Tigger has struvite crystals

[trudy1]

Poor tigger started the usual trying litter boxes, straining, no pee so off to the vet. He was not yet blocked but had crystals.

my question regards urinary dry foods. They sent him home with S/D urinary but they also carry royal canine urinary. I’d guess both these are “vet” so buy from them, 65 mile rt or try to get prescription?

is one better than the other?
Do they work mixed 1/2 regular kibble?
is there a nonprescription brand as good?
Sorry for all the questions but in my 70 years I’ve lost so many male cats to this issue and here it is again.
My tigger is one of 7;rescues but wild ,l,,,stays in the house but not handleable. If you saw my hands from getting him in the cage!

 

[Jem]

The main difference that I was told between Hills CD and SD is that the SD is for short term use...no more than 6 months. They both dissolve and prevent crystals. If your vet gave you the SD just know that you'll have to switch to CD at some point.
As for the Royal Canine SO, it also dissolves crystals and helps prevent, however, I was told that its formulated to encourage them to drink more...added salt I think...but I could be wrong. Basically it works by diluting the urine??? something like that anyway...
Added moisture in his diet will be very important moving forward, however, I feed our cat the canned version of the food as well to make sure he gets more water.
We currently feed the hills CD dry to ours with the SO canned foods....our boy did not like the canned CD.
We also had another kitty who had to eat the prescription food and he also ate the CD dry but also the canned CD in pate and stews.
The one that's better is the one he'll eat and that works for him. I know of some who the SO worked and the CD didn't and vice versa so I don't think there's that much difference, I guess it depends on how kitty processes it.

I would encourage you to not mix non urinary food with the prescription urinary food as it is formulated to create the best possible PH to dissolve and prevent crystal formation. If kitty is still eating half of his food that is not formulated to do that then the chances of re-occurrence is much greater.

I'm cheap ....so I did everything I could to try and save a buck and find a non vet, non prescription food....alas there is nothing out there....at least where I'm from. We did at one point try to switch one of our boys to a "urinary health" non vet cat food and his crystals came back, so back to the CD and he was fine again.

Many will say that you just need to feed an all wet food diet due to moisture content, and yes moisture content is important but my experience with both my kitties who had/have crystals is that the vet food was the only thing that got rid of and kept the crystals away. I'm not super happy with the ingredients of vet foods as they are quite processed but I do what my cats need and the vet foods work.

As for whether you buy from your vet or get a prescription to use elsewhere, you'll have to see what works best for you I guess. I'm lucky that my vet offers online shopping with shipping to my door...so I do that.
You can order prescription foods on some online sites...I can't remember the names of the sites...but you do need to provide a prescription script to them to be able to get it.

Hope this helps and good luck with your kitty!!!!

 

[trudy1]

Part of my problem is I have 7 rescues. Three of those, including tigger, stay in the garage basement with access to an outside cattery. Since tigger and I got back from the vet today I’ve divided their food into half old kibble and half S/D urinary to prevent them from just quitting eating. Tigger and morti are VERY picky as well as skiddish. Left over from when I trapped them 7 years ago and vetted them for s/n. So all this is very traumatic for them and me! Their mom is the sweetest, lovable tortie with them. I’m going to rapidly increase the SD to 100% if they accept it.

odd that tigger is over 7 and has never had any urinary issues

thanks for your input, really helped

 

[FeebysOwner]

It's OK to gradually change the food - it is actually a good idea. That will help Tigger's system (and, the others, I assume) adjust to it. I am not sure we understood you were doing a gradual switch, but rather wanted to continue long term with mixing both foods. So, I think you are OK to slowly add more urinary food as you decrease the 'regular' food.

As mentioned above, the biggest benefit for cats with urinary tract issues is to get them to take in more water. That is why, it would be ideal if you could try introducing some of the urinary care canned foods too. If they end up eating the new food willingly, you could later try adding some water to a small dish of the dry as a test to see if they might eat it that way, which would give Tigger more water. It might be a pathway to getting Tigger to eat the canned versions.

I'd wait until you have Tigger retested for struvite crystals and see if they are clearing up, but there are non-prescription urinary care foods that you might be able to migrate to eventually such as Purina, Wysong, and Iams. Here are a couple of lists, which include both dry and canned.
Best 5 Urinary Cat Food: Benefits, Reviews, and Ingredient Analysis - Veterinarians.org
11 Best Cat Foods for Urinary Tract Health 2023 - Reviews & Top Picks - Excited Cats

 

[trudy1]

I had always thought that a 100% change over in food was bad on cats?
Anyway
as far as the garage cats are concerned sweetie, my little tortie, is the worlds best cat and the mother of mortie and tigger. They were all part of a 15 cat farmers barn project we tnr or rather rehomed 8 years ago. Tigger and mortie were two that came out of the vet’s totally unadoptable. Scared of their own shadow, as they say

For me tigger will roll over and let me scratch, pick him up, etc but in trying to cage him for the vet he literally tore me a new one! Chewed my hand up, scratched me and blood everywhere, mine. Even when they are calm if I clear my throat…gone!

Thats what I’m dealing with tigger. He eats very little, drinks the liquid off the canned fancy feast. I feed canned once a day, kibble left out Royal Canin diet and purina chicken. In their garage I have 4 pump fountains and 4 big water bowls changed every 4 days.

so when the poor little vet brought him out she said “that’s one angry cat” and proceeded to give me two meds in vials to be given by mouth at least twice a day…ya sure. I said not gonna happen and showed her my chewed up arm. No chance of restraining him again. Well, you know the story….it’s like she hears me but is not listening. She “I’m sure once you get a couple syringes down hm he will be fine”. Ha! Also gave me canned s/d and kibble urinary. Btw the canned was totally rejected by tigger and mortie last night
I think my best hope for this is that since tigger was not blocked, no stones and only had a few crystals the plan toward 100% s/d kibble will work.

so that’s my story, sorry it’s so long and yes, they are the pets and I’m the master…supposedly. I liken it to when aliens look down at our world to try and determine what the top being is and all they see is me cleaning 8 cat boxes several times a day while the cats stand around waiting to use them!

 

[FeebysOwner]

An immediate change over in food, especially when dealing with dry is ill advised. But a gradual one to where a cat is ultimately eating the 'new' food only is fine.

Working with so many cats makes it a lot harder, so you can only do what you can do.

 

[Furballsmom]

had always thought that a 100% change over in food was bad on cats?

Hi
As long as it's transitioned slowly, usually the cat(s) will be fine

 

[trudy1]

Update on tigger. He’s not in the litter box quite as much and did a few good size, for him, pees. Still did not get any meds down him, he hates the hills c/d wet and I have he, mortie and sweetie all on the c/d dry. But they now eat very little compared to the rc diet, purina grain free mixture previously fed. Hope this is not another issue?
I’m trying a little tuna water on the dry cd up where tigger sleeps during the day….we’ll see.
Thanks for everyone’s input. It helped