Male Cat Blocking/Nutrition - Need Advice

[elizabeth k]

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).

 

[Jem]

One of my boys needed to be on the prescription food. We tried a few times to switch to a better food but his crystals would always come back. Having said that though, it seems your boy never had crystals, only cystitis? Was there ever an infection?
I have heard that an all wet diet can help with urinary issues. Basically, wet food tends to have less fillers and obviously more moisture which encourages better urine output.
Some may not agree with me on this, but I would not focus too much if a food is "grain free" so much as focusing on where the protein in the food comes from. Many grain free foods aren't necessarily better if they only replace the grains with other plant base proteins like peas and potatoes.

If your boy has cystitis, caused by stress, along with more moisture and better protein in his diet. Some sleuthing will need to be done to figure out what it is that's causing him stress. You mention so many things that would indicate that he is in a very happy cat friendly home. But something must be amiss...for him...some cats can be very sensitive to even the littlest things.

How does he get along with all the other cats?
Do you have strays or other animals that come around your home?
Do any other the other cats pick on him? Does it seem like he is a bully towards any of the other cats?
Does he seem skiddish with anyone in your home? And please don't think I think someone is doing something "wrong", I had one cat who was afraid of slippers, and another who was terrified of my dad's voice (one of those big booming voices) One of my current cats freaks out when my husband gets all riled up playing his video games...he takes them too seriously sometimes
Are all the cats spayed/neutered?
Has there been any changes in the weeks leading up to the first time he blocked?

I may have ore questions but we'll start there...

 

[elizabeth k]

Jem, thank you for responding. He has never had an infection or crystals. I don't think there are any peas or potatoes (or anything similar) in his food, but I am going to double check everything.
I have 4 cats, all males. I adopted him and his biological brother together. My third cat is about the same age; I adopted him 2 months prior to adopting the brothers, and my 4th cat was a stray. I have no idea how old he is and he was here before the brothers arrived. His brother is tiny, and I do sometimes see him pick on and bully his brother. He gets along fine with the other two fellas. Another thing I notice is that he looks around a lot when he is eating or when I am playing with him. It appears that he is afraid someone is going to take his food or take my attention away from him. (There is plenty of food to go around and plenty of interactive-play). He is extremely affectionate and will get between me and my laptop keyboard, sit on a book I am reading, or scoot between my legs when I am trying to walk. He always wants attention and affection. He sleeps in the bed, near the top, and if another cat gets too close, he will take a swipe with a paw. He's okay with the other cats being in the bed as long as they are not right next to him. He's actually very sweet and usually laid back. The animal hospital said he was a perfect patient

Although he does have his own food dish, I am thinking of putting a little distance between him and the others when he is eating. If he is concerned about someone taking his food, that may help.

I also may be including too many proteins in his diet and one may be the culprit. I am not sure. I do know that rabbit is his absolute favorite- he also loves Stella & Chewy's Freeze Dried Raw Chicken and Salmon. The problem in eliminating a few foods is that each cat likes different proteins. I don't know where to begin with that! Maybe I will start by just trying to slightly wet the freeze dried raw to get more moisture in him. None of the cats would eat it wet in the past, but I am willing to try it again. The only turkey they get is in the Instinct Limited Ingredient Dry Turkey. For now, I am going to phase it out and phase in the Royal Canin SO. Instinct also makes a Limited Ingredient Rabbit dry food so that may be an option since they already have rabbit in their diet. (I originally started with limited ingredient dry food because all three of the younger cats had digestive issues when I adopted them.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts on the subject. You got me thinking about him picking on his brother and looking around a lot when he is eating and playing. And, I think you are right - I have to start doing some heavy research.

 

[Jem]

One thing you didn't mention...are they all neutered?
And I'm assuming there is no other person in the home?

One thing I forgot to mention about food. Some recommend no fish to help with urinary issues.
Having multiple proteins shouldn't be an issue, in fact rotating proteins can help insure that a cat doesn't become intolerant, but an allergy to a specific protein would not show up as urinary issues, unless the allergy symptoms cause him stress resulting in cystitis. If he does not have dermatological issues or digestive issues I would assume he does not have an allergy to a certain protein. But I'm not a vet so take this as just my opinion based on experience.

Was he skiddish (about his food and play) suddenly or was he always like that?
Are there any loud noises, for example construction outside that recently started, that might be stressing him out?

