Our cat began displaying signs of urinary tract discomfort a few weeks ago. A trip to the local vet and a course of antibiotics was only marginally helpful to him. Last week, his discomfort returned so severely that we obtained a veterinary credit card and brought him in for more in-depth testing. The vet took a urine sample, which turned out to be full of blood, suggesting crystals in his bladder (that was confirmed the following morning after the UA had been performed).
We’re still waiting on the cultures to see if there’s a bacterial component to the inflammation; in the meantime, we’ve been given a drug to keep his urethra relaxed and open enough to pass the crystals, and a prescription cat food for bladder health to minimize or prevent future crystal formation.
I’m becoming pretty proficient at pilling him, but since Thursday, he’s shown no interest at all in eating the new food (we selected the dry food, on the grounds that it will be a little less tempting to the guide dog). I’ve been adopting the attitude that this is merely a battle of wills between me and the cat, and that eventually he’ll get hungry enough to eat it, but to tell you the truth, I’m beginning to get a little worried. Four days of not eating strikes me as a little extreme, and he’s constantly rubbing up against my ankles and giving me his “My bowl is empty” vocalizations. AND HE STILL WON’T TOUCH THE NEW FOOD.
So my idea is this: We still have a significant amount of Meow Mix in his bag. I’m considering giving him a half-half mixture of Meow Mix/prescription food, and if he finishes that, titrating down to 3/4 - 1/4, then full-on prescription.
Is this an effective way of shifting a cat away from the food he’s been eating for nearly three years? Thanks in advance for any assistance.
Mods: I wrestled with myself over whether this might be better placed in GQ or IMHO; eventually I figured “kitteh threads really belong in MPSIMS, since that’s where the kitteh people hang out.” If your call is that it will be better placed in another forum I’ll defer to your judgement.
Its not usually a great idea to make sudden changes to a cats diet, they often don’t like it and it can make their poo very smelly.
Mixing it in is usually a good way to switch brands, I have one fella who needs this type of food and its a pain to keep the others away from it, and him from theirs - I’ve learned not to get too precious about it since this accomplishes nothing.
You can get it in food pouches BTW and I’m sure yours will go for it - mine are usually fed on dry feed so a bit of something squidgy as a treat always goes down well
That’s one way of doing it and I’ve heard of it it working. But some cats are ornery, picky cusses and I’ve heard of some that will sift their food for the good bits. Kind of depends on the individual.
But speaking as the owner of a cat very prone to crystal formation ( two trips to the emergency vet at a young age ), I’d note that hydration seems to be the key. Or a big one, if not necessarily the only one. I might recommend trying an all-wet diet, which is what I did. No re-occurrences in the years since. The wild ancestors of domestic cats aren’t big drinkers apparently, getting a lot of their intake via their prey. So some cats are apparently bad about drinking enough when fed a dry diet, which can exacerbate crystal problems. Wet food is smellier and a bigger pain in the ass, but anecdotally at least it can help. Myself I only stuck to a prescription ( wet ) diet for a couple of months, before transitioning to ultra-premium ( mostly “grain-free” ) wet foods.
Another thing that might help are pet fountains. Some individuals are attracted to running water and will drink more readily from them than from bowls.
I’m a veterinarian, and I maintain that canned cat food is best for ALL cats, but especially so for cats that have problems such as your cat does. He needs water, and won’t get it from dry food. Besides, cats don’t need carbohydrates.
In any male cat showing a propensity for urethral blockage (a VERY serious and VERY expensive problem), an all canned diet is recommended. This is more important than any particular prescription diet.
You’re supposed to be mixing the food and gradually shifting to all new food over the course of about 2 weeks anyway to avoid GI issues. You also shouldn’t be trying to starve a cat into eating a new food–cats who go days without eating anything can give themselvesfatty liver disease.
And your vet staff is supposed to be telling you things like this, for your peace of mind and more importantly for your pet’s well-being. You should very seriously consider having a talk with them about their crappy client education skills.
If he’s a kibble-sifter, you can try starting with the wet version of the new food. Put a few spoons of the wet mixed with his regular kibble, then starting mixing the kibble and putting wet food on, then slowly reduce the amount of old kibble till it’s only new kibble and wet food, then bring down the wet food content till he’s just eating the new kibble. I’ll warn you, though, some of them get the Prince Picky-pants thing going again when you take out the wet food and you wind up having to put a spoon of wet food on their kibble at every feeding forever. Our German shepherd is like that–she’ll grudgingly eat completely dry food, but as little of it as she can stay alive on.
Cats can get fatty liver disease if they don’t eat, which can be fatal. At this point I’d do whatever it takes to get the cat to eat, even if it means giving him the Meow Mix or a little bit of lunch meat, chicken or tuna. You could try pouring a little tuna water over the food. One cat I watched would eat if I put a tiny bit of melted butter over her food. One client used to grind up the prescription food and add water to make it softer, maybe you could do that with tuna water or broth. The smellier the better with cats.
I’d check with the vet first before mixing in broth or tuna water on a regular basis.
I’ll chime in with the “feed him anything so he eats something” approach for right now. Four days with no food is not good.
House cats are not like a lot of other animals. They can and will starve themselves to death (usually through the above-mentioned and extremely unpleasant fatty liver disease) before they give in and eat something they don’t wish to.
Feed kitty whatever he wants. Make sure he’s getting lots of water. If he doesn’t want to drink water, call your vet about different kinds of broth or animal juices (tuna water, low-sodium chicken/beef broth, etc) that will be safe for him. Get him drinking LOTS and LOTS.
I hate to say it, but the vet upthread isn’t just blowing smoke about the canned food. The hydration levels necessary for a cat prone to crystals really can’t be maintained well with dry food - the cat is going to need the extra liquids found in the food to stay as hydrated as possible (cats really don’t drink much, even when you’re trying to entice them).
If you’re worried about the guide dog getting the cat food, then try switching kitty to a feeding schedule, and feed him on a table or countertop. Don’t leave out any dry food (you want him to be hungry at feeding time) then feed him the canned food (or a mix of canned and dry) and whatever he leaves behind, refrigerate and try feeding again in an hour. Feed him twice a day, and you’ll not have to worry about the dog getting into the cat’s food. You’ll have to experiment a bit to figure out what amount of food he’ll be able to eat at a sitting.