New to Urinary issues- advice please :)

jennifer54

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Dec 24, 2016
Messages
6
Purraise
4
Hi! About 4 weeks ago, I noticed my 4 year old male kitty was licking his pee area obsessively. I took him to the vet and they discovered struvite crystals. Up till this point he had no issues peeing. He was going large amounts and in no distress so they said we caught it early. The vet experience alone was incredibly stressful for him. (He was a stray I rescued one night when I found him outside on a below zero winter night and saved his life) and he does NOT like people besides me. He had to be heavily sedated just for the exam and she also insisted on giving him lots of fluids. Not knowing any better I agreed to everything they did.

Just HOURS later, he totally blocked. Knowing this was an emergency I rushed him to the emergency room. I caught it very early but he still needed a catheter for 24 hours. It's been three weeks and (knock on wood) he's been doing wonderful. No licking, peeing normal amounts with no distress and back to his crazy self.

Here's my issue now- food. They gave me hills c/d urinary and stress formula. When he was on his painkillers, he ate it up. Now that he isn't high on meds anymore, he HATES the food. He takes one sniff and tries to "bury" it. I plan on never giving him dry food again so that's not an issue. But would it be terrible to give him high quality wet food like purina pro plan or others that have a urinary formula? Not to mention hills is outrageously expensive. 35 dollars for 24 cans and he eats two cans a day.....if it means no blockages again I would spend the money but I'm skeptical that this is the only option I have. When I asked the vet she dragged her feet and basically said "if I HAVE To feed him something besides the prescription food it should be okay as long as it's wet." Any advice appreciated :)

Ps: looking back, I feel that he blocked because they overwhelmed his bladder with fluids all at once. There's no way it was just a coincidence he blocked so suddenly after wards...oh well live and learn.
 

hellomisskitty

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 13, 2016
Messages
1,362
Purraise
371
Location
Portland, Oregon
Oh I'm so sorry your boy has had such a terrible time. My Kitty (a female) had an episode with struvite crystals about two years ago. She was prescribed Royal Canin SO. Like you, I was told that she'd have to eat it for the rest of her life. I fed it to her to get her through the emergent situation but eventually she started to refuse to eat it and I couldn't stand the terrible ingredients. I did a ton of research to find alternatives. This website (by a vet) is an excellent resource in feline nutrition and a section about Urinary crystals:

http://catinfo.org/

I've not fed my girl prescription food in a year and a half and (knock on wood), it's been 2 years since her crystals. I made the switch off prescription food after discussion with my vet and a follow up urinalysis after the food switch to make sure the change in food did not cause recurrence.
In addition to dietary considerations, things like increasing water intake:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/tips-to-increase-your-cat-s-water-intake

And reducing stress:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/potential-stressors-in-cats-the-ultimate-checklist

Are all parts of managing a kitty with a history of struvite crystals.

Good luck [emoji]10084[/emoji]️
 

2Cats4everLoved

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 9, 2016
Messages
1,647
Purraise
963
Location
New York City Area.
Hello and welcome to TCS.

You will get many answers and tips here.

Since your sweet boy had such a rough time with the crystals I wouldn't stray from the special food just yet.

My boy Simon although he passed this past year from cancer, he was in the hospital for 11 days when he was 5 because of crystals.  He hated wet food so we fed him the Royal Canin Urinary SO Dry, which he loved.  Then this past year my girl got crystals and ate the Royal Canin Urinary SO Wet she also ate a tablespoon of the RC Calorie control dry so.

One trick I did was, I'd take the wet food and dump it in a bowl, then I'd take the food can and fill it with really hot hot water, dump it back into the bowl and take a hand blender and blend it smooth.  I found that the food has lots of fatty grizzle, and she lapped it up completely.  It also gave me an extra meal.

Once in a while I'd feed her fancy feast either the turkey/liver or beef/liver (only because they contain no fish because she was allergic to fish)  but that was because the SO foods made her constipated.

This I learned the hard way is not an illness to take lightly, so I advise you, please, please wait a while before you try to switch foods.  I know some vets say it's okay to feed other foods, but my vet said this was the New Norm.

There have been success stories of feeding the Purina Pro Plan Urinary foods and they are cheap on the website Chewy.com.

I hope your sweet boy gets better.

Please keep us posted of his progress.

Hope
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4

jennifer54

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Dec 24, 2016
Messages
6
Purraise
4
Thank you both so much for your advice!! One thing I did today was mix the tiniest amount of purina wet food in with his prescription food and it faked him out and he ate it. Do you think this is okay?

The problem with hills is they only have ONE flavor of this particular food. How would you like eating the same thing for every meal? Lol poor guy :(
 

2Cats4everLoved

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jan 9, 2016
Messages
1,647
Purraise
963
Location
New York City Area.
Thank you both so much for your advice!! One thing I did today was mix the tiniest amount of purina wet food in with his prescription food and it faked him out and he ate it. Do you think this is okay?

The problem with hills is they only have ONE flavor of this particular food. How would you like eating the same thing for every meal? Lol poor guy
I don't think it would hurt, especially since the vet said you can feed other food, just make sure it's wet.  Can you ask the vet if you can go between the Hills and the Royal Canin? And add a little non prescrip food to fake him out.  I strongly suggest adding a  bit of water to it to keep him hydrated.

I would however, stay away from any fish flavors if you can.  

Again, discuss with your vet.  Good luck.
 

DreamerRose

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 11, 2015
Messages
8,744
Purraise
11,085
Location
Naperville, IL
Mingo had struvite crystals, too, and I think the water the cat gets is more important than the type of food, other than wet is better than dry. You really don't need to continue with the Hill's after you finish what you have. The links that @HelloMissKitty  provided should explain what the situation is: cats need more water. So I feed wet, just Fancy Feast and Sheba twice a day, but I mix in a good bit of water to it, about half a can. It's the water that they really need rather than a prescription diet. Paws crossed, but Mingo hasn't had another episode yet.
 
Top