Cat might have cystitis - what diet would he need

lisajane8482

Been to the vets with Misty to get her stitches out and have her first set of vacs this morning and spoke to the vet about my concerns with our eldest Salem.

Yesterday I found what was possibly a spot of blood on the top of the clump of his wee. He's the only one who uses the back of the litter tray and who doesn't bury it so I know it's his. There hasn't been anymore red spots but he is peeing more frequently but small amounts so while I had Misty in I asked for some advice.

She thinks it's either stress related, bringing Misty in to the home, although he's so laid back he's horizontal so I don't think it's stress, or it could be cystitis. He's kibble fed, I know it's one of the worst diets but he's not interested in any form of meat (the other 2 cats are raw fed) I give him pouches every now and then but I honestly can't get him to eat wet food, most he does is lick the jelly off and that's on a good day. I've got a syringe and a sample bottle and have emptied one of the litter trays so hopefully he'll pee in that and I can then take the sample in to get him checked out.

Anyway, she said if it's cystitis that it can be controlled by diet and that it would preferably be wet food, if I can convince him to eat it, or he could have a prescription dry diet but we could talk that through once we get the results.

What I wanted really was a bit of advice on what diet options there were out there so I can at least have a little knowledge if it is the worst. I did a quick google and a load of websites came up including dry food manufacturers but I want factual information and didn't know where best to start so some links or anything helpful would be greatly appreciated.

antw23uk

Please don't take the vets word for this prescription diet nonsense, its just going to cost you a fortune and ensure you and he are hooked on spending money and misery to line the pockets of your vets!
You are correct the diet he is on now is simply going to cause havoc and you need to get fluids into him asap.


We nearly lost our boy a few years ago to cystitis and it was heart breaking trying to up his fluid intake. In the end we asked our vet if we could syringe water into his mouth They were amused but not against it so that's what we did, it felt like EVERY five minutes we were syringing water into his mouth but in fairness it was probably 4-5 times a day! He got used to it, had it stressed him out for more than a few days we would have stopped but I must stress that sometimes tough love is the only way as it was for our boy. You say he wont eat raw food? Well as you already feed it you know this is the best for him so im not going to preach to the converted, hahaa


How tough have you actually been with his feed? I don't want to sound like a nut job but really a cat with only one food option that it doesn't want IS going to choose that option when its hungry enough because its natural instinct is to survive and to survive, like us, we need to eat and drink.


Now im sure I will get shot down in flames for what ive said but speaking from experience we used the syringe method and tough love for food to get our boy back on track and trust me we where at the stage were we needed to make 'that' decision with him so he wasn't suffering and I knew in my heart that I would rather him be pts than endure a a life of suffering and that god damn awful prescription money making food.



Also to add when we moved a few years ago his cystitis flared up with the stress so we went straight to the vets for some Metacam and started syringing water into his mouth and adding a little to his raw food and it cleared up within a few days. We knew the signs and went straight into action mode. I remember having an argument with the vets because all I wanted was some Metacam and she was trying to get him to have a steroid injection (she couldn't tell me exactly what it would do!!!) it was so infuriating but I know my boy and I knew what I needed and that was a bit of pain relief from the Metacam and to flush him through with upping his water intake.

Best of luck ... get that syringe out, lol. Ant.

balletshoes

Ant's post makes sense to me.

OP if you really can't get Salem to take more liquid by raw or pouch food, try putting tepid water in his kibble instead, see if he'll take water that way.

lisajane8482

Thank you both for your replies. I've stopped giving him kibble for a couple of days in the past and just put wet food out but he's only licked the jelly off, the raw food he won't touch at all.

He's a good drinker though and drinks considerably more than the two who are raw fed but if he does have cystitis then it mustn't be enough. I'll try adding some warm water to his kibble and see if he'll eat that.

Just waiting for him to pee so I can get his sample off to the vets. Usually he'll pee in an empty litter tray but not today, he obviously knows I want to steal his pee.

antw23uk

Thank you for not flaming me, I do tend to get carried away with my typing on this subject but only because it scared the life out of us and we were so close to putting Ollie down.


