Does a special diet help reduce the chance of my cat's bladder blockage recurring?

Question

My 6 year old male cat is just recovering from a bad urinary infection that left him in the vets on a catheter for 3 days and on antibiotics for a fortnight, plus a muscle relaxant (Dantrium) and what appears to be an antihypertensive (Hypovase). Fingers crossed he's on the mend.

The nurse recommended a special diet saying that he used it for all his three cats as it keeps the urine from gathering at the bottom of the bladder where it's more likely to form crystals & thus blockages.

Does anybody have any experience of feeding their cats on this sort of diet? Is it worth the extra ££?

Answer 1

My cousin has 5 cats.Two of witch have had the same problem at different times.She did not want the extra expense of the diet so ignored the vets recommendation.That cat ended back into surgery and lasted only 5 weeks after that.The second cat she followed the diet and her cat is now healthy and happy.Yes i would say if you love your cat it is worth it.Good luck.

Answer 2

2 of my cats have had problems with this and here is what I have done to stop it from happening again. We started feeding them a food that is especially for unrinary tract health, it is made by Purina. I'm not sure if they sell the exact brand where you live but you could probably find something like it.
Also, and I think this is even more important than the food, I bought a catnip plant. catnip is very good for urinary tract health in cats (as well as humans) and most cats love it. It may be hard to find a plant during the winter but some pet stores may sell them year round or you may be able to find seeds. I bought mine at a greenhouse last summer and I repotted it and keep it in the window and it is still alive. My cats can munch on it whenever they want and I also offer them leaves every once in a while so I know that they are eating it. Good luck and give the catnip a try because I think it can make all the difference.

Answer 3

Hi, yes, a prescription diet is going to be what your cat needs. There are different diets for different types of crystals, I'm sure your vet did a urinalysis and knows what kind he has. Urine crystals form based on the pH of a cats urine, these different foods control the pH to prevent the crystal formation. Without sticking with a prescription food it is very likely your cat will become blocked again. The food is pricey, and only available through a veterinarian, but in the long run it will save you repeated vet bills and will save your cat a lot of stress! Your cat will also need a urinalysis every now and then to monitor his pH and check for crystals.
Keep in mind crystals aren't the only thing that can cause a cat to become blocked. Since your nurse mentioned crystals and special diet to you, crystals are probably your problem. Some male cats have a problem with the anatomy of their urinary tract making them more susceptible to becoming blocked. If your cat stays completely on the appropriate food, but becomes blocked again, your vet should consider this.
Good luck, and go out and get your kitty some new food:)

Answer 4

I hope you got the cat to the vet either to be treated or to be humanely euthanized. You need to put your cat before your own feelings and think what is horrible for the CAT -- and this is an extremely cruel painful death , either his bladder will burst open or he will be poisoned from the toxins destroying his kidneys, and either way he will suffer a lot. He is obviously in a lot of pain already. It is awful if you have to have him euthanized when he might have been saved, but if you can't get him helped , he will die either way. but one way would be longer / more pain. Surely you don't want that? Even if you can't afford the euth at the vet, the shelter can do it. I'm not saying give him to the shelter to just lie and suffer. I would say go to the regular vet for the euth if possible , to make sure you can be with him. Remember that cats hide their suffering , but it doesn' t mean they do not feel it. What about PDSA?

Answer 5

Definately, special urinary diets control the pH (acidity or alkalinity) of the urine produced. The 2 most common crystals are Struvite (common in male cats) and Oxalate, one forms in an acidic urine and the other in an alkaline urine. What the special urinary diets do is produce a neutral urine with a pH of around 7 and thus neither can form.

Wet food is preferable due to the water content, dry is also ok but just ensure there is always plenty of fresh water available...to encourage frequent urination and thus if crystals do form they are flushed out before they can do harm and form a plug in the urethra.

In the UK we also use a product called Cystaid...does your vet use this?

I hope that your boy makes a good recovery and that he does not go through this again (we all know how it feels to be busting for the loo and unable to relieve ourselves!)

