Itty Bitty with a Urine Crystal issue

Hey everyone! I've been on the hunt researching UTIs and crystals recently found in my kitty's urine. 


So I adopted this little boy from my mom, who had adopted his mom while she was very pregnant. We named him Creamcicle. He's about 10 months old, which I was told was quite young for crystals to be showing up in his urine. I rushed him into the vet when I noticed he seemed distressed and tried to urinate on the floor, where nothing came out. I placed him in the little box, where he did the same thing and produced nothing.

I took him in that morning and the vet said his urine was "mostly blood" and had a lot of struvite crystals in his urine. He was put on 14 days of Clavamox and pain meds along with a prescription diet. I'm happy to say after a month on the food and meds he's back to terrorizing the house per usual and his UA came back normal!

So now I ask the vet if he can go back to his normal food, she says he needs to stay on the food for life. I looked at the ingredients in the food since I'm pretty picky about what my cats are eating.

Brewer's Rice

Chicken by-product meal

Egg product

Ugh. No. This stuff is terrible! So this is where I began my research. I don't feel comfortable leaving him on this awful food for the rest of his life since I know nasty food leads to issues of their own, but I also don't feel I know enough to go ahead and just change his diet.

So his daily mealtime is this: Half a can of wet food with a bit of added water in the morning and then a bowl of dry food in the evening about 12 hours later. I have two other cats that are on Wellness so I have to keep them all separate (they used to be free fed before his issue). I'm honestly wondering if he managed to get these crystals because I loved to get into the dog's food and the dog doesn't shoo him out of her bowl, so he's able to scarf down her food before I catch him. 

So now I'm here to ask the community about their experiences with prescription diets and urine crystals. Has anyone went back to a diet outside of the prescription diet? I've seen a lot of people who have gone raw or canned only, which is harder since I'm not at home long enough to feed him 3 or 4 times a day. I've also seen people suggest looking for low phosphorus and magnesium but maybe that's not the issue. I'm also considering talking to another vet tha'ts further away, but I'm afraid he's going to offer the same quality food. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! 

Bonus image of all three of my babies

EDIT: Sorry, I didn't say the diet. He's on Hill's s/d Urinary Care.

Hi,  I have experience with switching my cat from RC Urinary SO to canned. Yes, it can be done! First of all, they don't need to be fed that often and they don't always need food available. My cat was on high quality dry food when he got blocked. You have to stop giving him (all of them really) dry food and give canned food (or homemade if you want). Dry food is the worst for cats, even if it is high quality.

My two main sources of help when my cat was going through this were Dr. Lisa Pierson and her website Catinfo and Dr. Elizabeth M. Hodgkins and her book Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life. There are also many great threads here and I will put a link to this one http://www.thecatsite.com/t/319080/cystitis-dexamethasone#post_4004316 -there is a lot of information about using ph test strips to monitor your cats urine ph. Also, you can talk to your vet about using DL/L-methionine tablets/supplements to get rid of any crystals he may have left. Methionine is what RC puts in Urinary SO and it may be in what you have also.

My cats mostly eat Triumph and Canidae (All Life Stages green has the most meat). I buy the large 13 oz cans online from Chewy, they come in a pack of 12-they have the BEST prices most of the time and the food comes in two days. I have also fed Natural Balance and Wellness canned. Also, it is recommended that cats with a history of crystals don't consume high amounts of fish so stay away from foods with fish as the primary source of protein. I also recently placed an order from Pet360 and they had a really good price on Triumph with a 20% off coupon.

First of all: I love your babies [emoji]128571[/emoji]

With regard to diet after crystals: I can only share with you my expirence. My female cat had an episode with struvite crystals about a year and a half ago. Like with Creamsicle, she was put on a canned prescription diet. I was less than thrilled with the ingredients but I kept her on the Royal Canin SO for about 11 months to make sure the situation was stabalized and then switched her to a canned diet of Nature's Variety instinct (rabbit or duck) and Dave's restricted diet canned.This was done after discussion with my girl's vet and a follow up urinalysis about a month after the food switch to make sure crystals were not forming after the food switch. She also gets an annual urinalysis at her well pet exam. She is still doing well without the prescription food but she is on an all canned diet (just a tiny bit of dry in a food puzzle while I'm at work), lots of water all around, feliway and playtime each day to help minimize stress etc. treats are either freeze dried chicken/turkey or NVI raw boost minis.
So, it's possible to try to get your boy off the prescription food but I would recommend that you do so in conjunction with your vet so they can set up a plan to monitor your little guy.
As a side note: when my cat had her crystal episode, she was on Wellness dry. I know that dry of any brand could contribute to crystal formation but I had read quite a bit of anecdotal stories about Wellness in particular being a factor in struvite crystal formation.

I hope some of this is helpful....good luck!!

I forgot to add how I was able to get my vet's buy in with my desire to make the switch off of the prescription food. Like you, I was told that I could never take her off prescription food for the rest of her life but I wanted to at least try. if it was a failure, I was willing to stick with the RC Urinary SO. I did a ton of research and sent my vet an email that documented studies from places like Cornell Vet School etc and information from Dr. Pierson's website http://catinfo.org. I complied a list of potential foods that I would like to switch my cat to and included that in my email. My vet then called me to discuss the issue and concluded that she agreed that it was safe to give it a try as long as her diet would be primarily canned and that I would bring her in for a follow up urinalysis a month after the food switch.