Waltham Urinary SO for Crystals

Hey all. I just wanted to share a find some of you may be interested in.
Poor Zoey had a UTI last month and my vet discovered she has struvite crystals in her urine and a PH of 8 So I did some research in order to find a diet that would benefit her. One of my problems is I also have Saki, and there is absolutely no way I can feed them seperate (small apt, not home all day, they are grazers, etc) so I needed to find a food that would be safe for Saki yet still help Zoey. The problem with the full struvite perscription diets such as Hills and Science Diet is if you feed it to a normal healthy cat it can lower the ph enough to cause oxalate crystals, which are actually worse and harder to treat. So at first we were going to go with an over the counter urinary food but I wasnt too comfortable with that and found this and asked my vet about it.

http://walthamusa.com/Learning Center/SO30.html

URINARY SO 30TM/MC (dry) and URINARY SO IN GELTM/MC (canned) are the first and only diets which have been clinically proven to reduce the risk of both struvite and calcium oxalate urolithiasis.

Click to expand...

It is supposed to dissolve the struvite crystals while minimizing the risk of oxalate crystals as well. Apparently it is supposed to keep the ph at a normal level.

She also did some research on it and actually phoned the Waltham vets for me to also ask their opinion and they also agreed that it would be much better than the over the counter foods, as sometimes you just dont know what they put in them. She was very impressed with my research and thought it was awesome that I actually knew what I was talking about and feels a lot more comfortable with this food than the over the counter foods. I am just heartbroken that I have to feed my babies by-products. I have always fed Nutro and Innova. I was literally crying about this.. but I realize I need to do it.

So I just thought I'd share, as I have read many of you have problems with your cats and crystals and I also wondered if anyone else has tried it. I have started the switch last week to this diet and will be bringing Zoey in in a couple weeks for another urinalysis to see if it is helping. Keep your fingers crossed for me as this has been stressing me out very much!

I hope this makes things better for them both

re: the by-products. If it's better for Zoey to have the struvite crystals taken care of, then a slightly lesser quality of food, with the things she needs to help her stay healthy, will be better for her than a helathier food tht can't help her struvite crystals. I know it's hard, but It's in their best interest. you want her oven mitts around and playful for a long time, I know it, and the crystals are painful, and unhealthy.. so.. there you go. you're doing the right thing.

Also, it's Royal Canin, so it's still a really good quality of food!

Good luck with this sweetie! keep us posted as to how this works for you

I hope this food works out Sicy! They are both in my thoughts.

It can be enough to make your head spin...I wish you great success with this food, Miss Zoey is NOT allowed to have any health issues.

signed, a fan

That was one of the foods that I tried when Asa had his problems. He liked it OK. I was able to transition him to premium canned food, though, after his urine cleared up and on the canned food he has not had any more problems. I hope Zoey feels well again soon. She can use those thumbs to open her cans of food Becky

Thank you for the replies and lol @ the thumb comments.

Zoey likes the dry food fine so far but she will only eat the canned food if I mix it 50/50 with her Nutro. I am still going to work on trying to get her to eat the diet only but I am concerned because I think I would rather have her eat the mix than no canned at all.

I did get a Petmate fountain and she loves it

I had a hard time getting Sally to convert to canned. I had to resort to pressing her dry into the top of the canned so she had to eat some canned to dig the dry out. She then learned that canned was edible. But when I fill her treat ball with dry for her once a week or so, she is right there begging for it as I fill the ball. The other trick I did was to put some crumbled Kitty Kaviar onto the top of the canned, kind of pressed in. She loves that so much that she would eat some canned to get the treat. Finally, after a couple of weeks she was on all canned. And she lost a couple of unneeded pounds, too. Becky

Originally Posted by zanniesmom

The other trick I did was to put some crumbled Kitty Kaviar onto the top of the canned, kind of pressed in

Click to expand...

Yep, I am doing that too. Zoey loves her Kitty Kaviar! And luckily she likes canned food, I think even more than dry so I am not giving up hope that I can get her on the diet food 100%. I just wish Saki would eat more canned food.. he is a total dry food boy, which sucks, but he does drink a lot of water. These cats will be the death of me they stress me out so much!

Well .. Zoey is now eating the diet canned food alone, not mixed with her old food. I am so glad about that. Actually I should say she is devouring it! I have never seen her clean her bowls like this.. not even with her fav. food! She is also eating much more wet than dry which I am also glad about. Now I just hope this food will help her.

Sicy, that is good news, and surely it's a step in the right direction for her!

I'm glad she's eating it well!

I'm also glad you posted about that food - thank you! I'm going to ask my vet about it because Oreo has had trouble with struvite crystals, but because of his age (he's 9) he's at risk for oxalate crystals, and the purina rx diet he's been on is not agreeing with his tummy. I feed the other cats Royal Canin (by Waltham) and they do well on it, so I think it's a quality food.

I hope she does well on it - it's really good she'll eat the canned version

It sounds like this food might be perfect for Oreo, tuxedokitties. Your vet should be able to order it if they dont have it in stock. My vet seemed to not know too much about it until I brought it up to her. But after she researched it she was quite excited about it. If it is true what it says on their website then I think more people should know about it as it seems like a perfect answer to the crystal problem in general.

Originally Posted by Sicycat

If it is true what it says on their website then I think more people should know about it as it seems like a perfect answer to the crystal problem in general.

Click to expand...

I agree and will be asking my vet about using the wet version of this with Tyler. Thank you for sharing this!

No problem. And thank you for your support.. means a lot to me.

Just wanted to post a quick update. I ordered some urine ph strips from the internet a week or so back and I think they actually work. When I first tested Zoey's urine when she very first started her new food it was in the 7.0 range. Last night I cleaned the litterbox, put fresh litter and I checked her again right after she went (I just love the crystals litter.. it serves so many purposes) and anyway it is now in the 6.0 range! And then Saki went right after her and I checked his and its the same as it was before the new food.. and same as Zoey's in the 6.0 range. I am really happy about this. Of course I will be bringing Zoey into the vet for an actual urinalysis but I now have a shred of hope! I just pray that the crystals are dissolving. She is also devouring the new canned food! She licks her bowl clean. I still cant get over it.