Male cat FLUTD UTI problems
I have a male cat, neutered - probably about 3-5 years old. He's been
happy and healthy these 8 months that I have owned him, but suddenly two weeks ago he started peeing much more frequently and then taking forever at the box. I knew this was a UTI so I took him in. Vet did urinalysis and determined that there were crystals in the urine. Vet also gave me 10 days of Baytril to administer. Vet provided 24 cans of Royal Canin urine health food. My cat refused to touch the stuff. As a bit of a back story, cat has been eating holistic food the whole time he's been with me - mainly Eagle Pack chicken dry kibble. I have now switched to Wysong Uretic formula as of 2 weeks ago to hopefully replace the prescribed food he will not eat. The cat greatly improved with the antibiotics but the administration of them was irregular. I'd come home from work and find that he had spit out the morning pill sometime during the day, so I'm not sure exactly how much of the 20 pills he kept down. I know that the last 3-4 days were 100% though because I got pill pockets. 2 days after the antibiotics are gone, symptoms reoccur and there is blood in the urine. I go to emergency vet who performs blood work and says its clean. They confirm crystals in urine and give him a shot of antibiotics and painkiller. They give me painkillers to be given orally for the next few days. Vet says that he thinks its just the crystals causing issues and the diet change will fix it. My problem is that I've already spent close to $600 on kitty and I can't afford much more. He won't eat the prescribed food but is the Wysong good for this problem? I don't want to have to go back to the vet, I want this problem to go away without stressing the cat more than he already is. I've heard Apple Cider Vinegar is good to acidify the urine. I'm also giving cranberry powder with wet food once a day. I have a stash of Doxycycline pills left over from a cat who passed away recently - could I safely administer this to prevent further infection? My regular vet is sort of gung-ho on all sorts of procedures and is extremely expensive. I took my cat in liver failure to him last year and spent $800 for a day of care + euthanasia. You can see why I'm worried about cost. |
Male cat FLUTD UTI problems
Suddenly, without warning, jamina1 exclaimed (3/2/2010 12:10 PM):
I have a male cat, neutered - probably about 3-5 years old. He's been happy and healthy these 8 months that I have owned him, but suddenly two weeks ago he started peeing much more frequently and then taking forever at the box. I knew this was a UTI so I took him in. Vet did urinalysis and determined that there were crystals in the urine. Vet also gave me 10 days of Baytril to administer. Vet provided 24 cans of Royal Canin urine health food. My cat refused to touch the stuff. As a bit of a back story, cat has been eating holistic food the whole time he's been with me - mainly Eagle Pack chicken dry kibble. I have now switched to Wysong Uretic formula as of 2 weeks ago to hopefully replace the prescribed food he will not eat. The cat greatly improved with the antibiotics but the administration of them was irregular. I'd come home from work and find that he had spit out the morning pill sometime during the day, so I'm not sure exactly how much of the 20 pills he kept down. I know that the last 3-4 days were 100% though because I got pill pockets. 2 days after the antibiotics are gone, symptoms reoccur and there is blood in the urine. I go to emergency vet who performs blood work and says its clean. They confirm crystals in urine and give him a shot of antibiotics and painkiller. They give me painkillers to be given orally for the next few days. Vet says that he thinks its just the crystals causing issues and the diet change will fix it. My problem is that I've already spent close to $600 on kitty and I can't afford much more. He won't eat the prescribed food but is the Wysong good for this problem? I don't want to have to go back to the vet, I want this problem to go away without stressing the cat more than he already is. I've heard Apple Cider Vinegar is good to acidify the urine. I'm also giving cranberry powder with wet food once a day. I have a stash of Doxycycline pills left over from a cat who passed away recently - could I safely administer this to prevent further infection? My regular vet is sort of gung-ho on all sorts of procedures and is extremely expensive. I took my cat in liver failure to him last year and spent $800 for a day of care + euthanasia. You can see why I'm worried about cost. Did your vet talk about convincing your cat to drink more water, and to get him off of dry food? You need to do both. I've been fighting Meep's cystitis (crystals) problem for years. I've posted this many times, but in short this is what I do, and it's been very successful: 1. Add water bowls all over the house. Monitor their use. Keep bowls in places where he's drinking. Get a pet fountain, that helps a lot. 2. WET FOOD. Doesn't matter at first if it's good quality or bad, just get him eating wet. May be a hard slog - took me FOUR YEARS to get Meep 100% on wet. Now we're working on getting her off the junk food and eating higher quality stuff. Wellness Chicken and Herring is usually acceptable. She's still getting a good bit of Fancy Feast though. 