What is the secret in the special urinary tract cat food for neutered males susceptible to blockages?

Question

I have a friend and her male cat has had a blockage before that nearly killed him and now the vet wants him on hill's science diet urinary tract food. But it's sooooo expensive and I was wondering if there were any alternatives or cheaper places to get it or just any advice really.

Answer 1

The reality is, it is the cheap dry foods that caused the problems in the first place. The good news is she doesn't want to feed that food anyway, The system needs water an dry food dehydrates. A quality canned food is what is needed. That means a no grain canned food.

They are expensive but the cat will eat less an they won't be as expensive as the cheaper foods when you include vet bills

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...

Answer 2

My cat has the same problem.  If she thinks that is expensive, my cat had the blockage cleared, but now is suffering the complications from that, he has been in and out of the vet for the last week.  Now he is hospitalized for the last four days, and is a waiting for the last trial of drugs before he has a $1200+ surgery to change him basically from a male cat to female cat.

My advise keep him on the food they wanted, it could be more expensive.  Much more expensive.

Answer 3

I am not going to tell you and your friend not to feed the Hill's or any other specially formulated "urinary" diet, but instead will offer this information from a veterinarian and kitty lover..cats need moisture with there food.  

The unfortunate thing is many vets want to prescribe dry diets for everything.  For the most part, dry formulas are full of carbs and other fillers..even those expensive vet-only prescription diets..you would do just as well to buy anything off the shelf at WalMart or your grocery store.  Cats are carnivores and need meat as the primary in their diet.  Look at the ingredients on the Hill's diet, in the first the link below, there is no actual meat (chicken by-product meal and chicken liver flavor?).  The first two ingredients are brewers rice and corn gluten meal..carbs, not meat.

Please see the second link for the information from the kitty loving veterinarian.  This link takes you directly to the food related health problems.  The most important thing is cats, especially ones with urinary/kidney problems, need lots of water.

I have treated many illnesses over the years, but luckily not a male with blockages.  I know they can have more incidents of blocking because of the extreme narrowing of the urethra.  I do have a male and he has never had a problem urinating.  All my cats are fed mostly wet food diet, meat rich, no grains.  They get extra water with their food, too.

Purrs to you and your friend and kitty.

Answer 4

She can feed him Purina ONE Urinary Tract Formula.It's way cheaper than Hill's and my cats do great on it.The "secret" is low magnesium and ash levels,so no,there is no supplement she can give with regular food. She can also feed Friskie's Special Diet canned,as cats with FLUTD need the extra moisture in canned food. Cooked chicken,beef,turkey,etc,are good,too.And have several water bowls for the cat,in different rooms,so he will be more likely to drink.And NO milk or fish!!

Answer 5

If you don't keep him on a special diet:he will have a blockage again!

Look on line:Hills has a special diet, but so does Royal Canin makes a whole line of special diets:kidney, liver problems, heart problems etc.

Check if your town/city has this dog food in the pet stores(check several stores) Hi-Tor diets.This company is way cheaper than Hills, and claims they make identical foods(special kidney diet too!)

I used to buy the Intestinal Diet a long ago(12 years ago)

Answer 6

the secret is less magnesium...my cat had this same problem and I put him on Purina One for Urinary Tract Health ( im sure less expensive than Hill's Science Diet) and my cat hasnt had any urinary tract issues for over 2 yrs. My vet wanted me to buy a food that was over $20 a bag so I know how she feels...tell her to try the Purina One  she can buy it at walmart.

Answer 7

The secret is DL methanon or something like that. Any wet food will achieve the same or better results though.

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!

Answer 8

First just because Hill's Diet has by-products doesn't mean its a problem. In fact there are two kinda of by products. Those that are digestible and those that are not. Look at it this way if your cat ate an animal in the wild it would eat all of the animal and digest some of the by products such as bone which contains minerals your cats need.

Second have her try buying the food in bigger quanitites. A big bag vs a small one or a case vs individual cans. If you do this often their is a price breakdown. Also have her ask the vet for any coupons. Also you should do a cost analysis cause often times the amount of food you feed varies depending on the brand. Store brands including purina have more fillers so you have to feed more.

Third everyone seems to be reccomending the Purina One. I have worked at vets for years across the US and never met a vet who reccomended this diet. While I am not discounting it I want to look at a couple of things.

Purinas website says the urinary health does this:

Helps Maintain Urinary Tract Health by Reducing Urinary pH

Provides Low Dietary Magnesium

100% Complete and Balanced for Adult Cats

Hills C/D Multicare states this:

Prescription Diet® c/d® Multicare Feline pet food contains controlled levels of magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, and oxalate to reduce building blocks of crystals and uroliths, as well as enhanced vitamin B6 to help decrease oxalate formation and excretion in the urine. c/d® Multicare Feline also generates an environment that is unfavorable for the development of uroliths due to the addition of antioxidants, Vitamin E and beta-carotene. c/d® Multicare Feline is formulated to avoid excess sodium and has high levels of omega-3 fatty acids from fish oil that help break the inflammatory cycle associated with the most common causes of FLUTD.

Okay just reading the two you see the diffrences. Hill's along with the other prescription diet companies actually spend time and money studying these diseases. Thats why vets reccomend them. There are three different types of urinary problems that are common. What type does your friends cat have? Will Purina help with his specific type?

And finally. Other people have said it but just think how expensive it will be when your friends cat has another blockage. Really I have done cost analysis before for clients and it is not that much cheaper to feed other diets. Prescription diets are prescription for a reason. If the vet said her cat had an infection what was causing a fever and needed antibiotics wouldn't you have the vet prescribe those?  

Answer 9

I'm not overly familiar with the Hill's one because I use Royal Canin Urinary SO for my cat.  The foods have a low magnesium level but they are also designed to create the correct urinary pH to prevent crystal and stone formation.  Urinary SO also encourages drinking so it keeps the bladder flushed.

I wouldn't mess around with other foods once she's found one that works for her guy.  Blockages can be deadly, I work at a clinic and I've seen more than one blocked cat go into cardiac arrest during surgery.  I've also seen several cats who have blocked multiple times and have had to have additional surgeries.  The food is cheap compared to those bills.

Just general advice though would be to stick to a urinary diet and if possible feed mostly canned food.  Encourage the cat to drink tons of water.  Cat fountains are actually a pretty good investment.