Urology cat food

DD265

One of our cats was in the vet over the weekend with a blocked bladder. The vet would prefer a lifestyle change (diet, predominantly) rather than jumping straight into long term medications and have supplied us with a bag of Virbac Urology (Dissolution & Prevention). https://uk.virbac.com/products/petfood/urology-dissolution-cat

It's not too bad in terms of ingredients, actually one of the better ones I've found, and the price isn't significantly more than what we feed now, particularly if we buy in bulk. We normally feed unwell-cat AATU biscuits which are similar on much of the ingredients/composition to this, and our other cat eats biscuits plus Animonda Carny wet food. Unwell-cat has tucked into some Sheba since coming home yesterday, which we got just to push some additional fluids, which suggests he might not like the Carny which he used to eat rather than having a complete aversion to wet food. Naturally, we currently have ~6kg of AATU biscuits and a cupboard full of Carny! With all the research I've done in the last few days, I have no intention of letting him stay on a dry diet long term, urology biscuits or not. I don't mind giving a small amount of biscuits in puzzle feeders for stimulation as they're indoor cats.

I hate looking for cat food. Either the meat content is shocking or many contain things like grains that cats shouldn't be eating, and there are so many options to wade through. I've looked at the possibility of making our own food from scratch, having read a comprehensive veterinary blog on the subject, but it's pretty daunting and neither of them typically display any interest in raw meat, though I gather they could get used to it. I think getting both cats predominantly eating purchased wet food will be the starting point. 

If anybody has a cat requiring a similar diet or who has experienced urinary issues, what do you feed?

KimBaumgart

What kind of urinary condition does your cat have? Crystals? What kind?

MovingForwards

KimBaumgart said:

What kind of urinary condition does your cat have? Crystals? What kind?

Start your own thread to receive specific opinions, also if you have concerns about your cat's health contact the vet.

sheramber

MovingForwards said:

KimBaumgart said:

What kind of urinary condition does your cat have? Crystals? What kind?

Start your own thread to receive specific opinions, also if you have concerns about your cat's health contact the vet.

I think this  poster wants to offer some words of wisdom for the OP.

DD265

Sorry, I've not been on the forum for a while!

We don't know what type of crystals he has/had - the lab lost the stone which was sent off for analysis, and if there were any crystals in a subsequent urine sample, they'd dissolved by the time it was analysed. I think in the end we assumed struvite, but unless he blocks up a fourth time (there's a long story here) and we can get another stone, we're not going to find out. He's doing really well, so we're hoping not to encounter further issues.

We've been feeding Virbac Urology U1 (dissolution) but I need to catch up with the vet about if/when we move on to U2 (dissolution and prevention). I've been shopping around each time we've needed more, and I got the last two bags at the same price as I would've the AATU biscuits. The past couple of weeks we've been feeding this dry food less and less, however.

We've got them both on a combination of Royal Canin Urinary S/O, and Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets Feline UR (Urinary) St/Ox so that we can give them three different flavours for variety. Moglet, who very much preferred biscuits before, is now consistently wolfing the wet food so that's a positive, particularly during the recent heatwave.