Cat with bladder crystals

Question

My cat has bladder crystals and has had them flushed. What I am wondering is if there is any homemade recipe for food that will prevent the crystals from reoccurring?

I am hoping for a natural cooked food that is still very healthy.

Thank you for all suggestions.

Rita

Answer 1

A cat can have bladder/urinary problems for several reasons.  I would follow my vet's instructions about a diet that is best for the cat's specific problem.

If you don't wish to use a prescription diet from a vet, talk with your vet about recommended natural diets.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

two of my six cats blocked with crystals while being fed dry food.  The first went on an OTC canned food and did just fine.  The second happened, and I invested in an OTC 'urinary' food, and he blocked again.

I did some research, and found a low carb high protein diet really is the best food for any cat, and helps cats with crystals.  I ended up feeding my cats a raw diet that I got from http://www.catinfo.org and have not had a problem since.  However there are a lot of canned foods that fit the bill (the "urinary' food didn't) and there is a link on that website to help you find a food that works for you and your kitty if you aren't ready to go raw (it is a lot less work than I thought it was going to be.  I make food for about two hours a month for six cats.. so you could make six months of food for one cat in about two hours if you have a big enough freezer :D)

Answer 3

Most cats dealing with struvite crystals (FLUTD) do well on a high protein, low carb, and grain free wet food diet. You many want to look into these while switching food. I am uncomfortable with giving out brand names when it comes to cats with special dietary needs as a result of certain medical conditions.

I do suggest however, that you join a FLUTD support group here on Yahoo. The members have extensive knowledge on how to feed and care for cats with this condition as well as links to important information and educational resources.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FLUTD

Answer 4

The short answer - a raw meat diet is an excellent choice for cats with urinary issues, as would be grainless canned foods (non-fish flavors).

From my blog:

CATS AND URINARY ISSUES Sep 6, '07 12:39 PM

for everyone

This is not my area of expertise, but this has been my experience: As a kitten, Poppy developed both a weight problem and a UTI. My vet told me to start feeding her special food which he happily sold me *gulp*. Poppy refused to eat it. Back then I was less aware of how to get cats to eat new foods, so I just said the h**l with it and bought Purina One's urinary health food, mixed with weight management. She ate that from then until she was 2 years old. She never had another UTI. Does this mean that this food is as good as the overpriced prescription food, or did I just get lucky? I don't know the answer, although I suspect the former statement is probably true.

For various reasons, I soon thereafter began researching cat nutrition. I learned about the benefits of wet food, and found that in many cases, that's all that's required to prevent future UTI's. Even the crappy brands like Friskies would be better than dry food!

I don't claim to be a vet, vet tech, vet student or anything like that. But I know how to research and examine results. I've read a bit on this topic which is how I've reached the conclusions I have.

At the very least, were I to have another cat with urinary problems, I'd sooner try them on a GOOD QUALITY canned food (or properly balanced raw meat diet) before shelling out the dough for a "prescription" dry food (or even their canned varieties). That's because I believe that good nutrition and species appropriate food is much more likely to keep a cat healthy than inferior ingredients which have been tweaked to change their chemical composition.

What should YOU do? If your vet recommends a prescription diet, I can safely recommend that at the very least you get the canned version of that food. That way your cat will get the extra hydration it needs. And don't feel bad about giving your cat this food - temporarily. It will do what it's designed to do, so you can be sure that your cat will do well while you do more research. And I would encourage you to do so. Don't take my word for it - read up on these things for yourself. Stabilize your cat with the prescription food while you look for something better. If canned food (or raw) alone is not helping enough, there are other supplements you could research. I have not done so, but I know that Wysong makes a supplement for urinary issues. "Biotic pH- is designed for cats or dogs needing assistance generating and maintaining an acidic urine to help prevent struvite crystal formulation."

I can't endorse this particular product, but know that it's out there. And if it is, there are sure to be others. Again, I would sooner feed good food, with a supplement such as this, than the crappy prescription foods.

