diet and supplements

[StellaLuna]

So Stellaluna gets wet food 2x per day (about 1 tablespoon each time) and has free feeding kibble. Well last week I switched her to EVO dry cat food (she was already on EVO canned) and she seems to take a better liking to the dry food then wet. I was thinking of adding ester-c to help support her bladder health since she is not 100% wet food. Is this a good idea? Any suggestions? Thanks!

[snowy]

I was just wondering what ester-c was. Googled and found out its Vit C. Personally I have reservations about overdosage of Vit C. In human, overdosage can cause stones in kidney especially if insufficient water is consumed to flush our system. Especially when cats don't naturally drink lots of water like dogs and most cat food are already fortified with vitamins, that includes Vit C. So, is that still necessary? Lets see what others have to say.

[doodlebug]

Nothing can be a substitute for water. Adding Vitamin C can over acidify her system.

[Blakeney Green]

I wouldn't start giving your cat supplements unless you have reason to believe that the specific nutrients you're considering supplementing are insufficient in her diet.

Supplements are designed to provide vitamins and minerals that are missing or deficient in your pet's food, not to directly treat health problems. If your pet is already getting these vitamins and minerals from what she eats, you can actually cause health problems by overloading her system with more of them than her body can process.

Not getting enough water is indeed a concern for bladder health, but the only way to fix that is to make sure she takes in more fluids, and no supplement can do that.

I would recommend that instead of trying to find a supplement to help, you simply try a few different wet foods and see if you can find something she likes better. It doesn't necessarily have to be the absolute top of the line as long as the ingredients are decent and she's willing to eat it.

Not to knock those top of the line foods, they're great, but your pet doesn't get any benefit from them if she won't eat it in the first place, if that makes sense?

[marie73]

You could add water to her wet food, too.

[snowy]

Cat Urinary Tract Infection Home Remedy (Treating Feline UTI Right Away, the Natural Way) - Yahoo! Voices - voices.yahoo.com

Wondering what do you all think of this for UTI prevention UTI-Free? - Natural Remedy for Urinary Tract Infections in Cats & Dogs

[snowy]

UTI is pretty common ailment in cats, I am really keen in looking at supplements to prevent that, certainly not vit C, what do you think of this too? versus PetAlive UTI-Free Kidney Support? Natural Kidney & Urinary Tract Health Remedy for Pets

[doodlebug]

If there is no history of urinary issues, I would not recommend using any supplements as a preventative. It's so easy to upset the balance and while you may avoid one type of problem, it may cause another. Feed a good moist diet (grain free canned or raw), maybe get some extra water in, keep their life relatively stress free and don't obsess.

[snowy]

Oic, thanks doodlebug, maybe I do get abit nervous after reading cats still getting urinary problem eating wet food. Ok, think I better go easy with supplements.

[doodlebug]

Yes some cats do get urinary issues even eating wet food. But my sense is (and this is just gut from the posts here, everyone I know and my customers, I have no real data but it's a fairly decent number of cats) that most of them are cats that were on primarily dry for many years, had a problem and got switched to wet and had a re-occurance sometime later. Their system was damaged by so many years of dry (and probably junk dry at that) that a relatively short time on canned could not overcome.