Heike & BInie
Very Active Member
Hi everyone,
lately my vet discovered stones in my cats bladder on the x-ray and we think that is the reason for Binies continous UTIs. I tried to educate myself on stones and crystals and learnt, that there are two kind of crystals/stones depending if the urine is too acidic or too alkaline. The vet couldn't say so far which kind of crystals she has but after starting to measure her pH levels I guess that it most likely are struvite crystals as they form if the urine is too alkaline and I found out that her urine goes up with bg levels. I will carefully try now to make her urine more acidic with a suppplement to hopefully shrink the stones and prevent new ones to form. As with insulin, this is a delicate process because if you dose too high and the urine becomes too acidic oxalate stones can form which need surgery.
My question: After diving into it I was very surprised that no one seems to talk about measuring pH-levels in diabetic cats as the acidity of the urine seems connected to the bg-levels. If I would have known before, I may have been able to prevent the stones and maybe some of her UTIs. My vet never said a word about it and also after discovering the stones I had to proactively ask many questions and in the end educate myself. The first thing she recommended was a special urinary food which had an insane amount of carbs (35 %). I asked if I can just measure the pH and use a suppelement (which is also an ingredient in the urinary food) and she agreed. They just don't recommend it because "people find it too much work".
Do I get something wrong or would a ph-level monitoring for diabetic cats something, which is useful? I already installed this as a routine for Binie now but I want to open the discussion because it might be useful for other owners and cats. Looking forward to hear about your experience! And please correct me, if I got something wrong. This is also new to me. Thank you!
lately my vet discovered stones in my cats bladder on the x-ray and we think that is the reason for Binies continous UTIs. I tried to educate myself on stones and crystals and learnt, that there are two kind of crystals/stones depending if the urine is too acidic or too alkaline. The vet couldn't say so far which kind of crystals she has but after starting to measure her pH levels I guess that it most likely are struvite crystals as they form if the urine is too alkaline and I found out that her urine goes up with bg levels. I will carefully try now to make her urine more acidic with a suppplement to hopefully shrink the stones and prevent new ones to form. As with insulin, this is a delicate process because if you dose too high and the urine becomes too acidic oxalate stones can form which need surgery.
My question: After diving into it I was very surprised that no one seems to talk about measuring pH-levels in diabetic cats as the acidity of the urine seems connected to the bg-levels. If I would have known before, I may have been able to prevent the stones and maybe some of her UTIs. My vet never said a word about it and also after discovering the stones I had to proactively ask many questions and in the end educate myself. The first thing she recommended was a special urinary food which had an insane amount of carbs (35 %). I asked if I can just measure the pH and use a suppelement (which is also an ingredient in the urinary food) and she agreed. They just don't recommend it because "people find it too much work".
Do I get something wrong or would a ph-level monitoring for diabetic cats something, which is useful? I already installed this as a routine for Binie now but I want to open the discussion because it might be useful for other owners and cats. Looking forward to hear about your experience! And please correct me, if I got something wrong. This is also new to me. Thank you!
I hope you get some good answers for sweet Ivy as well! 
The article Sienne recommended is worth reading. It shows that you are already doing a lot of good things for her feeding only vet which is mixed with water!