Blocked Bladder, again and again....

[AddFran]

Sorry, one more post.

Here's an old thread that may or may not be helpful to you. I believe Dr. Jean even commented on this one. She may have some useful advice to you. I didn't have time to re-read the whole thing yet.

http://www.catforum.com/viewtopic.php?t ... t=crystals

I'm not sure what foods you do have available in the UK, so it's hard for us to make recommendations from the US. Others may be able to suggest something for you to try.

[emma_pen]

I guess I have been 'trained' to recommend it, so thats why I do. Most of our clients with FLUTD actually get Hills, but I prefer the RCW, as its wet. It is a very moist pouched food, and cats seem to prefer it to the Hills.

Basically, ANY good quality (i.e expensive ) wet food is better than any dry food when it comes to urinary tract health.

If you are interested in alternative diets to treat the problem, you might be interested in BARF (Bones And Raw Food). I have a good friend who changed her cat to the BARF diet after he developed struvite crystals and repeated blockages, and he has not suffered a problem for over 2 years, and has in fact never been healthier. However, you will not find too much detailed information here on catforum, so you do need to go and do some research.

Ems x

[AddFran]

Originally Posted by emma_pen

Basically, ANY good quality (i.e expensive ) wet food is better than any dry food when it comes to urinary tract health.

Agreed. Oh and good recommendation on the BARF diet.

[emma_pen]

Oh, should have also mentioned...I got my cats fountain from the lovely people at http://www.petplanet.co.uk

Ems x

[(GTV)Chris]

You guys are fab...
I love forums
The BARF diet, I will definately check that one out...If you have any suggestions on websites in Uk that would be brilliant.
I will have a look at the fountain too.
I will let you know how he gets on.
His brothers Merlin and Otis are the same age so it may be time to switch them all over to a good diet.


Cheers

Chris

[jbeanie10]

I had a cat who had recurrent bladder stones (3 surgeries to remove the stones). Once they got him on the right diet, he had no more problems but it took awhile to find the right diet. He ended up on Hills W/D dry food. I think the key with stones/crystals is to find out what they are comprised of and then to get the correct diet to prevent them. At the time, Hill KD was the diet of choice for calcium oxalate stones but the vet thought that the high phosporus level in the KD might be causing calcium to leach out of his bones and thus contribute to the stone formation.

The diet changes the pH of the urine and some stones like a high pH and some stones like a lower, more acid pH.

We also gave our cat a med to raise his urine pH and gave him subq fluids to help dilute his urine. Once we got the right diet we were able to stop the other stuff.

[emma_pen]

Now worries, Chris, here to help I will ask my BARF friend for some recommendations on UK websites re the diet.
Oh, and PP have a special offer on the cat fountain at the moment, its well worth it, as my cats loved it....past tense, you see....they knocked it off the bench last night and its broke

And whilst your here, what part of the UK are you from?

Ems x

[wulfheir]

Hi, this is my first post on this message board, sure glad I found it.

This morning (3:30am) the vet told us our cat has FLUTD, so he's on the Royal something Urinary SO canned wet food, antibiotics and anti-inflammatory. How long before Kage starts showing an improvement? This is my 2year-olds first medical anything (aside from passing an entire 'bounce' sheet), and I'm just curious when I should expect him to start urinating normally again. Right now, he just takes a leak whenever he pleases and it's got blood in it. As someone else mentioned, Kage is just licking the food and not biting into it, so until he learns to eat it I have to make tiny pieces and hold it in my hand.