He drinks more water because the dry food is making him more dehydrated. Adding water to the dried food will most likely put him off it or perhaps if your lucky you will break even with a little more uptake in water but what you need is to increase his water intake and this is where the syringing comes in because he is getting more than he usually would which is what he needs.




I would ask the vet for some Metacam to relieve the pain and help him relax and not hold onto his pee and then use the pippet that comes with it to give him the water. Honestly it takes a second to squirt in .. he wont thank you for it but do our pets ever thank us, hahaa
Best of luck but from experience you need to be acting sooner rather than later and I personally wouldn't wait knowing how bad it can get so quickly.
Ant.

dandelionclock30

My old cat used to get cystitis and to combat this I use to mix her biscuits with water so that she was getting moisture this way. This is what the vet advised. Your cat will eat it he will have to if that is all that is put down for him as well as his water.
Good luck.

rising_from_the_ashes

balletshoes wrote: »

try putting tepid water in his kibble instead, see if he'll take water that way.

I used to do this (and still pre-soak Maisie dog's kibble) but have now been advised by several people that this should not be done with cat kibble - I think the main reason is that, unlike a dog, they won't eat it all straight away

Great idea to mix a bit with wet food though

Also, have you tried a water fountain for him at all? There are several types and I've had more success with the ones where the water actually flows down something, like this one



http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_bowls_feeders/cat_fountains/freshflow/80895


rather than something like this



http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_bowls_feeders/cat_fountains/catit/67700

(only chose these ones as examples as I have both)

OR try leaving a tap on a slow drip (if safe to do - somewhere like a bath is good as it's unlikely to overflow) and see if he drinks more that way

moggymutt

Is he good with tablets- cranberry juice tablets ca work very well. just as they can do in humans.

lisajane8482

Thanks everyone, you've gave me some things to think over.

I've been and got some non absorbent litter from the vets which came with a pipette so I've used that to get some more water into him as you suggested Ant. It didn't go down well and he's now sleeping with his back to me. He still hasn't had a wee yet which is a little worrying, it's been around 7 hours since he last wee'd so I'll probably be taking him to the vets in the morning. Lucky for me our vets is open 7 days a week.

I was thinking of getting a water fountain rising from the ashes and was looking at the on zooplus. Gizmo prefers to drink from a running tap but couldn't decide which one would be the best choice.

He absolutely hates tablets moggymutt, giving him his worming tablets is a nightmare.

KiKi

My cats would ONLY drink from a running tap (all my fault!), so I got this, which doesn't require filters or anything, and my cats LOVE it:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lucky-Kitty-Ceramic-Drinking-Fountain-UK-Plug/dp/B005ELO7FO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1399655292&sr=8-1&keywords=lucky+kitty+ceramic+drinking+fountain

The plastic fountains do require filters to be changed regularly. I prefer the ceramic; it costs more, but the water stays colder, and I personally think it's more hygienic than plastic, but that's just my opinion!


My cats also would not eat wet food, or raw food (like yours, they licked the wet off and that was it!!). Except the Applaws *senior* food: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_17?url=search-alias%3Dpets&field-keywords=applaws%20senior%20cat%20food&sprefix=applaws+senior+ca%2Caps%2C183

They ate the other applaws varieties for a while, then just stopped. The 'senior' one has a very different consistency, and they can't get enough of it. I have lots of tins of it, I'm happy to post one to you if you want to try him on it.

My cats also eat kibble, but they eat Applaws kibble, so it's 80% protein with very few carbs, which is much better.

KiKi

rising_from_the_ashes

KiKi wrote: »

they eat Applaws kibble, so it's 80% protein with very few carbs, which is much better.

The problem with kibble is that it can dehydrate pets and, especially for a cat that has urinary / kidney issues, they need loads more water to keep hydrated compared to being on a wet diet - so, even if you manage to get them drinking more through a water fountain / syringing them, you're losing the benefit of this by it be used to combat the dryness of the kibble