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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

i agree about not using the old pills but i DO NOT agree on the wet only
option, if you can switch him and that is what your vet reccommends fine,
but my tiger was so bad we thought we would lose him, he has now been
crystal/infection free for over five years on a diet of dry c/d and is
healtheir than ever. Lee
"Rene" wrote in message
...
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.

"jamina1" wrote in message
...
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.


Before you attempt to acidify the urine, make *absolutely* sure the crystals
are struvite. If the crystals are calcium oxalate, acidifying the urine will
only promote crystal growth and exacerbate the problem.

Years ago 97% of the crystals found in cats were struvite. So when a cat was
found to have crystals in his urine, it wasn't too risky to assume they were
struvite and treat them accordingly. Since then, practically all feline
diets have been reformulated with lower magnesium and more acidity to
prevent struvite. Now, the most common crystal found in cats is calcium
oxalate. Struvite can be dissolved medically- but calcium oxalate can't be
and usually must be surgically removed.

Sorry for chiming in a bit late to the discussion, but I really feel like I need to add my 2 cents. Cats don't just pee on floors and beds because they're in pain - could be a multitude of other reasons! Most common is that male cats feel the need to mark their territory.

As for myself, I finally found something that works for the cat pee smell in my home!

What a relief to finally have gotten rid of the horrible cat pee smell, and without any expensive sprays at that.

Registered an account only to say this:

One of my 2 cats (both neutered males) had taken to painting all of my walls, furniture, and anything else he could reach. I was horrified when I got a UV light. He never did that in all of the 9 years I've had him and didn't when I got him a buddy (they love each other and did so right away) but when a strange black cat started showing up outside both of my cats went nuts and the older one (9) started his wall painting, as well as the curtains out in the kitty room. I couldn't keep up with it.

My cats are indoor cats so it's not like the stray is actually going to get in here but they both hate him (and he is weird...my neighbor's cats hate him too). I've tried cleaning with a pet urine enzyme and then spraying some "No More Spraying" but that hasn't worked.

He's a sneaky little bugger too; he waits until he thinks I'm not looking and then does it. He's learned that the minute I see him backing his butt up to something he gets yelled at. It wasn't until I found "Cat Spraying No More" that I was able to finally get rid of this tiresome behavior. Now my house doesn't smell like a litter box anymore :smile:

To be honest, I don't know too much about it so I did a quick Google search and here's a review I found: https://nomorecatpee.com/index.htm

I'm based in Germany, by the way, so you should be able to get it too. Good luck!