About to lose my mind with Cat food....

Krienze

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We had to rush Jasper to the vet today, because I noticed blood in his urine and straining. Took him in, vet gave him a shot and confirmed he has a UTI. The vet said it's most likely chronic and due to the food he's eating.

He was eating Nulo dry with Tiki Cat wet food mixed in. We switched from Nulo to Acana recently because the reviews I read suggested it was a good brand. But after switching WAS when Jasper got sick, shortly after anyway.

I caved and bought a bag of the bladder Hills food my vet suggested despite the fact that I don't really know how I feel about Hills at ALL.

He explained that certain minerals in the food are low in the Hills but higher in a lot of other cat foods and that's whats causing the UTI.

I'm pulling my hair out with trying to find a healthy and safe cat food for my cats. I try so hard to keep them healthy and I GET stuff like this does happen but... like I do feel guilty because am I just feeding them bad food without knowing it?

I don't even know where to begin looking for better food at this point because Hills just doesn't sit right with me as something to give my cats long term.

I went to petsmart and bought a case of Tiki wet food and a case of Instinct wet food - which looks pretty good. Does anyone have any suggestions or opinions? Because I feel like I've hit a total wall in what to look for now.
 

maggie101

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When my cat had crystals she was on Hill's Prescription c/d after a few months she no longer has crystals. I have also searched online and hills is unfortunately the best for crystals. Since the crystals can come back I have switched to puriina ur, also prescription. She likes it better than hills or rc so I give her that mixed in healthier food. I have never used dry. Cats don't drink enough so wet helps
 
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Krienze

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When my cat had crystals she was on Hill's Prescription c/d after a few months she no longer has crystals. I have also searched online and hills is unfortunately the best for crystals. Since the crystals can come back I have switched to puriina ur, also prescription. She likes it better than hills or rc so I give her that mixed in healthier food. I have never used dry. Cats don't drink enough so wet helps
Yeah, that's why I try to incorporate wet food in their meals so that they get that water. Thankfully my cats do seem to drink water pretty well and I found a cat milk treat I've offered them a few times as well. I sometimes put bone broth in their food as well to mix in.
Part of my issue too is that I have four cats that are almost impossible to feed separately (the fifth likes to chill in another room given her age so I can easily feed her in there but with Jasper it's harder) so whatever dry food I settle on, it has to be okay for all of the cats.

Is Hills c/d (which is also what I bought from the vet) or purina ur okay for cats in general as a regular food??
 

maggie101

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Yeah, that's why I try to incorporate wet food in their meals so that they get that water. Thankfully my cats do seem to drink water pretty well and I found a cat milk treat I've offered them a few times as well. I sometimes put bone broth in their food as well to mix in.
Part of my issue too is that I have four cats that are almost impossible to feed separately (the fifth likes to chill in another room given her age so I can easily feed her in there but with Jasper it's harder) so whatever dry food I settle on, it has to be okay for all of the cats.

Is Hills c/d (which is also what I bought from the vet) or purina ur okay for cats in general as a regular food??
Prescription food is only for cats that need it. Not healthy cats. I don't remember why. I forget things that just read even the day before
 

maggie101

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Maggie will only eat if I'm there. Peaches eats slower if it's just me. Otherwise throws up.I feed them late at night with timers. I'm still trying to figure out how to do that. One bed one bath apt.
 

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The urinary care prescription foods are designed to help dissolve crystals that are present in the urinary tract, reduce future crystal production, and help balance urine PH. Struvite crystals are comprised of magnesium, ammonium and phosphate and most cats with these crystals have more alkaline in the urine which aides in the development of crystals. So, the theory is if these minerals are lowered in a cat's diet it will help to prevent future crystal production and make the urine more acidic - also helping to dissolve any crystals that exist. A lot of moisture in a cat's diet through water (and/or wet food) is also recommended to help flush out the bladder and keep sediment from forming into crystals. There are other forms of crystals, but struvite seems to be the most common.

It is not my understanding the the minerals themselves cause UTIs - the crystals can irritate the bladder and create inflammation which can lead to an infection, as well blood generated by the irritation. So, I am guessing that your vet told you that Jasper has sediment/crystals in his urine based on a urinalysis? This analysis would have also identified Jasper's PH balance. The combination of these items would most likely identify the type of crystals as well.

