Twinkie has struvite crystals

Sunday Twinkie peed on my bed in a couple places. Monday I called the tech at my vet's to discuss it. I confined Twink in a spare bathroom with a clean litterbox and Cat Attract litter, which he used, so I was thinking it was a behavioral issue. But we also decided to collect and analyze a urine sample. I got some Nosorb to put in a litter box. A couple days trying to collect a sample were fruitless, as Twink would have nothing to do with the Nosorb. And he also peed on his cat bed once while he was confined in there. There were three spots for one elimination, so I knew it's likely urinating is uncomfortable for him.

Today he went to the vet to have a urine sample extracted via cystocentesis (needle through the abdominal wall.) He has struvite crystals in his urine (I got to see them through the microscope.) Fortunately, there were no significant red blood cells or white cells in the urine.

Diagnosis: urolithiasis, struvite. Treatment: metacam oral suspension for several days to relieve immediate discomfort, and rest of lifetime on prescription food. We took three cans of Royal Canin Urinary SO home to try. Prognosis: currently his urine stream is still good so he's in no danger of obstruction, and the vet ways the prescription food should clear up his crystals in thirty days.

I'm not too impressed with the ingredients in the food. The first three are: water, meat-byproducts, chicken byproducts. So I'm going to have to research if I can get him something better.

Anybody else who's dealt with struvite crystals and has any tips or pointers, I'd much appreciate hearing them.

Hi,

I am dealing with a fairly new diagnosed struvite problem as well. My male cat was diagnosed about a month ago. My vet thinks that it may have had something to do with the summer heat and dehydration or perhaps the food I was feeding. I was feeding Medi-cal hypoallergenic/gastro. She was very surprised that he got crystals from that. So, he was on wet and dry Hill's C/D for the last month and now I'm transferring him over to Natural Balance wet (for one meal) and T/D, C/D and Natural Balance dry for the other meal. I don't think he drinks enough so I'm watering down the wet so its like a soup. It makes him pee a lot more, hopefully clearing out his bladder. I'll see how this goes and hopefully its ok. I'd like to get him off the C/D totally. I'm going to have his urine tested in a month. What you could do is transfer your cat to an all wet diet or water down some wet. This may be enough to do the trick. Talk to your vet first of course and see what they think.

He's been getting one meal a day of wet - Natural Balance; now he's getting two meals a day of the prescription wet food. I've been mixing a little warm water in, too. And he does drink water, but as one of three cats I can't tell how much. Frankly, I'm a bit surprised at his crystals as I thought the diet he was on was good for urinary health.

read labels and call the food companies..

Stuvite is the crystal that UTI health LABELLED food have bveen tested for and passed... No the ingrediants arent great to some of us ..

Both easily available are Nutro Max adult and lite and Purina one ... Many cans are okayed ... I have a list going but not the energy to write it out so PM me

When Polly had crystals, she went on Hill's s/d for a month and now she's been on Hill's c/d and the crystals have not recurred. It's definitely a good idea to start pumping as much liquid into him as you can. Give him wet food, and wet down his dry food like previous posters have mentioned. I didn't think Polly would like her food like that, but she loves it. Add as much water as he will let you.

sharky was tons of help to me with finding a good crystals food for Ophie. The one's suggested by sharky were: Merrick’s Grammy’s Pot Pie
Natural Choice Salmon & Shrimp Chowder
MAX Cat Hairball Management
Iams Chicken Entrée (New formula ONLY)
Pro Pac Beef

I also bought some Pro Plan Urinary Tract Health formula(an accident). Poor quality, but Ophie loved it!

I feed Ophelia wet 2x a day, she usually will only eat 5-6 oz a day, so I split one large can into two meals...plus I've got her a Drinkwell & a water bucket with older water(she seems to simply like to play in it, but whatever!). I feed Solid Gold Katz-N-Flocken dry as she was less than impressed with the c/d. Solid Gold has an article in their littel booklet thingy about why Katz-N-Flocken is good & an article on uriary health. I think I posted the link elsewhere on TCS recently...

Thanks!! I'll check that out too. I'm getting so much good information!!

I am so sorry to hear about this but you can be sure that Twinkie is a smart kitty Tim.
By peeing outside of the litter box, you had early waring that there was a crystal problem.

I am sending tons of positive vibes to you both. ((((hugs))))