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- Jul 12, 2016
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Hi folks!
I've heard conflicting information from various veterinary sources on this, so I thought I'd check with you guys for further insight.
Backstory: 6 year old female cat (spayed.) Currently on kibble and watered-down wet food daily. She has had idiopathic urinary cystitis and crystals twice now (a year apart.) Both times quickly identified because she was in the litterbox constantly, both treated with antiflammatories, pain meds, and a bag of Royal Canin Urinary SO food.
Both times, she saw an emergency vet because of course this always happens on a Saturday night at 9pm. The emerg vet suggested I feed her a bag of Urinary SO every 10 months or so to dissolve any crystals that may have formed and obviously to increase her wet food/water consumption as much as possible.
I took her to my regular vet this weekend for a checkup, who said she must be on Urinary SO constantly, and that I can't switch back and forth between her regular food and the Urinary SO.
I have no real issue with this. My only main concerns are that the ingredients for the Royal Canin Urinary SO food are not great (literally contains sawdust), and also that it took me ages to find a wet food she liked enough to eat and I'm not keen on starting that process over again, but if that's what's best for her I have absolutely no problem doing it.
But, red flags were raised when my vet, maybe reading the look on my face, launched into a 20-minute spiel about the quality of the cat food and that sounded like a sales pitch, saying that corn is actually a super healthy ingredient and that "good" pet food brands manipulate their ingredients list or source contaminated ingredients, etc. And I mean it's also possible that the Urinary SO food has less meat ingredients but is healthier for her in the long run, but the sales pitch really left me skeptical. She knew it and even stated that she doesn't get kickbacks from the sales, BUT she also mentioned learning a lot of this at a seminar and tour of the RC factory, so...
So I guess my question is: does anyone feed their cat Urinary SO periodically to control urinary crystals? Has that been successful for you in the past?
Also, does what my vet said alarm anyone else, or is it me that has a poor understanding of pet food and nutrition?
I've heard conflicting information from various veterinary sources on this, so I thought I'd check with you guys for further insight.
Backstory: 6 year old female cat (spayed.) Currently on kibble and watered-down wet food daily. She has had idiopathic urinary cystitis and crystals twice now (a year apart.) Both times quickly identified because she was in the litterbox constantly, both treated with antiflammatories, pain meds, and a bag of Royal Canin Urinary SO food.
Both times, she saw an emergency vet because of course this always happens on a Saturday night at 9pm. The emerg vet suggested I feed her a bag of Urinary SO every 10 months or so to dissolve any crystals that may have formed and obviously to increase her wet food/water consumption as much as possible.
I took her to my regular vet this weekend for a checkup, who said she must be on Urinary SO constantly, and that I can't switch back and forth between her regular food and the Urinary SO.
I have no real issue with this. My only main concerns are that the ingredients for the Royal Canin Urinary SO food are not great (literally contains sawdust), and also that it took me ages to find a wet food she liked enough to eat and I'm not keen on starting that process over again, but if that's what's best for her I have absolutely no problem doing it.
But, red flags were raised when my vet, maybe reading the look on my face, launched into a 20-minute spiel about the quality of the cat food and that sounded like a sales pitch, saying that corn is actually a super healthy ingredient and that "good" pet food brands manipulate their ingredients list or source contaminated ingredients, etc. And I mean it's also possible that the Urinary SO food has less meat ingredients but is healthier for her in the long run, but the sales pitch really left me skeptical. She knew it and even stated that she doesn't get kickbacks from the sales, BUT she also mentioned learning a lot of this at a seminar and tour of the RC factory, so...
So I guess my question is: does anyone feed their cat Urinary SO periodically to control urinary crystals? Has that been successful for you in the past?
Also, does what my vet said alarm anyone else, or is it me that has a poor understanding of pet food and nutrition?