Finding out all of this information might help you to make a decision about what to do food-wise. As mentioned in one of the posts above, some people feed their cat the urinary care food until another urinalysis shows the crystals have been dissolved and/or are more in line with what is generally found in many cats. They will then put them on 'more normal' foods, generally wet since the moisture content helps to flush out the bladder and is considered half the battle. And, routine follow up urinalyses can be done to check for sediment/crystals/urine PH. Some use urinary care food off-and-on as opposed to a permanent food.

All that said, I do know of members who feed all their cats the same urinary care food for the 'convenience' of it. If Jasper would only have to be on this food off-and-on, it would probably be sufficient to feed your other cats the same foods as Jasper. However, depending on what you find out about Jasper's urinalysis, placing him on a wet food only diet might be sufficient enough for you to avoid urinary care foods altogether. Of, you could feed some urinary care along with 'normal' canned foods at the same time.

Sorry for the long post.
 

maggie101

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I was confused exactly why she needed this food til I asked them to send me the results of her tests. The vet was not informative
 
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Krienze

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The urinary care prescription foods are designed to help dissolve crystals that are present in the urinary tract, reduce future crystal production, and help balance urine PH. Struvite crystals are comprised of magnesium, ammonium and phosphate and most cats with these crystals have more alkaline in the urine which aides in the development of crystals. So, the theory is if these minerals are lowered in a cat's diet it will help to prevent future crystal production and make the urine more acidic - also helping to dissolve any crystals that exist. A lot of moisture in a cat's diet through water (and/or wet food) is also recommended to help flush out the bladder and keep sediment from forming into crystals. There are other forms of crystals, but struvite seems to be the most common.

It is not my understanding the the minerals themselves cause UTIs - the crystals can irritate the bladder and create inflammation which can lead to an infection, as well blood generated by the irritation. So, I am guessing that your vet told you that Jasper has sediment/crystals in his urine based on a urinalysis? This analysis would have also identified Jasper's PH balance. The combination of these items would most likely identify the type of crystals as well.

Finding out all of this information might help you to make a decision about what to do food-wise. As mentioned in one of the posts above, some people feed their cat the urinary care food until another urinalysis shows the crystals have been dissolved and/or are more in line with what is generally found in many cats. They will then put them on 'more normal' foods, generally wet since the moisture content helps to flush out the bladder and is considered half the battle. And, routine follow up urinalyses can be done to check for sediment/crystals/urine PH. Some use urinary care food off-and-on as opposed to a permanent food.

All that said, I do know of members who feed all their cats the same urinary care food for the 'convenience' of it. If Jasper would only have to be on this food off-and-on, it would probably be sufficient to feed your other cats the same foods as Jasper. However, depending on what you find out about Jasper's urinalysis, placing him on a wet food only diet might be sufficient enough for you to avoid urinary care foods altogether. Of, you could feed some urinary care along with 'normal' canned foods at the same time.

Sorry for the long post.
He didn't actually mention sediment/crystals (or if he did, I didn't fully understand or hear him - he had a mask on and honestly was hard to understand him.) but he DID say that Jasper had a bladder infection/UTI and that it was genetic? I asked about his sister, since they're from the same litter but he didn't seem as worried since Mia's female. He did go on to say that we need foods low in certain things and marked them on the bag we bought for Jasper.



Honestly,Jasper is pretty picky about the foods he eats. It's why I'm always struggling to find wet food. I love Tiki for them, but there are times they just will randomly snub the tiki food and not eat it, then a whole can gets wasted. They loved merrick's and usually always ate that well but I was worried after reading some reviews. Ideally I know they enjoy having a dry food mixed in with their wet food which is why I started trying Acana.
 

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Back in the day, I had a male, neutered cat who blocked. Emergency trip and the vet unblocked him. We did not get Rx food, we had 8 cats to feed and no way to separate one and get them to eat something different from the others. We'd tried that before. The vet said, stay away from fish, go for low ash. We did and he didn't block again or get crystals. None of them did. Chance, maybe, maybe the vet was right about the ash. Some years and some vets seem to think that was nonsense, some agree.

Note, Science Diet/Hill's had Rx food at the time I'm writing about, and my vet had shelves of the stuff.

The best cat food is the food you can afford that your cat will eat. But if you can convince your cat to eat wet food, it might help keep him hydrated.
 