UPDATE: I wanted to quote some info I ran across this morning (3.8.08). This info is taken from discussions in WholeCatHealth. While in and of itself it may not answer any questions, it can at least demonstrate that this group would be an excellent resource for anyone whose cat has a urinary problem.

"S/D and C/D are acidifying diets - meant for short-term use to bring down the urinary pH. There are risks associated with long-term use of these diets....." (see the last paragraph for more info on this).

"Feeding a high-quality, low-carbohydrate, meat-based, high-moisture diet reduces risk of urinary problems, incl crystals. Meat proteins provide the amino acids that naturally keep the urine slightly acidic (desirable for cats is 6.0-6.5 pH)...and the moisture (about 78%

for canned and 68% for the premade raw) helps promote urine volume and pee

frequency, which reduces risk of crystal formation. But some cats, even on a species-appropriate diet, can't maintain pH...so it's important to monitor the urine, which you can do at home with pH paper or urine dipsticks. If the pH consistently stays about 7.0, then you can add an acidifier such as L-methionine or ammonium chloride to the meat-based

food...and then still monitor to see how the pH is doing."

This last bit is from http://vetsites.vin.com/Kidney/FLUTD.doc...

"Chronic use of acidifying diets leads to metabolic acidosis, which can lead

to decreased bone formation and detrimental effects on calcium, phosphorus,

potassium, and magnesium balance. Potassium depletion, hypokalemia, and chronic

renal failure can result from feeding acidifying diets which have a marginal

potassium content. The use of acidifying diets is also contraindicated in cats

with chronic renal failure as these animals are often already acidotic. The

use of diets high in NaCl should also be avoided in animals with congestive

cardiac failure. Finally, as indicated above, the use of diets designed to

dissolve struvite may lead to a higher risk of calcium oxalate urolithiasis."

Answer 5

If you add extra water to your cat's meals, that will help keep it's bladder flushed out.  It won't hurt the cat to add the extra water.  All my cats only eat canned food with extra added water.  I only feed them some dry food as an occasional treat because they like it so much.  My cats eat canned food w/extra water twice a day.  Don't let your cat free-feed.  Anitra Frazier wrote a book called The New Natural Cat.  Many people use this book as a reference for dealing w/many cat issues.  You may want to pick a copy up at your local bookstore or order it online at Amazon.  It sounds like you're interested in the natural approach & Ms. Frazier's book is very much in that line of thought.  You could also check out www.holisticcat.com.  It's a web site for those people interested in a more natural approach with their cats.  If you want to use a canned food, I use Wellness canned foods, specifically those with "no grains."  Not all the Wellness food are grain free so be sure to check the label.  You can usually find Wellness brands at Petco or health food stores.

Answer 6

talk to your vet

Answer 7

The answer is not to feed dry food. The system needs water to pass through it and dry food dehydrates. The only homemade recipes are for a raw food diet. You   can email me for links if interested. Otherwise you should feed canned foods no gravy

Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health

Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.

Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingredient a muscle meat like chicken or is it meal or other things? Learn what meal and other things mean here.

http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Rea...

Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms of food allergies probably from the grains. Constipation? Dry food, not enough moisture. Blockages? Again not enough moisture in the food and you are risking something serious. People on this board say feed fiber but this is a cat not a dog and cats are obligate carnivores unlike dogs an they don't eat cereal and don't need fiber.

The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food (Cats are not naturally big drinkers) but in

Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don't use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.

You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn't have corn at all or grains  at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. Fancy feast is a middle grade food as it uses a muscle meat as the first ingrediant. 9lives, friskies whiskas are lower grade canned but still better then dry and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods.

Many foods are not mentioned here but if you read the labels you wiull know if it is qualaty. The price offers no guideline.

The optimum food to feed cats has no grains whatsoever, cats have no use for them and many have trouble processing them as well as the carbs. IBD is another disease that is rapidly becoming common amoung cats because of the inappropriate diets being fed.

Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? Why do people constantly repeat this old wives tale and put teeth over the organs like the kidneys?? (I have no clue)   http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp...

Please read about cat nutrition.

http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics...

http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.ht...

http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.ht...