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Old December 27th, 2012, 04:13 PM
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MissPurryJess MissPurryJess is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Bethesda, MD
Posts: 116
Quote:
Originally Posted by pattymac View Post
I have had experience with 2 of my boys having crystals, so went the prescription diet route for a while but now I'm just feeding 90% wet food with added water, and avoiding any foods with fish. I've cut down to just a handful of kibble at bedtime. Everyone seems fine and they appreciate the variety I'm sure rather than just the same old Urinary S/O.
Thanks pattymac - when you say 90% wet food, do you mean one of those "90% meat" canned foods, or just 90% wet and 10% kibble?

Thanks for the tip to avoid fish - I saw that in an article while I was fishing around (hah!) online.

I just got off the phone with another vet - she said we should try 2 weeks on a wet-only (with water added) diet, and recheck their urine at that time. She seems to think that cutting out dry altogether and adding more water to their wet food could solve the issue altogether.

She also gave me a run-down on why exactly the c/d is supposed to be helpful:

controlled amounts of calcium, phosphorous, and magnesium
potassium citrate
vitamin E
beta carotene
omega 3s

And I just found out that Fitzy's (boy kitty) urine pH is 8, and Daisy's is 7.5. Both have struvite crystals, and Fitzy had some protein in his urine. It would have been really helpful if their original vet had given me actual numbers. I think it's time to switch vets. The vet at the new place spent more time with me on the phone than the one from their current vet!

ETA: sugarcatmom!!! Hello friend! For some reason my thread wasn't updated and I didn't see your response. To answer your question - Daisy's was a routine yearly exam. They did a blood test and it was normal but her urine had a pH of 7.5 and struvite crystals. They didn't see any white cells in the urine, and her x-ray and ultrasound came back clear. Fitzy's urinalysis was performed because he had his yearly exam a few months ago - they did a blood test, but I guess his bladder was empty and they didn't do a urinalysis. Just didn't do one. So after getting Daisy's results I insisted that they get a urinalysis on Fitzy as well. Neither were showing any symptoms or urinating inappropriately - they're not really acting differently at all. The new vet I'm going to take them to said they would do these tests in-house right after taking the sample to get an accurate look at the urine. She seemed a bit more informed than our current vet. Here's a big issue with the current vet - it's a team. I've never talked to the same doctor twice. Which is REALLY frustrating. I'll talk to someone who doesn't know who I am and has never seen my cats - they're basically looking over test results and reading them to me. Not very helpful. I want them to have a vet I can communicate with who will follow their progress and know my cats.

So you don't think it's necessary to switch wet foods altogether? They're turning their noses up at the Rx diet anyway - it smells terrible, it looks like sludge, and I don't blame them, quite frankly. At the moment they're getting the venison/green pea wet with added water. Much less dry food - we're down to 1 Tbsp and I'm about to phase it out altogether.
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