Help-Cat with urinary tract crystals

[Nemom]

The cat has crystals in her urinary tract.  She has already been to the vet twice in the last two months for this.  They have done blood work and taken X-rays.  There is nothing more serious going on.  Both times she was given abx and was fine for a few weeks.  

 

Today she started peeing in my shower again which is her go to when this happens.  She never pees outside of the litter box any other time.  

 

Vet's only advice is to start feeding her special food formulated for urinary tract infections.  Problem is-we tried this a few years ago when she went through this before and all she did was puke up the food.  We tried several kinds.  

 

I have started giving her moist cat food rather than dry and I thought it was helping but obviously not.

 

I don't want to keep taking her in for abx as the vet told me last time that the shots can cause tumors at the injection site and may require amputation at some point.   :eek:

 

Anyone have any tips or ideas that I can try?

 

 

[hornblower]

I'd follow the advice here: http://catinfo.org/feline-urinary-tract-diseases/

[skimomma]

I would look into switching to raw food.  I had a cat with crystals.  She did not do well on the prescription food, dry or canned.  It did clear up the crystals but caused other health problems.  I actually thought she was going to die.  Against our vet's advice, we tried raw in desperation after much Googling.  That was 6 years ago.  No more crystals and she is completely healthy now at age 17.  As is her 19yo "sister" cat.  I was very skeptical at first but now I would not feed a cat anything else.  We use commercial raw from Darwin but there are many others out there.  We do use a high end grain-free canned food when we travel because raw is just asking too much from our cat sitter.  The cats seems to enjoy the occasional variety.  But their litter boxes STINK every time.

[Jean in Newcastle]

We switched to wet food. Our cat like Kasick’s chicken. I also give a cat cranberry formula treat especially formulated for cat urinary health.

 

 

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[Alicia64]

I don't mean this rudely at all, but your vet shouldn't just shrug at this point.

 

I seriously think you need to get another opinion.

 

Your kitty may need to be on a special diet that requires a prescription: like Hill c/d or k/d. The vet would know. Also, I have a cat on c/d and I found the cheapest prices at Chewy.com.

 

Also, our vet put our kitty on this and it's helped a lot. He gets 1/2 a capsule in his food for breakfast and the same at night: https://www.amazon.com/Nutramax-Dasuquin-Capsules-84-Count/dp/B001ICRYTY/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1520992630&sr=1-1&keywords=dasuquin+cats.

 

If the kitty won't eat the food w/ the above mixed in, just put a drop or two of Krill oil on -- and they go for it. (I tried fish oil and it didn't work -- my cat only wanted Krill).

 

Hang in there,

 

Alley

[AK_Mom4]

Been there done that. Feeding wet cat food made a big difference. Picky kitty didn’t like most canned food, so we had to try lots of brands.

 

Picky Kitty, however, LOVED having a fountain water dispenser all for himself. We had one like this and I cleaned it weekly.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N0SGH3M/ref=asc_df_B01N0SGH3M5402394/?tag=hyprod-20&creative=395033&creativeASIN=B01N0SGH3M&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198073792559&hvpos=1o6&hvnetw=g&hvrand=12792083629805230484&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9033841&hvtargid=pla-349919436851

 

To get rid of the crystal problem, you need to get more water into the cat. $30 for a fountain and a change to wet food was much cheaper than vet bills.

[Stacia]

I had a male cat with this problem years ago. We tried switching foods, but nothing like that helped. The crystals still developed & he ended up staying at the vet or being in the ER vet a few times.

 

He had surgery to rework his urinary tract. I would assume this option is possible for female cats too? (I say that because, at the time, the urinary tract surgery was described to me as making his male urinary tract function more like a female urinary tract. Don't know how true that was -- it was the days before google was prevalent, but I still remember that general description.)

 

The surgery did wonders. He never had the issue again.

[Nemom]

We have a cat prone to this, and this is what we’ve done. When you say you’ve tried a “moist†diet, what exactly was she eating? Ours can not tolerate any dry food at all. If she’s gotten into some (it was the dog food one time), it clears up in a day or two by adding a lot of water to wet food, so it is like stew, and giving her that 4-5 times a day. It’s still ideal to add water to her food, but most of the time she’s fine with just high moisture content wet food.

 

Oh, and we stay away from any fish in her food.

 

She was eating dry food.  We switched to Nutro canned but she still will eat the dog's dry food.

 

Maybe I just need to give her some tuna water for a couple of days and see if that helps.  

[ktgrok]

I had a male cat with this problem years ago. We tried switching foods, but nothing like that helped. The crystals still developed & he ended up staying at the vet or being in the ER vet a few times.

 

He had surgery to rework his urinary tract. I would assume this option is possible for female cats too? (I say that because, at the time, the urinary tract surgery was described to me as making his male urinary tract function more like a female urinary tract. Don't know how true that was -- it was the days before google was prevalent, but I still remember that general description.)

 

The surgery did wonders. He never had the issue again.

 

it's really just for males. It takes out the "kink" in the urinary tract. 

[Nemom]

I don't mean this rudely at all, but your vet shouldn't just shrug at this point.

 

I seriously think you need to get another opinion.

 

Your kitty may need to be on a special diet that requires a prescription: like Hill c/d or k/d. The vet would know. Also, I have a cat on c/d and I found the cheapest prices at Chewy.com.

 

Also, our vet put our kitty on this and it's helped a lot. He gets 1/2 a capsule in his food for breakfast and the same at night: https://www.amazon.com/Nutramax-Dasuquin-Capsules-84-Count/dp/B001ICRYTY/ref=sr_1_1?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1520992630&sr=1-1&keywords=dasuquin+cats.

 

If the kitty won't eat the food w/ the above mixed in, just put a drop or two of Krill oil on -- and they go for it. (I tried fish oil and it didn't work -- my cat only wanted Krill).

 

Hang in there,

 

Alley

 

This is what my vet is recommending but as I stated in my OP this type of food makes my cat vomit repeatedly throughout the day.  We have tried both the dry & wet versions and different brands.  Same outcome unfortunately.  

[Paige]

My cat has/had issues with this. I really think it is 90% emotional and stress related for him. He had a blockage and emergency surgery when he was young and he went from perfect cat to PTSD crazy pants constant urinary problems cat. We give him wet food because the prescription food didn't help. But the key is to keep him chilled out and happy. 

 

He has a pheromone collar. It helps a little. I don't like having an indoor/outdoor cat, but we let him outside because he needs it for his mental health. We feed him the food he likes and talk sweetly to him. He takes anxiety meds which have been the biggest help. And I can guarantee that he will still have problems after we have house guests because that stresses him out. It's very predictable. Stress=urinary problems for him. 

 

 

If you have hard water it could contribute to crystals. You could try bottled water.