3. Glucosamine supplement - it coats the bladder. Cosequin is fine if you can afford it, but with the blessing of my vet, I use a joint supplement from Dr. Fosters and Smith instead. She has arthritis too, so that works. During times of high stress, like when we move, I've also had her on Amitryptyline (sp) which works well to reduce her anxiety levels. Get him off the dry food though. Meep continued to have cystitis attacks even on the Royal Canin Urinary. A diet of 100% Fancy Feast cans, and she's been Cystitis free for years now. One time I gave in and tried adding dry - within a month she had another attack. Good luck. Cystitis is so much more serious in male cats. If you cannot control it, there is an operation that essentially turns him into a girl. There's folks here who've had it done, and are better able to speak to the effectiveness of that treatment. jmc |
Male cat FLUTD UTI problems
Vet said pet fountain - both my cats drink copious amounts of water,
I'm not concerned about that by any means. Wet food would be one hell of a slog - he won't touch the stuff. Additionally I work all day and I hate leaving wet food down because they won't eat it all and it dries out and its a waste. I work 9-5 and I purchased an automatic feeder so I could feed them smaller portions less often - can't do that with wet food. The boy with the urine problems currently weighs 20 pounds. Needs to be closer to 10. Royal Canin and Science diet are CRAP. I refuse to feed it to him. I have to find a natural alternative - he needs meat, not chemically processed stuff flavored to taste like meat. I know Wellness makes urinary formula and I currently have him eating Wysong. I know the dry isn't helping but he drinks plenty. I'm going to try apple cider vinegar and cranberry supplement. I'll try the glucosamine - I remember that I tried that with my girl cat who had frequent problems, she just refused to eat the treats. My parents had a cat that had a penilectomy, so I'm familiar with it. I hope it doesn't get that far because I can't afford a surgery. And it would be such a STUPID thing to lose a cat over something as trivial as this, and not fair at all. Its almost a year to the day I had to let Sylvanas go because of liver failure and I couldn't afford to save her. |
Male cat FLUTD UTI problems
Suddenly, without warning, jamina1 exclaimed (3/2/2010 6:51 PM):
Vet said pet fountain - both my cats drink copious amounts of water, I'm not concerned about that by any means. Wet food would be one hell of a slog - he won't touch the stuff. Additionally I work all day and I hate leaving wet food down because they won't eat it all and it dries out and its a waste. I work 9-5 and I purchased an automatic feeder so I could feed them smaller portions less often - can't do that with wet food. The boy with the urine problems currently weighs 20 pounds. Needs to be closer to 10. Royal Canin and Science diet are CRAP. I refuse to feed it to him. I have to find a natural alternative - he needs meat, not chemically processed stuff flavored to taste like meat. I know Wellness makes urinary formula and I currently have him eating Wysong. I know the dry isn't helping but he drinks plenty. I'm going to try apple cider vinegar and cranberry supplement. I'll try the glucosamine - I remember that I tried that with my girl cat who had frequent problems, she just refused to eat the treats. My parents had a cat that had a penilectomy, so I'm familiar with it. I hope it doesn't get that far because I can't afford a surgery. And it would be such a STUPID thing to lose a cat over something as trivial as this, and not fair at all. Its almost a year to the day I had to let Sylvanas go because of liver failure and I couldn't afford to save her. It was a hard slog going to wet for Meep as well, but necessary for her continued health. Like I said it took close to four years to convince her I wasn't going to give up. Adding a little water keeps the wet stuff fresh for quite a while. I'm out of the house for 12 hours (compressed sched) and I still manage to feed her wet. I was never able to convince her to eat it when I set it down, so the added water keeps it fresh enough for her to nibble throughout the day. I have a two-meal feeder that has a tray for ice underneath, so if I leave her overnight she can still get her wet food. It works well. She's being fed a mix of brands, including Wellness, Max Cat and others. It was not easy changing her diet, but for me and Meep, well worth the effort. She's 14 now and very healthy for her age. Her coat went from staring and flakey on the dry to shiny and soft. The glucosamine I use for Meep is a liver-flavored powder, she loves it. Good luck with your cat! jmc |
Male cat FLUTD UTI problems
agree with all of this except the wet food part, my cat had this in a