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My cat didn't have a UTI or blockage, but he had some crystals and like a trace amount of blood in his urine on his urine analysis last year. My vet didn't tell me to change his (wet food, 80% raw, 20% canned) diet at all. She just had me add a DL-methionine supplement to one meal. I used Vetoquinol's Methigel at the recommended dosage (1/2 tsp per day). I gave it to him without missing a single day for 5 months, and when he had a follow-up urine analysis done, his pH was balanced, all the crystals and blood were gone.
 

maggie101

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My cat didn't have a UTI or blockage, but he had some crystals and like a trace amount of blood in his urine on his urine analysis last year. My vet didn't tell me to change his (wet food, 80% raw, 20% canned) diet at all. She just had me add a DL-methionine supplement to one meal. I used Vetoquinol's Methigel at the recommended dosage (1/2 tsp per day). I gave it to him without missing a single day for 5 months, and when he had a follow-up urine analysis done, his pH was balanced, all the crystals and blood were gone.
My new vet said I should continue with prescription food because they can come back. So,I continue to give her purina ur mixed with earthborn. It's not good to mix but my vet agreed since she no longer has them. I read that 2 good commercial food to give is weruva chicken fricazee(no idea how it's spelled) and weruva truex steak frittas. It has zanthium gum which I want to avoid and trying to figure out why it's suggested. There are many other foods high in moisture,low phosphorous
 

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UTI is bacterial infection, is that what your cat has? If so, no food helps it, just antibiotics, and generally mostly older cats get these. Some people use the word UTI for all kind of urinary issue, maybe that’s what’s happening in your case? These are crystals explained above but also FIC, meaning inflammation of the bladder. I’d definitely call vet and ask exactly what your problem is. Urinary food also does nothing with FIC, it’s more about managing stress and moisture level - environmental enrichment and wet food is the best to manage FIC.

problem with urinary food being fed long term (even after struvites are dissolved) is that acidifying properties do keep struvites from forming but not oxalate - those form in acidic environment so here’s the risk. And those were very rare in cats before acidifying urinary food was introduced so no, this kind of food shouldn’t be fed long term as it can potentially run into even bigger issues (oxalates can only be removed surgically, they don’t dissolve). Not mentioning they generally have very poor quality ingredients that I’d personally avoid long term.

When I took my boy to ER fearing the blockage, I was given clear instruction on never to feed my boy dry food ever again. They gave me statistics that around 50% of cats have repeated urinary problem within 6 months if fed dry, and 11% if fed wet, so I’d definitely transition your boy to moisture-rich food to avoid the problem. It can be done with any cat, but it does take lots of patience and time.
 

Natalusky29

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We had to rush Jasper to the vet today, because I noticed blood in his urine and straining. Took him in, vet gave him a shot and confirmed he has a UTI. The vet said it's most likely chronic and due to the food he's eating.

He was eating Nulo dry with Tiki Cat wet food mixed in. We switched from Nulo to Acana recently because the reviews I read suggested it was a good brand. But after switching WAS when Jasper got sick, shortly after anyway.

I caved and bought a bag of the bladder Hills food my vet suggested despite the fact that I don't really know how I feel about Hills at ALL.

He explained that certain minerals in the food are low in the Hills but higher in a lot of other cat foods and that's whats causing the UTI.

I'm pulling my hair out with trying to find a healthy and safe cat food for my cats. I try so hard to keep them healthy and I GET stuff like this does happen but... like I do feel guilty because am I just feeding them bad food without knowing it?

I don't even know where to begin looking for better food at this point because Hills just doesn't sit right with me as something to give my cats long term.

I went to petsmart and bought a case of Tiki wet food and a case of Instinct wet food - which looks pretty good. Does anyone have any suggestions or opinions? Because I feel like I've hit a total wall in what to look for now.
Hi,if you don’t want to switch your cat to a wet food diet you can mix wet and dry food and even adding a little bit of water (not cold) and mix it up all together:) I feed my three cats doing this and even though they’re fixed they’re not gaining a lot of weight
If your cat doesn’t like the new food you could try to give some salmon oil to its food 😼
 
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Krienze

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Hi,if you don’t want to switch your cat to a wet food diet you can mix wet and dry food and even adding a little bit of water (not cold) and mix it up all together:) I feed my three cats doing this and even though they’re fixed they’re not gaining a lot of weight
If your cat doesn’t like the new food you could try to give some salmon oil to its food 😼
Hey, they already eat wet and dry food (just not mixed together because they apparently are spoiled and don't like that) lol
 
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