My big lug, Max has a urinary problem. The vet found struvite crystals in his urine. He didn’t have any blockage or kidney involvment.
She recommended several very expensive canned foods that decrease the likelihood of a recurrence.
We love our kitties, but our budget is pretty tight.
Can anyone recommend any less expensive alternatives?
Raw. If you can find meat for less that $1 pound, that will be cheaper than any store bought food. But you need to do a little research first. Yahoo has some raw feeding lists if you are interested.
I don’t currently feed raw, but I feed (expensive) grain-free canned. Cats are obligate carnivores and I believe it is the stuff in poor quality, grain-filled, cheap foods that is making our pets sick.
Check out:
http://www.catinfo.org/index.htm and http://www.catinfo.org/feline_urinary_tract_health.htm
This isn’t too much help, but our vet did put one of our cats on a kidney-friendly dry food. Unfortunately, I can’t remember what brand for sure. I think it was Purina. For a dry food, it was expensive, but I think it was still cheaper than most wet food. Since it came in a big bag, she said we could return it if the cat didn’t like it. Well, she loved it, as did our other cat, to the point where they would try to break into where we had it stored, so no problem there. Sadly, our cat didn’t last long enough to eat the whole bag :(. Her death didn’t seem to be caused by her kidney problem, though.
So, struvite was found while he was having UTI-like symptoms, but no obstruction?
If that’s the case, you might be able to get away with just regular canned food.
Most veterinarians are surprisingly un-knowledgeable about dietary needs, as they have to choose food/nutrition as electives over other electives that are thought to be more important. So most have had just one class, maybe, by they time they are doctors! I work with a couple of feline specialists, have had cats of my own on special diets, and have worked with quite a few people who are very knowledgeable about feline dietary needs.
Without going into an extended post, I’ll say I’ve seen people have pretty good success with just switching to whatever cheap canned food they can afford. For quite a while, I fed my cats the Petsmart brand and they did just fine. The thinking I’ve heard with feline specialists is that any canned food is better than dry kibble. While rare struvite crystals are common in feline urine, it’s a problem when the crystals become too numerous. The goal is to dilute the urine concentration. This can be accomplished by simply increasing the cat’s fluid intake, which can most easily be done by switching to canned food. My cats had the canned food with a tablespoon of water added to 1/2 can.
I’ve seen a brother and sister cat who seemed to have a genetic problem with stones, he became blocked and she had huge stone in her bladder. They were sent to a foster home where they got prescription dissolution diet for 6 weeks, the stones dissolved and the cats have just been on plain cheap canned food ever since with no problems - for the last three years! Just one case in point.
An added benefit to the canned food is that the cat maintains a healthy weight, especially as he gets older.
So, if your guy has really not had a blockage problem, then immediately switching to any canned food you can afford just might be all you need to do. It’s still more expensive than kibble, but it’s a hella lot cheaper than an emergency vet bill!
Best to you and your kitty.
We bought a case of the very expensive canned food she suggested. She told us that feeding anything but that or a short list of other special struvite-desolving foods, all of which are about $35 a case, offered for sale at the vet clinic.
She said the same thing you did, SeaDragonTattoo, but claimed that all cheaper canned food, even all meat types, would cause crystals to re-form within days.
I can’t help but think part of her warning was $$$. She also charged us nearly $100 for a urinalysis, including a culture that wasn’t done and a cystocentesis, also not done. When I questioned that, she told me the charge was just for the micro exam and they really don’t charge for the other two procedures. I find that hard to believe.
Years ago, one of my cats had a urinary problem, and I started feeding him Friskies “Special Diet” canned food. He was about 3 at the time, and that’s all I fed him for the rest of his life. He lived to be 20, without a recurrence of the problem. The other cat I had at the same time didn’t have a problem, but ate the same food.
Friskies “Special Diet” is the same price as their regular food.
Hmm, at the ER where I work, we charge $42 for a urinalysis - that includes whatever method of collection used, whether it was a cysto, free catch, or sterile draw from a u-cath - that UA charge also includes micro exam - where the crystals are found and identified, a UA stick and specific gravity. That’s the ER charge, where everything is more expensive than a regular daytime vet, but we also do everyting but a culture in-house and on-the-spot. Did your vet send the UA out or do it in-house? If they sent the whole thing out to a lab like IDEXX, then maybe I can see the charge of $100. I think the lab might charge close to $50 and then the vets usually add at least 50% to 100%.
