Protein Help

[Ignored]

Hello,

I have a 2-year-old, ~7-pound cat that has had issues with litterbox usage these past few months. He uses the litterbox around 18-25 times a day (according to his Litter-Robot) and I found blood in his urine just last month. Numerous vet visits later, they have ruled out Kidney Stones, FLUDT, and UTI. He's been prescribed Prednisone multiple times and it does actually work (bringing litterbox usage down to 4-6 times a day) but it only works for as long as he's on it. As soon as he runs out of the medication, he's back to 12+ times a day two days later.

They currently suspect food could be to blame for these issues. He's currently eating Sheba pate once in the morning and once at night. He also has Tiki dry food available in a dish for whenever he needs it (lunch, snacking).

They are recommending that I change the dry food out with something that has 33% protein or LESS. They have also prescribed Prednisone again to be taken for the next 2-3 weeks.

They also recommended Coasmine for cats to be mixed with his wet food.

Anyway, the reason for my post is to see if anyone has any recommendations for dry food around 33% protein? I've been researching catfooddb.com to find a replacement and all of their top choices for dry food seem to be in the 40-70+% protein range.

Thank you in advance... it feels really awful to see my cat struggle the way he has these past few months.

 

[Maurey]

Low protein is exactly the opposite of biologically appropriate, and low protein kibble is the exact opposite of what you want to be giving a cat with cystitis. You want to be feeding a high protein, high moisture, medium fat, low/no carb diet — wet food only.

I strongly advise you to get a second opinion at a different clinic, ideally with a feline-only specialist. It really doesn’t seem your current vet knows what they’re doing.

Has your cat had a urine culture? How about an ultrasound?

 

[LTS3]

Did the vet do any blood work to rule out diabetes or hyperthroidism or kidney issues or other health issues that can cause excessive urination? How big are the pee clumps? Several inches in diameter? Teeny tiny? Does the urine smell sugary?

 

[Ignored]

They have only gone as far as doing an x-ray for kidney stones (which they did not find). They have not done an ultrasound nor any bloodwork. I'm not familiar with a urine culture but they did say his urine PH is 6.5 (if this information is helpful).

I too was confused why they were asking me to lower his protein intake but they mentioned something about how it requires much more out of a cat to digest higher protein food.

Not sure about the clumps, I'll check his litter box bag and get back to you. Not sure about the smell either, let me get back to you about that.

I think a second opinion from another vet is probably the way to go in this situation as the vet had not asked to do any of these tests or asked most of the questions I've already seen.

 

[Lazy Orange House Cat]

Clean your litter box every day if you aren't. Make sure he's drinking well. The bigger, the wider, the deeper the water dish you can give a cat, the more likely they are to use it. Some cats like ice cubes in the water. Some cats would rather not have their food and water side-by-side. Some cats love a water fountain. Make sure you're cleaning and refreshing his water daily. Write down questions for your veterinarian so that you remember them at your next conversation. I've found this very helpful in the past. Sometimes cystitis can be brought on by stress. Is there something new going on in his environment? Did you go back to work recently? Someone move in or out? Renovation or construction?

 

[Ignored]

I wanted to provide an update and thank you all for your suggestions.

As advised, I took Morty to another vet in town.

1. They did not understand why the other vet wanted to lower the protein amount in his food and advised that I do not follow this recommendation
2. They were very, very worried about the Prednisone dosage and frequency that the other vet put Morty on
   1. They mentioned that it was not a safe dosage/potentially deadly + acute heart issues are a real possibility in the future due to the way it was prescribed
   2. They reconfigured the dosage/frequency to get him off of it as soon as possible while being safe
3. They collected a blood sample and will be sending it off to a lab
4. They prescribed gabapentin as they suspect this is FLUTD/Feline Idiopathic Cystitis (contrary to the other vet ruling it out)
5. They plan to collect a urine sample/do an ultrasound in two weeks once the amoxicillin and prednisone are out of his system

Without this forum, I would've probably never searched for a second opinion and risked killing my cat due to the practices of the other vet. Thank you all so much.