Wow, I haven't been on here in a long time. That means things have been going well! Going well, until about a month ago ...
A little over one month ago, one of my male cats, 1 1/2 years old, blocked. It was a Sunday so I took him immediately to an emergency vet/animal hospital. He spent 4 nights and three days there. He had an MRI and was catheterized. No crystals were found. The diagnosis was blocking due to stress (more about that later). I took him home on the 4th day with 2 medications and he did well recovering.
Yesterday I noticed a little bit of blood at the end of his urine stream. I kept observing and noticed he was urinating often and the volume was minimal. At the end of each urine stream was some blood. I took him to the vet right away and he is not blocked. Fortunately, I caught this early. The vet sent me home with with a prescription for phenoxybenzamine suspension that I will give him once a day for 10 days. He told me that the permanent solution is diet and I left with a bag of Royal Canin SO. He also indicated that I could switch to Hill's Prescription CD after 3 months.
When I got home, I looked over the ingredients on the Royal Canin label, and I was pretty disappointed. I feed all my cats grain free foods. Their diet consists of Instinct Limited Ingredient Turkey Dry Food, Stella & Chewy Chicken and Salmon Freeze Dried Raw Dinner Morsels, S & C Absolute Rabbit Freeze Dried Raw Dinner Morsels, Vital Cat Freeze Dried Raw Rabbit patties and an assortment of grain free canned foods. All of my cats get canned food every day, along with the dry and freeze-dried raw foods. I also have a water fountain for them to drink from.
Regarding stress: I have four cats and four litter boxes, water on both levels of my home, a cat tower and a lot of toys. Each cat gets played with for at least 30 minutes a day and there are always toys out/turned on. They each get their own dish of food set out too,so I am not sure where the stress is coming from.
So my questions are:
Is there something I am feeding my cats that is causing the urinary problem in the one cat that has the problem?
Considering that Royal Canin contains grains and other ingredients that I don't give my cats, do I have other options? ( I understand that the SO formula has controlled levels of magnesium, calcium and phosphorus, but I feel there must be something better out there. Another concern is that I am not going to be able to feed my cats different foods, so if one is on SO, they will all be on SO).
Will my cat outgrow this problem?
If anyone can help me with this, I would really appreciate it. To begin with, my boy does not like the Royal Canin SO Formula and my fear is that if I do not immediately switch him over to it, he is going to block again.
Thanks for any advice and suggestions. I apologize for any typos as I am in a bit of a hurry (trying to help my daughter with online school).
A little over one month ago, one of my male cats, 1 1/2 years old, blocked. It was a Sunday so I took him immediately to an emergency vet/animal hospital. He spent 4 nights and three days there. He had an MRI and was catheterized. No crystals were found. The diagnosis was blocking due to stress (more about that later). I took him home on the 4th day with 2 medications and he did well recovering.
Yesterday I noticed a little bit of blood at the end of his urine stream. I kept observing and noticed he was urinating often and the volume was minimal. At the end of each urine stream was some blood. I took him to the vet right away and he is not blocked. Fortunately, I caught this early. The vet sent me home with with a prescription for phenoxybenzamine suspension that I will give him once a day for 10 days. He told me that the permanent solution is diet and I left with a bag of Royal Canin SO. He also indicated that I could switch to Hill's Prescription CD after 3 months.
When I got home, I looked over the ingredients on the Royal Canin label, and I was pretty disappointed. I feed all my cats grain free foods. Their diet consists of Instinct Limited Ingredient Turkey Dry Food, Stella & Chewy Chicken and Salmon Freeze Dried Raw Dinner Morsels, S & C Absolute Rabbit Freeze Dried Raw Dinner Morsels, Vital Cat Freeze Dried Raw Rabbit patties and an assortment of grain free canned foods. All of my cats get canned food every day, along with the dry and freeze-dried raw foods. I also have a water fountain for them to drink from.
Regarding stress: I have four cats and four litter boxes, water on both levels of my home, a cat tower and a lot of toys. Each cat gets played with for at least 30 minutes a day and there are always toys out/turned on. They each get their own dish of food set out too,so I am not sure where the stress is coming from.
So my questions are:
Is there something I am feeding my cats that is causing the urinary problem in the one cat that has the problem?
Considering that Royal Canin contains grains and other ingredients that I don't give my cats, do I have other options? ( I understand that the SO formula has controlled levels of magnesium, calcium and phosphorus, but I feel there must be something better out there. Another concern is that I am not going to be able to feed my cats different foods, so if one is on SO, they will all be on SO).
Will my cat outgrow this problem?
If anyone can help me with this, I would really appreciate it. To begin with, my boy does not like the Royal Canin SO Formula and my fear is that if I do not immediately switch him over to it, he is going to block again.
Thanks for any advice and suggestions. I apologize for any typos as I am in a bit of a hurry (trying to help my daughter with online school).