I've never tried crystals, either. I hope that works. I use Okocat, which is a wood pulp pellet litter....and I keep a dust buster next to the LB because dust is my kryptonite

. Butters, on the other hand, is just fine with it.
When you have time for some reading, check out this post on
Feline Pain Scale.
The Feline Grimace Scale really helped me start to recognize signs of pain in Butters. They do show pain, it's just not in ways that are easily recognizable until you know what they are. If Dolly shows signs of lethargy and not eating, it wouldn't hurt to learn how to recognize pain just in case there might be more going on. I'm not saying there is more going on. It's just good information.
And yay for eating! Lol. I'm glad the talk worked today.