2 month long UTI in my 1yr old kitty - advice appreciated

Hi all,

First time poster here but am in need of some advice. My 1 year old female exotic shorthair started peeing on my bed (in front of me a few times) out of the blue about 2-3 months ago so I took her to the vet who did a UA and said she had a pretty gnarly UTI (loads of white blood cells in urine, no crystals). He gave her a shot of an antibiotic (supposed to last 2 weeks) and some pain meds, and she did great for about a week and a half before peeing on my bed again. I took her back, they repeated her UA, still had a good amount of WBCs in her urine so tried a different antibiotic. He told me to follow up for a final UA 2 weeks later and I did. This time, her urine had trace WBCs and crystals (!!) for the first time. He gave her another antibiotic shot and sent us home with the Science Diet C/D wet and dry food for the crystals. I've been mixing her old food (Blue Buffalo indoor) with the dry; she totally turned her nose up at the wet food so I'm continuing to give her the wet food she normally eats (Wellness, grain free).

So far, she has been totally fine and hasn't peed on my bed at all (knock on wood). She seemed to prefer the comforter and after washing it extensively between each time I'm just keeping it in the closet for now. While all of this was going on, she never cried while using the litter box, was still using it and had urine output each time. It's been a month since we last went to the vet.

I'm just wondering about all of this crystal business. It just seems strange that the last UA showed crystals and none of the prior ones did. She drinks water all the time so not much I can encourage on that front. Technically, I am supposed to take her back for another UA, but the costs have been insane for each visit and if she's symptom free I'm not sure if I need to take her back. I also don't like giving her so many antibiotics one after the other. This vet has been my family's vet for the last 20+ years so it's someone I trust, but he also seemed pretty perplexed by it all.

What do you guys think? Any similar experiences? I've never had anything like this before with her or my other cat (who's a male Turkish Van). For what it's worth, she has previously been tested for polycystic kidney disease (PKD) as a kitten and that was negative.

Thanks for reading this long post.

Dry food is notorious for causing urinary tract issues. Dry food tends to dehydrate the body overall, which is why you see your kitty drinking so often.   I would work on switching her to a grain-free wet diet, if at all possible.  You can add a little bit of water to wet food to ensure she's getting enough water.  Also, some cats are just more prone to urinary tract issues than others.  You might also want to get a second opinion. 

It may be totally unrelated to food though. She could have FIC - Feline Idiopathic Cystitis. It can be tricky because there may be secondary bacterial infections occasionally but not all the time. There may be some crystals too, but again, that's not the core issue. The issue is with stress hormones and the way they affect the bladder. 

You can read more about it here -

 [article="0"]Feline Idiopathic Cystitis How To Improve Your Cats Life Quality​[/article]