My cat is at the vet for a couple of days as he had an obstruction of his urinary tract caused by crystals, the vet said its feline lower urinary tract disease.
My problem is that the vet says I MUST put him onto a commercial diet especially for this, I really hate the idea of feeding him that sort of a diet full of rubbish, fillers and preservatives. Prior to this he has been eating Veganpet biscuits for breakfast and a few different things for dinner.
Do any of you have a cat with this condition? Or any suggestions about how to manage it? The obstruction was an emergency and could have killed him so its pretty serious.
What exactly are the 'few other things for dinner' your cat is getting?
UTD's are very commonly contracted when dry food is a main food in your cats diet.
Your cat should be fed a diet that is low in magnesium, phosphate and calcium, the diet should also make the urine slightly acidic to dissolve the crystals in the bladder.
Personally if it were me I would be listening to your vet's advice, you can try and formulate your own diets for the cat, but it safer to use the one which will be created by your vet.
As you said, this is serious and life-threatening. I would not be risking it.
The other things are tofu/meat or tvp mixed with a commercial veggie mix (vet reccommended) or veganpet canned food or fish or a chicken wing. There is so much info and a lot of it is contradictory about what causes it and what makes it better. I don't want to take any risks but if there is a better way to manage it I'd like to try that, I just can't see that a processed food for the rest of his life is the healthiest way. I'll be seeng the vet again when I pick my kitty up so I'll ask some more questions.
UTI's are common in both females & males. It's not as serious for females as they can still pass urine whereas males become blocked and cannot pass any urine at all so their bladder becomes enormous and if not treated promptly can be deadly.
Don't mess around with other food and stick to Hills/Waltham/Eukanuba urinary diets only. Shop around for prices for the food though as it is expensive.
my dog had a urinary tract infection as a pup. i gave her orange juice and it fixed it.
different situation so im not recommended you go and do that. but i hope your kitty is better soon. I havent experienced this with a cat, but is she/he getting enough taurine - i knwo that causes problems.
good on you for using veganpet too! ... i want to get my cats on that too. but atm feeding 6 cats on a $12 bag doesnt even last long. so i have to get the $
Yes, this happened to my cat (and I understand how scary it can be) he's on the special diet and it works quite well... hasn't had a problem since. I don't think he'll ever be allowed to come off the special diet fully though...
I would just be asking the vet if there are any more natural diets that you can follow rather than a processed one.
Or ask him/her how much fresh foods (meat, veg, fruit) you can feed in conjunction with the special commercial diet. That way you are not feeding as much processed food.
But yeah I would do as your vet says as you really don't want to risk your pets health getting worse.
My cat is at the vet for a couple of days as he had an obstruction of his urinary tract caused by crystals, the vet said its feline lower urinary tract disease.
My problem is that the vet says I MUST put him onto a commercial diet especially for this, I really hate the idea of feeding him that sort of a diet full of rubbish, fillers and preservatives. Prior to this he has been eating Veganpet biscuits for breakfast and a few different things for dinner.
Do any of you have a cat with this condition? Or any suggestions about how to manage it? The obstruction was an emergency and could have killed him so its pretty serious.
Any help would be great!
If your cat is FLUTD then it should be on Hills prescription diet s/d. The animal foods you buy from the supermarket are the shit ones with fillers and crap in them. The prescription diets are not filled with rubbish, they are scientifically balanced for your pets health. You could also ask your vet about putting your cat on Acid urine tablets, some vets think they are an old medication that isn't very useful now days, but I was a vet nurse, and my cat is on them, and I strongly believe they work, if my cat goes off them we have problems, so they do work in some instances. You could also see about regular cartrophen injections for him, as they help settle any inflammation in the bladder wall, and that may not have any effect on why he is producing crystals, but chances are his bladder wall could be inflamed, so cart inj could help.
Thanks for all your replies everyone, I will be getting the prescription food (even though i still believe its horrible stuff) and if he doesnt have another problem with it maybe in a year or so i might be able to get him back onto something more natural, with my vet's help.