 

[Jem]

Have you also considered only giving him wet or canned food? For the moisture content?

 

[elizabeth k]

One thing you didn't mention...are they all neutered?
And I'm assuming there is no other person in the home?

One thing I forgot to mention about food. Some recommend no fish to help with urinary issues.
Having multiple proteins shouldn't be an issue, in fact rotating proteins can help insure that a cat doesn't become intolerant, but an allergy to a specific protein would not show up as urinary issues, unless the allergy symptoms cause him stress resulting in cystitis. If he does not have dermatological issues or digestive issues I would assume he does not have an allergy to a certain protein. But I'm not a vet so take this as just my opinion based on experience.

Was he skiddish (about his food and play) suddenly or was he always like that?
Are there any loud noises, for example construction outside that recently started, that might be stressing him out?

Yes they are all neutered. There are 3 of us in the home: my husband, daughter (20) and me.
He has no skin issues. I could definitely remove fish if it would help him.
He has always been skittish about food and play.
No loud noises at all.

Is anyone familiar with Wysong Uretic.? I just started reading about it. It has a lot of good reviews.

 

[elizabeth k]

Have you also considered only giving him wet or canned food? For the moisture content?

I have not considered only giving canned because they LOVE the raw rabbit patties and dinner morsels. What do you think about me switching to a urinary dry food that they will actually eat. They are not eating the Royal Canin SO or the Hill's C/D Multicare Stress with chicken.

I am going to try wetting the raw rabbit.

 

[elizabeth k]

Good news. The bloody urine has stopped and the volume of urine has increased. I also purchased another water fountain. and purchased Pet Well Being Urinary Gold. I'm praying it works. I'm still offering Royal Canin SO and Hills C/D Multicare. I'm going to try Wysong Uretic. I don't want my baby to constantly go through this.

 

[elizabeth k]

I just wanted to do a quick update. My poor boy blocked again. He spent another five days at the veterinary hospital. I was so scared and at my wit's end, so I caved and put him on Royal Canin SO. All of the canned foods I give my cats are grain free, low carb and low phosphorus. I am also adding 1-2 tablespoons of water (or tuna water per Dr,. Pierson) to all canned food servings. They are not crazy about their watered-down food, but they are getting used to it.

If anyone is looking for a good water fountain, I have found one on Amazon:

2020 Newest Upgraded Cat Fountain for Pet 100oz/3L,Dog Cat Water Fountain,Automatic Drinking Fountain,Dog Water Dispenser,Ultra Quiet, Adjustable Water Flow,Activated Carbon with Replaceable Filters.

It is made out of food grade plastic which is clear and collects no mold. Also large water capacity and it has an adjustable pump. Triple filtration and very easy to clean (no nooks and crannies). The best part - it looks just like a little faucet and sink. My cats love it and my boy is drinking a lot more water now.

I usually don't have anything to contribute here because I am not an expert and it makes me feel terrible to just "take", so I hope my recommendation helps someone who is looking for a good fountain and a way to get more water into their babies..

 

[She's a witch]

Are you feeding freeze dried food as it is, without rehydration? If so, I understand this may be terribly dehydrating and I would personally stop doing it as it’s really counterproductive if you try to get more moisture in him.
All the best to your kitties!

 

[elizabeth k]

She's a witch , yes they eat the Vital Cat freeze dried rabbit patties dry and the S&C rabbit nuggets dry (hanging head in shame). I have tried soaking them in water or tuna water, spraying them lightly with water or tuna water and they won't touch them. I know I have to take them away. They literally live for it; they beg for it. So I give in like a bad mother who lets her kids eat candy when she knows she shouldn't. I have reduced freeze dried to a snack. 1/4 patty and 3 nuggets a day. First thing in the morning they get canned food and again at dinnertime. All canned food is served with 1-2 tbls. of water. Since I got the new fountain my boy who has the blocking problem has been drinking much more. I am looking for wet rabbit to replace the freeze dried. I tried Merrick Purrfect Bistro. Only 1 cat likes it and not the boy with the urinary problems. I am going to look for and try others too. I am keeping a close eye on him. So far, he is able to empty his bladder completely each time he urinates. If I see any reduction in volume or feel his bladder getting full, I will be on my way to the vet immediately.

Thank you for your response. I appreciate it.