Hi! Anyone else with cats on urinary prescription diet have a hard time getting your cat to eat the whole can/meal!? My boy has been on it for a month and a half. In the begining it wasn’t such a big deal and he liked it as before wet food was a treat... (he was free fed dry for many years)... now hes just picky and only eats a little here and there and whines for food at random hours. He is fed 3 times a day now. I have to mix royal canin c/d with hills urinary so or some purina pro urinary together to get him to eat it and keep him interested. Have any of you ever had to mix the urinary diets from different brands for your cats? My vet said it was okay... I just worry so much. Any advice to get him to eat it all? I mix it with water as well but not too much. He likes to invade my other two cats bowls as they are not free fed either anymore and are on a wet diet with him... and their food mostly isn’t urinary as they are girls... Occasionally I’ll mix the urinary with their food to not waste what he doesn't eat.
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Urinary diet/picky cat- not interested!?
- Thread starter Rmo25
- Start Date
Hi. For years, Feeby was on both RC SO and Hill's C/D urinary care foods. Initially it was dry only, and much later I added canned of both. So, mixing, IMO, was never an issue. Feeby had surgery at the age of 5 for oxalate stones and was placed on these urinary care foods at that time. She is now 16+ yo, and after 8+ years of those foods (and no recurrence of stones) she decided she no longer liked any of them, dry or canned. She now exclusively eats canned food - non-prescription.
I don't know what caused your cat to be placed on the urinary care foods, but if it were for struvite crystals/stones - which these foods are supposed to help dissolve (unlike oxalate stones), then after a few follow-up tests to ensure the crystals have been dissolved, I think it would be safe for you to include some non-prescription canned foods to his diet. You can mix some with his urinary care food so that he continues to get both. It is just a matter of continual testing to ensure he stays crystal free - which, btw, should be happening even if he continues to eat nothing but the script food.
The most important factor is to get cats who are prone to urinary issues to drink plenty of water to keep their kidneys/bladder flushed. Multiple water dishes, and perhaps a water fountain or two, should help encourage more water intake. Lastly, there isn't anything problematic about your other cats having some of the script food either. And, as you can see by my case, males aren't the only ones who have urinary issues!!
I don't know what caused your cat to be placed on the urinary care foods, but if it were for struvite crystals/stones - which these foods are supposed to help dissolve (unlike oxalate stones), then after a few follow-up tests to ensure the crystals have been dissolved, I think it would be safe for you to include some non-prescription canned foods to his diet. You can mix some with his urinary care food so that he continues to get both. It is just a matter of continual testing to ensure he stays crystal free - which, btw, should be happening even if he continues to eat nothing but the script food.
The most important factor is to get cats who are prone to urinary issues to drink plenty of water to keep their kidneys/bladder flushed. Multiple water dishes, and perhaps a water fountain or two, should help encourage more water intake. Lastly, there isn't anything problematic about your other cats having some of the script food either. And, as you can see by my case, males aren't the only ones who have urinary issues!!
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #3
Hi!
He had calcium oxalate crystals as what I was told only a couple. I’m so confused because he had to see multiple vets due to Covid and it being hard to get into them. They told me to put him on this diet. He’s tapering off of prednisolone right now... low dose. So he’s not peeing as much as he did while on it full dose.He started spraying in the bathroom during this whole fiasco probably due to all the stress from countless vet visits and one of the vets mishandled him so bad which I totally believe caused this. He sits down to pee like normal sometimes and others stands in the litter box and sprays..As the reason he was going to the vet in the first place was for uri issues. I have multiple water dishes but he’s picky about them so I think I’m gonna have to get a water fountain. The water fountains have so many mixed reviews. Do you recommend one? Also should I get test strips for pH? Chewy has some called “check up”... Since theres puddles on the floor sometimes I could check that way do you think? I plan to ask the vet today if I can when I go pick up my girls allergy meds. Im so worried. I just want to do the right thing and I have spent thousands already handling this insane crazyness. I love my boy so much... ( girls too)
It is probably the PH in his urine as the reason for putting him on the urinary care food in order to try to prevent more oxalate stones from developing. So, the urine strips for testing might not be a bad idea. Did you ask your vet about using these strips to monitor his urine, and do you know what his current PH reading is and what it should be? I think you need to go to the Check Up website to see what they say about if the PH reading would be skewed by bacteria that might be in any urine you collect directly from the floor - or, ask the vet - as I am unsure what impact non-sterile urine might have on the results. You also need to let the vet know that he is still spraying, and if there are additional steps you can take, or meds you could give, to help with that. If the steroids were given to him for inflammation in his bladder, maybe an anti-inflammatory would be in order instead of more steroids.
As far as fountains, I don't have one as Feeby is an avid drinker. But, I do know some cats prefer a fountain that mimics water coming from a faucet, such as this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GJMSBXZ/?tag=thecatsite
As far as fountains, I don't have one as Feeby is an avid drinker. But, I do know some cats prefer a fountain that mimics water coming from a faucet, such as this one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GJMSBXZ/?tag=thecatsite
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- #5
Thanks for replying again! I will ask them today when I go in to pick up my medicine for my other cat about the urine ph. I want to avoid having to bring him back constantly as that stresses him out. The vet told me for the spraying to put the litter box inside of a tote however I live in a apartment and I have four litter boxes in a small bathroom two underneath the sink (took the cab doors off) And two on the floor so I don’t have a way of putting four totes there as it’s small. They want to avoid medication but if it continues then I will ask. As far as the fountains goes I will look into that one but I might just end up going with a cheap one in the meantime from Petsmart as I see they have one in stock. I’ve bought him a ton of new toys and beds to help minimize his stress and keep him occupied however he doesn’t seem to be interested much in them much right now. He’s 8. He loves catnip though so Ive been giving that to him several times a day to help relax him. He likes to roll around in it and take a nap.