hidious way, never a symptom until after i started them on dry wellness, now they are all on dry c/d and doing well... but that water bit is most important, Soft "jmc" wrote in message ... Suddenly, without warning, jamina1 exclaimed (3/2/2010 12:10 PM): I have a male cat, neutered - probably about 3-5 years old. He's been happy and healthy these 8 months that I have owned him, but suddenly two weeks ago he started peeing much more frequently and then taking forever at the box. I knew this was a UTI so I took him in. Vet did urinalysis and determined that there were crystals in the urine. Vet also gave me 10 days of Baytril to administer. Vet provided 24 cans of Royal Canin urine health food. My cat refused to touch the stuff. As a bit of a back story, cat has been eating holistic food the whole time he's been with me - mainly Eagle Pack chicken dry kibble. I have now switched to Wysong Uretic formula as of 2 weeks ago to hopefully replace the prescribed food he will not eat. The cat greatly improved with the antibiotics but the administration of them was irregular. I'd come home from work and find that he had spit out the morning pill sometime during the day, so I'm not sure exactly how much of the 20 pills he kept down. I know that the last 3-4 days were 100% though because I got pill pockets. 2 days after the antibiotics are gone, symptoms reoccur and there is blood in the urine. I go to emergency vet who performs blood work and says its clean. They confirm crystals in urine and give him a shot of antibiotics and painkiller. They give me painkillers to be given orally for the next few days. Vet says that he thinks its just the crystals causing issues and the diet change will fix it. My problem is that I've already spent close to $600 on kitty and I can't afford much more. He won't eat the prescribed food but is the Wysong good for this problem? I don't want to have to go back to the vet, I want this problem to go away without stressing the cat more than he already is. I've heard Apple Cider Vinegar is good to acidify the urine. I'm also giving cranberry powder with wet food once a day. I have a stash of Doxycycline pills left over from a cat who passed away recently - could I safely administer this to prevent further infection? My regular vet is sort of gung-ho on all sorts of procedures and is extremely expensive. I took my cat in liver failure to him last year and spent $800 for a day of care + euthanasia. You can see why I'm worried about cost. Did your vet talk about convincing your cat to drink more water, and to get him off of dry food? You need to do both. I've been fighting Meep's cystitis (crystals) problem for years. I've posted this many times, but in short this is what I do, and it's been very successful: 1. Add water bowls all over the house. Monitor their use. Keep bowls in places where he's drinking. Get a pet fountain, that helps a lot. 2. WET FOOD. Doesn't matter at first if it's good quality or bad, just get him eating wet. May be a hard slog - took me FOUR YEARS to get Meep 100% on wet. Now we're working on getting her off the junk food and eating higher quality stuff. Wellness Chicken and Herring is usually acceptable. She's still getting a good bit of Fancy Feast though. 3. Glucosamine supplement - it coats the bladder. Cosequin is fine if you can afford it, but with the blessing of my vet, I use a joint supplement from Dr. Fosters and Smith instead. She has arthritis too, so that works. During times of high stress, like when we move, I've also had her on Amitryptyline (sp) which works well to reduce her anxiety levels. Get him off the dry food though. Meep continued to have cystitis attacks even on the Royal Canin Urinary. A diet of 100% Fancy Feast cans, and she's been Cystitis free for years now. One time I gave in and tried adding dry - within a month she had another attack. Good luck. Cystitis is so much more serious in male cats. If you cannot control it, there is an operation that essentially turns him into a girl. There's folks here who've had it done, and are better able to speak to the effectiveness of that treatment. jmc |
Male cat FLUTD UTI problems
since you know it all why did you bother writing, just for the record, the
dry c/d from science diet, has kept him from reoccuring, soft "jamina1" wrote in message ... Vet said pet fountain - both my cats drink copious amounts of water, I'm not concerned about that by any means. Wet food would be one hell of a slog - he won't touch the stuff. Additionally I work all day and I hate leaving wet food down because they won't eat it all and it dries out and its a waste. I work 9-5 and I purchased an automatic feeder so I could feed them smaller portions less often - can't do that with wet food. The boy with the urine problems currently weighs 20 pounds. Needs to be closer to 10. Royal Canin and Science diet are CRAP. I refuse to feed it to him. I have to find a natural alternative - he needs meat, not chemically processed stuff flavored to taste like meat. I know Wellness makes urinary formula and I currently have him eating Wysong. I know the dry isn't helping but he drinks plenty. I'm going to try apple cider vinegar and cranberry supplement. I'll try the glucosamine - I remember that I tried that with my girl cat who had frequent problems, she just refused to eat the treats. My parents had a cat that had a penilectomy, so I'm familiar with it. I hope it doesn't get that far because I can't afford a surgery. And it would be such a STUPID thing to lose a cat over something as trivial as this, and not fair at all. Its almost a year to the day I had to let Sylvanas go because of liver failure and I couldn't afford to save her. |