Answer 6

Special diets for cats are most definatly worth the extra costs. A cat with problems like your poor fella are highly likely to have reoccuring problems, so it will be worth the extra money for the food to stop more suffering, and to help lower the risk of further vets bills.
Really hope he gets better soon.

Answer 7

It depends on what kind of blockage your cat had, if your cat had struvyte crystals a diet of Feline CD is your lifetime petfood. It is a dry food and my cat has been on it for 7 years now with no reoccurance of the problem. But that is for struvyte crystals. Ask your vet what kind of food they recommend. It is worth the money. No more emergency vet calls.

Answer 8

hi Ive had the same problem with our cat, tinker is an indoor cat she was"nt drinking enough, out door cats drink from puddles but because tinker lives indoors she cant do that, so i got cat milk and she drinks that now plus, if her litter tray needs changing she would hold on for ever irritating her bladdor even more,i changed to the crystals much better soaks up pee better and leaves no smell, and i was feeding her the wrong food, some of the biscuts you get soak up the fluid inside the cat leaving her nothing to pee with, make sure you get the ones that have the good for urinery health symbol on the pack. and always make sure she has loads to drink, hope this helps before you spend loads of money on the diet my cat is great now we went from at least one infection every month to none, touch wood!!!

Answer 9

My 6 years old cat had the same problems. Apparently, there are some brands of dry food that are very dangerous to the cat's urinary tract. Those foods contain all sorts of things, but meet. What you need is either to either give your cat cooked food ( a little bit of chicken/turkey breast etc) or give him a different brand that has a higher percentage of meet"
1. Evo - by Innova
2. Nature's Variety
Wellness etc. Basically, look for brands that contain high percentage of protein, preferably less or no grain and that don't have by-products.
I know it is a little bit expensive , but trust me, our pets suffer a lot and we can at least give them a nice healthy old age free of pain.
Here is a quote from the < www.completepetmart.com> 's web site.
Good luck and don't be hesitant. Your pet's health is far more important.

{....Why feed a premium pet food? They cost more money, and my pet is doing just fine on the budget pet food I get from the grocery store. An important factor to keep in mind about premium foods is that your pet will usually not need to eat as much of a premium food as they do of a cost-cutting brand. Therefore, although the actual price of the bag may be more expensive, per feeding it will often times end up being the same or less in price than their current food. This also means less waste to clean up! Also, although your pet may look fine from the outside, you don’t know the kind of damage internally you could be causing them in the long run. By offering them a healthy, high-quality, premium pet food you are offering them the best chance to live a long, healthy, happy life…and don’t they deserve it?
Watch for split ingredients!!!
If a grain is split into several fragments it is possible that the
manufacturer is trying to make the food look like it's higher in meat that it really is and/or just using a cheap, less healthy substitute for a whole grain. Each ingredient must be listed separately by weight on the ingredient panel; therefore, a food that contains “rice flour, rice bran, and brewer’s rice” probably contains more rice product than it actually does of the meat protein source. For example a food that is 35% ground wheat and 20% chicken meat could be listed as 20% chicken meat, 20% wheat flour, and 15% whole wheat. Thus by splitting the ground wheat into two separate listed ingredients the company could make chicken meat appear on the ingredient listing as the number one ingredient.
“Animal fat” could be anything…recycled grease from restaurants or a by-product of industrial use. Make sure that the source of the fats or proteins is listed (i.e. Chicken fat or Beef protein). “Poultry protein” is another source to watch for, a much better ingredient is “Chicken protein”. By-products also fall into this category, make sure that the source of the by-product is listed (i.e. “Chicken by-product” is acceptable, “Animal by-product” is not). Animal by-products can vary from batch to batch but usually contain necks, heads, feet, intestines, and other internal organs. By-products are usually less expensive and are not a very high quality source of protein in a food. Therefore, if a food contains by-products they should be somewhere in the bottom half of the ingredient panel.}

Answer 10

Yes it is worth the extra money because in the long run you should have less vet stuff to deal with. You could also try putting the cat on a nutritious wet food. That often helps the urinary tract.