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Old April 27th, 2011, 05:45 PM
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dbg10 dbg10 is offline
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: Ajax, Ontario
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Question Food for Senior Cat with long history of crystals in his urine

Sam as some of you know is my oldest cat at 13 3/4 years. As well as having crystals he is also very fat. I am looking to the cat food gurus for a solution to my problem. Sam has had a history of crystals since he was 8 or 9 yrs old and has had some very close calls when he's had them block his urinary tract. After being on Hill's SD kibble for almost a year (I and my vet know it is not recommended for long term use) his urine finally cleared and it looked like we had found the answer in Royal Canin Urinary SO kibble. Sam will not touch the canned food of either prescription brand so it's a waste of time and money to try him with it again. Recently he has been eating a lot of canned food as well as his SO and getting fatter. (He does love to eat and with 4 cats there is no shortage of food around). The SO is now becoming prohibitively expensive and I"m looking for an alternative in the health food stores like Global Pet Foods for something that will keep his crystals under control (he still has regular bouts with them about 3X a year. I have one of my other cats on a special diet as well he eats Merrick Grammy's Pot Pie exclusively. The others eat a mixture of canned and dry, the dry only because I can leave it out for hungry cats during the day.

Though the SO has been very effective controlling his crystals, I am looking for a dry food to replace the SO before I finish this bag. Does anyone have any idea if there are any foods available with the properties that effectively reduce the formation of urinary crystals ?

I know that canned food would be better for him but if I don't offer him his SO he eats the kibble the others are eating. They all like the SO and that is why it is becoming prohibitively expensive and the one on the Grammy's Pot Pie also eats the SO and then vomits immediately afterwards so I don't want to use it at all if I can find something else .

I also hesitate to change him because for some reason he has not developed CRF and my vet is totally surprised that he is still alive with the severity of some of his relapses. So I have to weigh that too.

Thanks for any ideas you may have
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