Male cat FLUTD UTI problems
1. Please don't give old medication to this cat. It's not safe.
Doxycycline especially is known to cause esophogial erosion. You may end up spending more money in the long run just to save some money now. 2. If you want to prevent further urinary problems, this cat NEEDS to be on wet food. No other solution. You CAN transition this cat. I did it myself with a former dry addict myself. It will take some patience and a commitment on your part, but it is in the best interest of your cat to do this. Here are some tips: http://www.catinfo.org/#Transitionin...o_Canned_Food_ As for brands, there are several good options. Some have mentioned Wellness and that's a great food. Nature's Variety and Innova Evo are other excellent choices. You can also try a commercially made raw diet. Again, lots of good choices there including Nature's Variety and Stella & Chewy's (I have fed/feed both). No dry food, prescription or otherwise, is going to help. This cat needs more moisture, and cats just can't drink enough to make up what they don't get in their diet. You asked us here to both (a) help your cat and (b) save money overall. Switching to wet food will do this. No, it's not easy (I've been there), but you CAN do it. |
Male cat FLUTD UTI problems
On Mar 3, 12:03*am, "Kelly Greene" wrote:
"jamina1" wrote in message Feed only as much wet food as he'll eat in 20 minutes or so. *Refrigerate the rest. What do I do when I have to leave for work? I have two cats - one will eat anything I put in front of her, and Wallace, the one who is ill is the one who will only eat dry. If I leave wet food out all day, Pagan, my other cat will eat ALL of it and Wallace will die from Liver failure because he isn't eating the wet. I understand the need to get more water into the cat, but I don't know how it will work out when one cat will chow down through any wet food I leave down. |
Male cat FLUTD UTI problems
On Mar 3, 12:03*am, "Kelly Greene" wrote:
"jamina1" wrote in message *Your cat is already obese from a dry free-fed diet and suffering from UTI's. *Give it up and switch to wet food for the sake of the cat. To be fair, the cat was obese when I got him 6 months ago, and I've only ever fed him regimented feeding times and natural food. Free feeding is bad, but please don't blame me for that. |
Male cat FLUTD UTI problems
Suddenly, without warning, jamina1 exclaimed (3/3/2010 6:38 PM):
On Mar 3, 12:03 am, "Kelly Greene" wrote: "jamina1" wrote in message Feed only as much wet food as he'll eat in 20 minutes or so. Refrigerate the rest. What do I do when I have to leave for work? I have two cats - one will eat anything I put in front of her, and Wallace, the one who is ill is the one who will only eat dry. If I leave wet food out all day, Pagan, my other cat will eat ALL of it and Wallace will die from Liver failure because he isn't eating the wet. I understand the need to get more water into the cat, but I don't know how it will work out when one cat will chow down through any wet food I leave down. If you're only giving them food for 20 minutes at a time... feed them first, separated. Go about your morning routine. Pick up any leftover food and refrigerate it. Go to work. I understand where you're coming from - I was in denial and made excuses for a while too - but truly, wet food is the best thing for your cats. You're going to need to make some changes, but with time and patience it can be done. Is your convenience more important than your cat's health? I expect not. The methods in the link provided: http://www.catinfo.org/#Transitionin...o_Canned_Food_ Worked for Meep. She's *still* a dedicated carbivore, constantly hopes for dry food, but she eats her wet food every night, and every day now, cleans it up. We went through a period of time where she was a bit underweight and would eat little or none of the food, but over time this changed. One trick I used was to sprinkle just a couple kibbles on top of the wet food, especially if she hadn't eaten the previous batch - she'd eat the kibble then because she was hungry, couldn't stop herself and would start eating the wet food. You may have to try a lot of different brands of wet food. To start, it doesn't matter if it's "good" or not. If the only thing he'll it is Whiskas to start, then so be it. Try Fancy Feast - Meep will eat any variety that has liver or giblets in it. I do hope you'll think about the advice you're getting here, and commit to changing your cat's diet. It really will improve his health, and is very likely to lessen, or eliminate, his UTI episodes. You're getting advice from folks who've been through this - Meep had her first cystitis attach at 7, continued to have them every 2-4 months while I made excuses why I couldn't switch her to wet, then the frequency increased as she went more and more to a wet diet. She's been cystitis free (except for 1 episode where I'd added dry back to her diet, for less than a month) for nearly 4 years now. jmc |
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