Urinary specialty foods

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Ann and Murphy and Tom

Ann and Murphy and Tom

Member Since 2010
My Tom...a sugar cat since March of this year...has had a 2 month bout of what the vet thought was a UTI. I finally convinced her to do a C&S and there was no bacteria 2 weeks after the last course of Clavamox but he is still peeing bloody urine. Now the Dx is interstitial cystitis. The vet wants to put him on Royal Canin Urinary SO (?) but with his diabetes management, knew better than to go with the vet sold diabetic diets and have managed his sugars really well on wet 9 Lives and FF. Do I need to go to the vet prescribed urinary food? I have 7 cats and must feed all the same so a prescription diet is awfully expensive if I can choose something else. Any suggestions?
 
Sometimes bladder inflammation is related to food allergies. What are you feeding them?
You might try glucosamine to see if it helps calm the bladder lining.
Also, Dr Lisa Pierson of Cat Info did or does consults for a fee and might be willing to come up with a raw diet for him and the clowder.
 
Check out the CatInfo site BJM references. There is a page on how to handle urinary issues. Dr. Lisa recommends a low carb, low phosphorus wet food diet with plenty of water added. Fancy Feast might be a bit high on the phosphorus. The food chart contains the phosphorus amounts. I have a civie with idiopathic cystitis that has been fine for 4 years on a raw diet. He was getting glucosamine for a while too, and is now getting Cartrophen shots. Often kitties with this condition have flares because of stress, so I've got Feliway plug ins too.
 
my boy zimmy had bloody urine and nothing showed up on his culture. They gave him an antibiotic shot anyway, and it went away for a week then came back. vet gave him an ultrasound and deduced from the look of his kidney that he had a deep infection in his kidney. They put him on strong oral antibiotics. we also flushed his kidneys with subq fluids. this forced out some mucus like clots. Took about a week but it cleared up and didn't come back.
 
I appreciate all the comments. I ran into difficulties with trying to recall/ change my password so could read your responses but couldn't reply.

I misspoke when I said Tom was dx'd with interstitial cystitis...

He actually was dx'd with ideopathic cystitis which probably explains his lack of pain. But I don't understand why it became noticeable just a few weeks ago. He's had no stressors and nothing has changed in my house.

I had a long talk with my vet (she is great) and she wants me to transition Tom to Royal Canin Urinary SO. It comes wet and dry but since I've got all of them off the dry, I don't want to go back to it. She tells me it is ok for his diabetes too. She is going to check into doing an X-ray/ultrasound to rule out any stones (he has no crystals in his urine--just blood), laser therapy and d-mannose. She is receptive to giving him a flush out with sq fluids but doesn't think that will be a long term answer.

Does anyone have any other suggestions for his treatment?

I am going to have to change all my cats (7) to the urinary food as I free feed 4 x in 24 hours and don't want to try and lock him up to eat separately. So the urinary diet will be expensive--especially if I buy it from the vet. Does anyone have any suggestions on where I might find it for less $$
 
According to Dr Lisa's chart the RC Urinary SO Pate is 21 carbs. I have a cat that gets stressed induced cystitis. I use thr Dmannose, Feliway and add extra water to his canned food, and he's doing well. Hope others have more suggestions.
 
I think preemptive sub q fluids would be more helpful than the vet thinks. it really keeps everything flowing. We are just doing 100 ml of fluids once a week, and it's really helped take some of the stress of my cat's kidneys.
 
Ok...I decided I had to be in charge and would test Tom's sugar this evening! Well...the burrito wrap went well, I had all my equipment on the ready...then came the ear prick!!! I don't know how he did it, but he gave me a good deep bite at the base of my thumb followed by nice long scratchs on my arm when I let go of the "burrito" due to the bite!!! He then sat on the counter and I swear he smiled!!! He is only on 1.5 units NPH every evening but I would like to know where his sugars stand instead of depending on fructosamines and curves at the vet. I've cleaned my wounds and sat down for a moment to regroup and he has come and made himself comfortable in my lap, purring and head butting me as I try to type this!!! Maybe tomorrow I will try for a paw pad???

Now my real question....do you think the urinary Rx food is as essential as my vet thinks it is? Tom has always been a water drinker and since he was dx'd with diabetes and switched to wet food exclusively, I have mixed a couple tbsp water into the food so all the cats get plenty of fluid. I'm dreading the $50/case for the Rx food as I know how fast my clowder will go through it if they like it....Also, I haven't seen any frank blood in his urine for the past 4 days (I know he can have occult blood though). He almost always pees over the side of the litter box (arthritis makes it hard for him to squat well) so I can monitor his urine pretty well.
 
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Well, I calculated that it would cost me $500+/month to feed all of my babies the prescription diet so I talked with the 2 vets who have been managing Tom and essentially told them that the expense was impossible. I went on to say that Tom has been on the foods I'm currently feeding for years so they weren't anything new, nor were there any new stressors in his life that might be irritating him. I went on to ask for him to get the SQ fluid flush out and X-rays when he goes in for his next glucose curve (in about 2 weeks). They both were very understanding and agreeable! I'm trying the D-mannose and the cider vinegar but some days he turns his nose up at the additions--some days he gobbles the "special" food down. It's the same with the the rest of the clowder too. I don't waste the food when they all turn their noses up at it...I simply give the dogs a "treat"! Unfortunately, I'm still not able to test Tom's sugars at home. I've watched the video over and over but only end up getting scratched and bitten. He doesn't seem to hold it against me but I don't really enjoy it. Does anyone have any more suggestions for me on home testing?
 
To add if it's a prescription food you would not want to give it to your other cats as it could cause health issues.

I started giving Max a treat of freeze dried 100% chicken or turkey after each test. When he had to start fluids he ran under the bed when done and he doesn't often move fast. I started giving him a piece of freeze dried Stella and Chewy's or Feline Natural and now he waits for it.
 
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