ that is supposed to help raise the pH.

That was one thing I liked about feeding our cat the W/D prescription diet, it had DL-methionine in it so I worried less about him getting an infection. Now we feed him Wellness which is a good quality food, but it's not for urinary health. I didn't think that vets sold ^^^, but I will ask them about it next time we take him for a visit...which will be soon!!! Meanwhile, I'll get some PH strips from the pet store. Thanks for the info!

Can't stop obsessing over cat's health

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