Cat Recurring UTI's/Crystals

I don’t feed any treats to her. Only the dogs get treats. So she gets her can am and pm and dry in between of the royal canin so

Is she peeing a lot? Does your water treatment include a filter to catch any sediments?

I haven’t seen her pee but it seems like a lot. Water treatment system is new and has a filter…

Does your treatment system soften the water?

Are you not willing to consider an anti depressant?

I agree with trying the antidepressants - it can’t hurt.

I have hard water, with a 50-gallon water softener, but I also have a Brita filter pitcher AND a Catit water fountain (with its own filter). My cats love the fountain, and drink more now than they ever have.

My old cat Rascal had a problem with bladder stones - 200 were removed during one surgery. The vet put him on a RX diet, and prescribed two meds - Piroxicam was one, the other started with an M but I don’t have the name. They were human drugs compounded for Rascal. He had both every day for about 6 months, then we tapered him off. After a year, he was good and never had another bout with stones. You might ask your vet about exploring something like this.

Does she have her own litter box? Does she use any of the ones you have? Have you changed litter to see if she prefers something else? Has the vet suggested subQ fluids a few times a week to keep things moving?

ETA: do NOT put her outside. It would be cruel and I don’t see it ending well.

I’ve had her on anti depressants that didn’t do anything. I think it was lorazapan. Not adverse to trying again, however, she’s a nightmare with medications so everything has been compounded into liquid form.

Short of buying bottled water not sure what else to do. I have a softener and its filtered plus the water fountain filter but she drinks from both her cat fountain and dog water bowls

I have 5 litter boxes in the house. Upstairs and downstairs. She’s the only full time cat inside. My old cat whom she likes is in during bad weather or cold nights. She’s known him since a kitten and everything is fine with them.

Mirtazipine is different enough, and can be compouned to a transdermal gel you just rub on the ear, it’s worth a try.

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Lorazepam? That’s a benzodiazepine, related to Valium. It has a sedative effect. It’s not really an anti depressant.

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good to know! I will ask my vet about it…

Simkie - I may have the name wrong. I’m not sure I have the bottle left anymore to check.

It’s entirely possible that you were given lorazepam as an anti anxiety, but it definitely acts different than an anti depressant, so having no real change while on lorazepam doesn’t rule out that an anti depressant will still help.

IIRC, both prozac & mirtazipine can be compounded in a transdermal prep. I actually find the pills much easier, though. At least with mirtazipine, it’s so SMALL that you can drop in a wet meal and it’s easily eaten without complaint. It also seems to be tasteless, so can be ground and sprinkled over food.

Whichever way you think will be the least offensive to your kitty though, definitely worth a try!

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I had a vet give me that last-ditch advice for a cat that pees outside the litter (letting him go outside). She said even keeping windows open for fresh air might help. He had crystals and UTI at one point as a young cat and is on a prescription diet. But the peeing outside the box was considered to be behavioral. He gets Prozac (fluoxetine). He is 12 now … never had the nerve to let him outside.

Buy some bottled water. Even though we have a newer filtration system and maintain it accordingly, there’s still some stuff in our water. Ever since I switched my cat to bottled water, he hasn’t had any crystals or problems. Maybe coincidence, maybe not, but I’m not taking my chances and it’s easy enough to do.

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For small pills, some cats will take them with a few chunks of meat from Purely Fancy Feast, which is an excellent treat or tempter for cats, as its just fish in water.

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Did that stop the issue?

Nope :disappointed:

Bummer! That’s tough

So… Looks like my kitty is doing well right now. She has been on antibiotics for almost a week and is not peeing on any beds, she is more actively following me to the bathroom (LOL), and seems ok. For now. I’m going to try to keep the other cat away from her as that seems to be the trigger for her UTI’s to start. thanks everyone… hopefully not until next time!

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Can you ask your vet about extending the time period for the abx?

I ask this because:

My Dad just lost a 16yo kitty to renal failure. Not uncommon in cats that age, for sure. She got really sick fast which is why they took her in to see what was wrong. Her kidney values were TERRIBLE, everything high that should be low, low that should be high. She had recently had a couple of back to back UTIs, got the appropriate abx, all the right things. In hindsight, the vet wondered if the original UTI just never actually cleaned up, festered, caused damage, then made itself known again.

Kitty spent almost a week in the hospital with IV meds, and fluids 24x7. She ended up coming home, I helped them do subq fluids for 2 weeks at which point she was DONE with that. Her numbers actually improved a lot, and she was pretty happy for several weeks off fluids, until one day she wasn’t.

Sooooo, that’s why I ask if maybe a longer duration might be warranted. It’s definitely something I’m going to ask about if we end up there again. We’ve have had a few UTIs over the years, but the kitties are a lot older now, in the 15-17yo range, so…

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Yea, I can do that… I know I have more in the bottle but not sure how much more. But I think I have several days more which would be over 7 days… maybe 10? I’m just supposed to finish this bottle.