Ash content and FLUTD

vball91

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So as I was doing some more reading on FLUTD, I came across this. http://www.halopets.com/pet-education/pet-articles/feline-urinary-problems.html

Yes, it's the halopets site, but the article is written by a DVM and has this to say:

"Recent research on iFLUTD and urinary crystals
A one-year controlled clinical study of cats with these urinary problems was recently conducted. The only treatment that resulted in significant improvement in urinary signs was increasing daily water intake. Urinary signs occurred less often and were much less severe in cats that ate exclusively canned food. This study revealed no change in signs based on varying the magnesium or "ash" content of the food. Many veterinarians used to focus on the ash content of food for the prevention of crystal development, however, all leaders in this field now agree that diets intended to minimize the production of urinary crystals have no scientific rationale in the management of this condition. Simply put, ash is just not important."

What I am particularly interested in is the clinical study itself. I can't seem to find it, and it's not referenced. I sent in a request for that info, but I was wondering if anyone here knew which study was being referenced?
 
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vball91

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I got an answer back on this! I haven't had a chance to look at the studies, but here it is for anyone interested.

 

Your email was forwarded to me on Monday. Thanks for your interest in feline lower urinary tract disease. The best publication available on this topic which gives all recent research resources and lots of great information is:

Westropp J, Buffington CAT. Lower Urinary Tract Disorders in Cats. In: Ettinger SJ, Feldman EC eds. Textbook of Veterinary Internal Medicine, 7th ed. St. Louis, MO: Elsevier-Saunders 2010: 2069-2086.

A few of the references cited in my article are as follows:

Markwell PJ, Buffington CAT, Smith BH: The effect of diet on lower urinary tract diseases in cats. J Nutrition 128:2753S-2757S, 1998. (One-year recurrence rate of 39% if cats ate dry food compared to an 11% one-year recurrence rate if fed canned food of the same type).

Markwell PJ, Buffington CAT, Chew DJ, et al: Clinical evaluation of commercially available urinary acidification diets in the management of idiopathic cystitis in cats. JAVMA 1999: 214: 361-365. (put bluntly: There is no known benefit to acidifying the urine or restricting magnesium in cats affected by idiopathic cystitis. No available evidence supports the idea that struvite crystals causes any damage to the bladder lining or worsens the signs of idiopathic cystitis. Most important “medicine” is water).

Buffington CAT, Westropp JL, Chew DJ, Bolus RR: Clinical evaluation of multimodal environmental enrichment (MEMO) in the management of cats with idiopathic cystitis. J Fel Med Surg 8 (4): 261-268, 2006. (Simply put: this disease is not just a “bladder disease”. It is a complex interaction between stress in a cats environment and how that manifests as sterile bladder inflammation)

Buffington CAT, Westropp JL, Chew DJ, et al. A case controlled study of indoor housed cats with lower urinary tract signs. JAVMA 228: 722-725, 2006.

Great website: Indoor cat initiative (http://indoorpet.osu.edu/cats/) which identifies common feline stressors, etc. Areas to identify and implement environmental enrichment.

Hope some of this information is helpful.

Kind regards,

Donna Spector (Consulting veterinarian; Halo, Purely for Pets)

Dr. Donna J. Spector, BS, DVM, DACVIM

Veterinary Internal Medicine Specialist

www.SpectorDVM.com
 
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