Has anyone had a cat develop FLUTD while on a raw food diet?

Question

Hey guys,

My 1.5 year old male neutered cat began straining and producing small amounts of bloody urine this morning. He's been eating Nature's Variety Organic chicken raw food since he was a kitten and he has a Drinkwell Platinum water fountain. I took him to the vet and among other things, she prescribed Royal Canin SO(pouches). I'm not a big fan of prescription diets, but I want my boy to be healthy. Royal Canin's SO diet doesn't look as bad as Hill's C/D diet, ingredient-wise. Anyway, I've noticed that a lot of people recommend that pet parents switch to a high-quality canned food instead of a prescription diet and that many people have had success with this. But what about my kitty? Has anyone fed a high-quality raw or canned diet and still had urinary tract issues? I'm rather bummed out that my boy isn't feeling well, despite my best efforts to prevent any illness. Thoughts, advice, comments, criticisms, please?

Answer 1

Did the vet diagnose anything or just prescribe the food?

I like the Royal Canine line for a few reasons.  First, it is available more readily and second, the S/O treats both types of crystals, while Hills has crystal specific.  The Waltham line seems better than the Hills junk.  It's not premium, but when you work with homeless cats, getting adopters/owners to improve quality of food can be challenging.

I've honestly never had success with C/D anyway.  They used to have S/D to "dissolve" the crystals, then C/D for maintenance, not sure why they just go with C/D now.

I'd find out what the issue is, if you can.  Could he possibly have an allergy to a specific meat product?  If so, switching to say Pheasant or Kangaroo might help.  Make sure the brand you use does not include grains that he may have allergies to also.

He could just be genetically predisposed also, it seems that some just fall into that category despite all our efforts.

Answer 2

I've cured UTI's with raw, but I can't say I've even seen a UTI develope while on raw. I personally have never fed Natures Varity raw, but I think it's said that it is high in bone content which may, or may not, be true, and which may, or may not, instigate a UTI. It's hard to say because even though it's raw, it's still comerially manufactuered.

Can you try switching to a home made raw that you comtol the content of. I use the catinfo.org recipe but if you don't want to grind bones you could just switch to something like www.felinefuture.com and add the powder to meat and liver. My cats loved that stuff.

It's hard to say... but no matter what... I would steer clear of any perscription food and try canned or other raw options first. That of course is just my opinion.

Here are some other suggestions for you from my standard advice file.

Been there, done this. :o( I have 2 males who I almost lost to FLUTD, struvite crystals, bladder and kidney stones. I managed to cure both of them naturally (with the help of my vet) by feeding a species appropriate Raw food diet and adding in a regimen of natural supplements.

My biggest piece of advice is if your vet advises you to use a “prescription diet” food… choose to skip that route and go for a strictly wet food diet, canned or raw, instead. Vets that prescribe dry prescription foods (GASP!) and even canned prescription diets as the cure to Urinary Tract problems obviously know nothing about feline nutrition and are only bandaiding the problem instead of preventing it in the first place. Sadly, most vets never learn anything about feline nutrition except what the cat food companies teach them when they get them to sell their product. Any vet that would tell you to put your already sick cat on a garbage food made with cheap fillers like Hills Science Diet, Royal Canin, or Purina Prescription clearly knows NOTHING about cats nutritional needs

Cats were never designed to eat dry food. NEVER. They eat their prey whole and wet and they do not have a thirst mechanism. Because of that… cats are designed to eat only wet food. We idiot humans feed dry only for our convenience. They do not take in enough water on a dry diet and so their systems do not fully flush out so they get UTI issues. So, we, by feeding dry, are often the direct cause of all UTI issues in cats. Shows how much we used to know, huh?

What you need to do is unconcentrate the cats urine so that crystals do not have time to form and the system flushed properly as it was designed to do. To do that you need to stop feeding all dry foods and switch to a STRICKTLY wet food diet. Either high quality canned, or a raw diet. It’s not cheap but it will cost you less in the long run than the vet. You can learn about raw food at www.catinfo.org or choose a high quality grain free canned food. No more dry food for your cat ever. Wet food only!

I’ve also personally had success using Glucosomine and Chrondriton for preventing inflammation in the urethra. Discuss this with your vet. There are some major feline studies being done on this that are VERY promising!

If your kittys urine needs more acidity because of struvite Crystals you can also add dry cranberry extract, just a pinch 2X a day on wet food. And you can try a pinch of Vitamin C sprinkled on as well.

Give your kitty distilled water to drink only. Both my vet and I are convinced after speaking with vets all over the county that the hardness and mineral content in water in different areas contributes to the # of cases of UTI’s in those areas. From here on out… distilled water only. Another suggestion… is to get kitty a water fountain. I bought the Bigdog Drinkwell for my cats and keep it filled with distilled water and they love it. It’s a great way to encourage their water consumption.  

Lastly, get yourself a bag of scientific litter so you can keep track of kittys PH levels at home. You won’t be able to detect the crystals at home that cause blockages, but if the ph was off… you could get kitty in for a urine analysis right away and possibly head off a blockage.

Good luck!