Ok , need some input again Cystitis/prone to Struvites

[donnajean]

Hello again,

With so much confusion on many different websites and all I am dumbfounded and exhausted from researching and scouring the internet.

Spook, my 4 year old male cat is on Royal canin S/O and has been on it for a year and a half now (give or take)... He eats some dry of the S/O and I also have the cans which I try to feed him a few times a day..I also add a little distilled water to it.

Grains, Grain free, I tried about 5 months ago a grain free cat food, along with grain free cans, two weeks later he was back at the vet with Struvite crystals and a ph of almost 7.9 !

Yes, I have read over and over again about any kind of dry is not good for a cat, especially one with urinary health issues and he does not eat excessive amounts of the RC S/O..

I am so worried about the long term effects of him being on the Royal canin S/O being that it is very high in carbs, all the grains like corn, wheat gluten, etc..

however I can't seem to comprehend some things when I read about people who tried something else (non RX food) and their cat's ended up at the vet with crystals or even blocked .

I am afraid of the possibilities of Diabetes, becoming allergic to either the protein source (chicken) or the grains from feeding him this long term.

He does scratch sometimes and also scratches around his ears, had him to the vet on different occasions with a swabbing, culture. The swabbing they claimed showed bacterial but nothing grew on the culture.

He was given RX drops, really didn't clear it up and then they used  antibiotic ear wax ear plugs, made a mess since it stuck to his fur like glue.

In my opinion only I suspect yeast overgrowth possibly due to an allergy starting from something that is in his food like the grains (corn, wheat gluten).

But what do I do ?

 I really need some serious input here, my vet has no answers, there is no urinary health food (RX) that is not chocked full of chicken for the protein source and grains like corn and wheat gluten....

Is there any dry out there that I could give him as a treat that would be acceptable and what other canned foods can I purchase that would be appropriate ??

I also give him a probiotic mixed in with his food and started back on the  n-acetyl glucosamine for his cystitis.

Thanks,

Donna

 

[stephenq]

Hi there,

If I had to choose between treating a current problem in front of me or a hypothetical future problem, all things being equal i will always treat the current and real problem and not the hypothetical one.

So having said that, given your cat has a repeat history of crystals in the urine, but no history of food allergy, diabetes, etc, I would treat the crystals, especially since the crystals returned when you went off the S/O.  You're feeding wet S/O too which is great, you could try more wet and less dry?

Diabetes in cats is usually weight connected so if he isn't obese there is probably no immediate threat for that.

Yes in general we don't want cats eating too many carbs, or too much dry food because it makes them prone to other issues in time, like weight gain as an example, but for your cat that is a hypothetical problem.  The real problem is the crystals.

So I would keep an eye on his weight, try to offer more wet than dry, consider adding a cat water fountain to increase water intake, and consider a second opinion from a different vet.  That's a perfectly ok thing to do and good vets won't object in the least to you asking for one, they might even be relieved.

Have you talked to the vet about an antihistamine for the ear scratching, if its an allergy?  Was there any change to the itching when he was briefly on that other diet?

Stephen

 

[vball91]

Gosh, I can feel the pain that this dilemma is causing you. It is a tough call because treatment/prevention for FLUTD seems to be very individual and usually involves a lot of trial and error which can be frustrating and expensive. Kudos to you for sticking with it and trying to find the best solution for Spook.

I can only tell you what I would do if I had a struvite prone male. One, I would try to increase his water intake by adding as much filtered water to his wet food as he will take. Two, because stress has been linked to FLUTD, I would enrich his environment with both high and low places, increase play time and reduce changes/stressors to his daily routine as much as possible/practical.

As for food, this one is tough because there is no one solution that works for every cat. Here's what I would try in the order I would try them.

1) a raw or home-cooked diet or a low carb, meat and supplements only canned food
2) adding methionine to above. This is the active ingredient in the Rx foods that lower the urine pH. However, this requires monitoring urine pH at home to ensure that the pH does not become too acidic which can cause other problems.
3) if the above did not work, only then would I consider Rx foods, canned versions only.

 

[denice]

Unfortunately some kitties do need more than just the grain free foods to control the formation of crystals.  I don't know why, maybe it's some kind of genetic thing.  The ear problems could be an allergy.  My kitty did this and he had developed an allergy to chicken.

It takes some work with using pH strips to test his urine but you could try adding a supplement called dl-methionine to the grain free wet food that doesn't have chicken in it.     You have to keep an eye on the pH to make sure it doesn't become too acidic.  This is the supplement that Hills puts in their foods for crystals.

 

[donnajean]

Thanks for all the replies, suggestions, opinions.

Had to stop by the vet today to pick up the hypoallergenic RC duck & Pea for my IBD / Allergy cat and one of the techs I know well came out and told me that Science Diet had a new RX food called something like  multicare urinary / stress dry formula... It is not to be released till the 21st of April but she gave me the info on it to read.

It has L-tryptophan (sp?) and something like casein in it along with it being formulated for crystals and FIC.

It looks no worse than the ingredients in RC S/O so I am thinking about giving it a try... Of course it comes in Chicken and also in Fish .

I don't know about the fish, Spook has never had a fish cat food before and I always thought fish wasn't that great for cats with Crystals and Cystitis, any comments on this ? Do you think fish  or go with the chicken ? I would like to try the fish to give Spook a different protein source but........

Thanks

 

[denice]

A lot of fish isn't good for any kitties.  The conventional vet approach is that there are 3 main protein sources available in a wide range of foods, beef, chicken, and fish.  If a kitty has an issue with one of those than you switch to one of the other two.  One of my kitties can't tolerate beef and has developed an allergy to chicken so the traditional approach would be to feed fish.  I have been finding protein sources besides the three main ones rather than feeding a lot of fish.

 

[donnajean]

It's a no win situation, all the rx urinary diets are usually chicken and now they have added fish, big choices !

And must we forget, they all have some form of corn, gluten and usually brewers rice.

 

Thanks !!!