? Suggestions for my extra sweet sugar kitty with struvite crystals.

Good morning all! I hope you all got some extra sleep in today! Unfortunately, I still woke up at "5 am" this morning ... go figure, haha.

Anywhoo, as many of you are aware, I had to take Lou to the ER vet yesterday and he was diagnosed with a UTI and struvite crystals (Previous Condo HERE). I realized today the vet and I talked about short-term solutions, but we didn't discuss long-term upkeep for the crystals. I've been doing some research this morning, and it seems wet food with extra water is the best practice. My confusion; however, comes from the fact Lou has been on a wet food diet with extra water thrown in since his FD diagnosis in June. He does have some YAZ for grazing, but it's not his primary source of food.

I had seen some talk of moving to a prescription diet, which I don't think would be grand because it would affect his BGs. Prior to his FD diagnosis, he was on a strict dry food diet. Is it possible that the years on dry food caused the crystals and they're just now becoming irritating? If they are a recent addition to his bladder, I'm concerned about what else to do to limit them when he's already on a (mostly) good diet for the condition. Does anyone have any suggestions or knowledge they can share?

Thanks in advance!!

 

I had a crystal kitty and a FD kitty and I wanted to feed both the same food. My vet recommended raw food, mostly because it is high in water content. But you can just as easily feed a low phosphorus wet food with lots of water added. Note that Fancy Feast is NOT low phosphorus. Dr. Lisa has some suggestions here. Two other recommendations are to lower any stress - I put in Feliway plug ins, and feeding some glucosamine/condroitin sulfate/hylauronic acid, which may help.

 

You can add this to his food to acidify the urine
https://www.1800petmeds.com/product...SVhKSGxv9QlpEXZdW4qhaotWjPXcOF3AaAtAQEALw_wcB
I would monitor urine pH with a dipstick since if the urine is too acid oxlate crystals can form. Oxlate crystals can't be dissolved by make the urine more basic.

 

Can Methigel be used on DB cat's?I thought not because it has corn syrup and molasses in it's ingredients I'm really interested since Babu would benefit from acidification his urine because is a little bit on the alkaline side

 

It will likely raise BG a little (remember you do not give much) and thus require a slight increase in insulin dose. I would do that vice a prescription diet