If they didn’t give you any other info, here are a couple of links that might help you read up if you want to be better informed for yourself now and if it happens again:
a surprisingly good article from Drs. Foster and Smith, which goes fairly in-depth and talks about canned diet and increasing water intake. There is also a paragraph that talks about specific Rx diets - if your guy was given Hill’s s/d he can only be on it for a short time (12 weeks or so), and then transitioned to something else. The dissolution diets are not considered complete diets for the long term, so even if he’s on that now, he still needs to be transitioned to a different canned diet in the near future. The key with canned diet is the moisture, adding water to the food in addition to what it already has, and finding ways to encourage your cat to drink more water, with fountains or what have you. Mine seem to really like just having a HUGE water bowl, it’s a gallon-size stainless steel dog bowl with a very shiny bottom. I call it the reflecting pool as the first time my (urate-forming liver-shunt cat) stone boy went to take a drink he saw his reflection in the bottom and tried to touch the other cat he saw with his paw - through 4 inches of water!
Info from Marvistavet.com, which I use frequently for client information handouts. This one has more links with additional useful info, too.
I’m not all that sold on expensive vs. inexpensive canned food. I also know of two other cats that both formed struvite while on expensive Wellness, so that’s what makes me believe it’s really the daily fluid volume that does the trick. If that doesn’t work, then the Rx long-term diet canned foods are probably the only other option besides surgery - and the surgery is done rarely any more because the available diets usually do the trick.
I understand the dilemma with the Rx food, though. I have 4 cats, one has a liver shunt and he forms urate stones (rare - about 6% of all cases), and so all the cats are on Rx k/d. (trying to separate them for feeding individual diets would be ridiculously difficult and time-consuming for me) My monthly food expense went from about $45 to more like $120. I’m not happy about it, but because of the liver shunt, surgery is even more out of the question, he’s not likely to survive surgery, so expensive food it is. Lucky in a way that the other cats in the house are all over 8 and k/d isn’t a bad thing for them or I’d really be in a pickle!
I am just going to chime in - my vet who is a “cat guy” (and cute too). Basically agrees with what was said here. He said to have dry in the bowl ( for their teeth) but to feed two cans of wet food a day. He said it didn’t really matter which brand (although my cat seems to prefer the fancy feast with the meat chunks) to keep his kidneys healthy .
I want to thank everyone for your advice and good wishes.
SeaDragonTattoo, thanks for the links.
My vet does everything in house. It’s a huge, (10+ vets) exclusively cats, practice. She did the microscopic, a dip and a spec. grav.
I just looked again at the bill, the UA was just over $70, so not as much as I remembered. The total bill, for the UA, office visit, a case of food, a “sample” pack of six other choices, antibiotics, a pain shot and an nsaid for pain came to a few cents under $300. It seems like a lot.
I wouldn’t say it’s “cheap” but it keeps my cat’s struvite crystal issue at bay and lasts for a long time so I don’t think it costs that much per feeding. Innova Evo-very very high protein grain free food. And constant running fresh water. I bought a fountain and have placed it away from the food (I read that they don’t like to drink near their meal) and yeah, I know the internet is. :rolleyes: at me.
He also gets wet food but refuses to eat “pate” style meat. Currently he’s eating Fancy Feast appetizers or something-shredded meat with no byproducts. He also used to deign to eat this holistic cat food (it’s a pretty well known brand) in pouches but since the FF doesn’t have sh*t in it and is more easibly obtainable, I’m letting him have half a plastic “appetizer” meal a day.
the holistic brand was “Wellness”
The guy who made that site used to post here! I don’t know if he still does or not as I forgot his name. His wife was the vet; he made the website.
I think (mind you, I’m not a vet but I’ve been reading as much as I can after losing my 14 year old cat to kidney problems earlier this year) that canned is the key, too. It is my understanding that cats evolved in the desert and got most of their water from their prey. So cats eating mostly dry food (like my girl who died; she refused canned food) are chronically dehydrated, even if one thinks their cat is drinking enough. That’s how things like crystals and kidney problems can develop.
anu-la1979, one of my cats didn’t like Wellness at first. So I didn’t buy it for a long time, but then I got a buy three cans, get one free and tried it again. This time she liked it and I feed it almost exclusively now.
Hanna, my cat has successfully resisted the pate style meats in cans across brands now (have tried everything from Innova to Prairie). However, for the “chunk” or “shredded meat” feline connoisseur, Wellness makes these “Niblet” style wet foods without byproducts. They’re in garishly coloured packets. My cat preferred Duck/Chicken or Turkey/Chicken.