Question on prescription food

[Dherna55]

Hello, I have my cat currently on the dry cat food: Purina UR st/ox prescription diet to help with crystals. I’ve noticed that my cat has started to feel very boney. I can feel his spine and feel his head bone very well. The only other thing is that he’s actually gaining .1 of a lb usually every 3-4 weeks. My vet did blood work on him and the results came back with healthy levels.

Also,
should I stop the prescribed diet and switch him Purina urinary tract infection dry/wet food with extra water to hydrate it? I just don’t understand why my cat feels boney of he’s at 11.5 lbs for a 4.7 year old cat.

Im starting to think that the prescription diet food may not have have a great nutrition value for my cat and maybe this is why he’s feeling more boney

 

[verna davies]

Has your cat had a scan to see if the crystals have dissolved? Wet food and water is best to avoid crystals.

 

[LTS3]

Hello, I have my cat currently on the dry cat food: Purina UR st/ox prescription diet to help with crystals. I’ve noticed that my cat has started to feel very boney. I can feel his spine and feel his head bone very well. The only other thing is that he’s actually gaining .1 of a lb usually every 3-4 weeks. My vet did blood work on him and the results came back with healthy levels.

Also,
should I stop the prescribed diet and switch him Purina urinary tract infection dry/wet food with extra water to hydrate it? I just don’t understand why my cat feels boney of he’s at 11.5 lbs for a 4.7 year old cat.

Im starting to think that the prescription diet food may not have have a great nutrition value for my cat and maybe this is why he’s feeling more boney

Prescription foods are full of poor quality ingredients and most do not even help the health condition they are supposedly formulated for. Feeding Your Cat: Know the Basics of Feline Nutrition – Common Sense. Healthy Cats.

A temporary diet of prescription food may be needed to dissolve struvite crystals. Other types of urinary crystals can just be managed with a canned food only diet. No dry food. Dry food is the reason why many cats end up with urinary issues in the first place. A good read is here: Cat Urinary Tract Diseases: Cystitis, Urethral Obstruction, Urinary Tract Infection It's perfectly ok to diasgree with the vet about food. Most vets have no clue about proper nutrition.

Low B12 levels can cause poor absorption of nutrients which can lead to skinniness. It's not included with regular blood work. It's a separate test the vet has to specifiy when submitting the blood. You may want to ask the vet about that. Also make sure the vet checks the teeth. Poor dental health can result in painful teeth and gums which makes eating difficult.

 

[Dherna55]

Has your cat had a scan to see if the crystals have dissolved? Wet food and water is best to avoid crystals.

Yes, and the vet said there were less crystals but still present

 

[verna davies]

Can you get the Purina you are using in wet as well as dry and give a mix of both. Once the crystals have dissolved transition onto a good wet food with added water to help prevent crystals forming again.

 

[LTS3]

Some find that adding a d-mannose supplement to the food helps with urinary crystals and general bladder health. Take a look through the threads: Search Results for Query: d-mannose

Your vet most likely won't know anything about using d-mannose so don't expect much if any support from your vet.

 

[Dherna55]

Can you get the Purina you are using in wet as well as dry and give a mix of both. Once the crystals have dissolved transition onto a good wet food with added water to help prevent crystals forming again.

I have the wet purina prescription but all he does is lick the gravy and never eats the meat

 

[verna davies]

Try mashing it up and adding a little dry. Are you able to get Royal Canin Urinary SO wet food, its the only wet urinary food mine would eat when he had issues.

 

[Dherna55]

Try mashing it up and adding a little dry. Are you able to get Royal Canin Urinary SO wet food, its the only wet urinary food mine would eat when he had issues.

We’ve tried every single wet urinary so food and he will only attempt to eat the purina one

 

[Lazy Orange House Cat]

Put it in a blender?

 

[maggie101]

Hello, I have my cat currently on the dry cat food: Purina UR st/ox prescription diet to help with crystals. I’ve noticed that my cat has started to feel very boney. I can feel his spine and feel his head bone very well. The only other thing is that he’s actually gaining .1 of a lb usually every 3-4 weeks. My vet did blood work on him and the results came back with healthy levels.

Also,
should I stop the prescribed diet and switch him Purina urinary tract infection dry/wet food with extra water to hydrate it? I just don’t understand why my cat feels boney of he’s at 11.5 lbs for a 4.7 year old cat.

Im starting to think that the prescription diet food may not have have a great nutrition value for my cat and maybe this is why he’s feeling more boney

Hello! Late responder. To me, I would stay on the prescription diet til they are totally gone and mix it with something else she likes. Someone on here made an excellent suggestion to use hills a/d which is like kitty crack. It only takes a little. Wet food only!!! Or mix with dry if it will get her to eat. Use churu or tiki sticks for added moisture. That made her pee a long time. Scatter lots of water bowls and a stainless steel fountain. Good luck!

 

[Caspers Human]

Prescription foods are full of poor quality ingredients and most do not even help the health condition they are supposedly formulated for.

Casper's vet told us the exact, same thing. The only thing that is different about prescription foods is the cost.

Our vet's advice was, "Water! Water! Water!" It's hard for a cat with crystals to drink too much water. (Rhetorically speaking, that is. )

The other thing is to feed at least 50 percent canned/wet food and no more than 50 percent dry. If you can get your cat to eat all wet food, more's the better but 50/50 is the minimum.

You might have to give your cat some medication but that's the vet's call.
We have a prescription for Casper on hand in case we need it and for maintenance but we don't have to give it every day.

Getting a cat to drink more water can be tricky. You have to watch your cat and how much water he drinks and try different things to see if he drinks more. We leave a a faucet dripping for Casper. He likes to play under the faucet. We know he's been playing when he comes to bed with us and he's got a wet head. We're like, "Ick!" when he comes to bed all wet but we tolerate it because we know he's been drinking. It's clean water, anyhow.

We also have two water bowls for Casper to drink from in different places in the house. It's a mistake to think that a cat's water bowl should be next to its food. Cats don't normally drink from the same place they eat. One of Casper's watering holes is the plant stand by the patio door. He likes to drink from the watering can so we make sure that it's always filled and kept clean. His other place is a fish bowl by the window. A while back, we got a fish to keep Casper entertained but the fish expired. We noticed that Casper drank from the fish bowl so we got rid of the fish stuff and cleaned out the bowl.

The trick is to not just plunk down a dish of water and expect your cat to drink. Try to find the place(s) where your cat likes best and make sure that those places always have clean water available.

Many cats like to drink from a pet fountain. If your cat would like a fountain, get him one. If he likes to play under the faucet, let him. Do whatever you need to in order to make things more interesting for your cat so that it stimulates him to drink more.

Oh! If he likes to drink from a watering can, just make sure you don't put fertilizer in it or anything like that.

 

[Lazy Orange House Cat]

We have a Chill Bowl in addition to our fountain, which a lot of our cats really love. Its a HUGE stainless water dish with a removable core that goes in the freezer and keeps the water nice and cool. We have a few cores, so when the water gets changed throughout the day, the core gets replaced. One of the best things I've ever bought.

 

[scritch]

You ought to talk to your vet first and foremost. Despite the false claims that "presciption" diets have poor ingredients, they're actually incredibly high quality foods formulated by qualified nutritionists. Diets are an essential part of managing urinary crystals (alongside water intake). However, there are a variety of diets that are designed for crystal dissolution, so if this diet isn't the right choice for your kitty, talk to your vet about other options.

If you cat is gaining weight, I question why they would be feeling boney, and having a vet give your cat a feel to see if there's actually anything wrong is essential.

 

[maggie101]

You ought to talk to your vet first and foremost. Despite the false claims that "presciption" diets have poor ingredients, they're actually incredibly high quality foods formulated by qualified nutritionists. Diets are an essential part of managing urinary crystals (alongside water intake). However, there are a variety of diets that are designed for crystal dissolution, so if this diet isn't the right choice for your kitty, talk to your vet about other options.

If you cat is gaining weight, I question why they would be feeling boney, and having a vet give your cat a feel to see if there's actually anything wrong is essential.

My cat had struitive crystals. Hills cd desolved them so I putt her on commercial food then they came back. Now she has ckd also

 

[Telstar]

The only decent dry food I have found for UTI/struvite is Farmina N&D Quinoa Urinary, which is available only in some EU Countries afaik. It is not "prescription" but it has methionine and ammonium chloride to acidify the urine.

 

[Telstar]

Some find that adding a d-mannose supplement to the food helps with urinary crystals and general bladder health. Take a look through the threads: Search Results for Query: d-mannose

I use it myself (I mean for me not for my cat) for years but I think it helps only with UTI caused by bacteria.