As a disclaimer, I know that an all wet food diet is best for cats with urinary issues. Based on the circumstances that I’ll describe below, the cat in question needs to eat 25-50% dry food and I’m trying to make the best choice for her.
I have two rescue cats. A small DSH male that I got as a kitten last year (just over a year old), and a 3 year old maine coone type female that I’ve had since she was 9 months old.
At some point over the past six-eight months, the female started to have urinary tract problems (bloody urine and peeing outside of the litterbox - it took us a bit of time to find where she’d been peeing in the unfinished basement). She was diagnosed with a UTI, put on antibiotics and a primarily wet urinary health diet (before then she ate Now grain free adult kibble). The antibiotics gave her awful diarrhea which was dealt with by adding probiotics to her food. She hated the urinary health wet food and lost a bunch of weight and got a gross greasy looking coat. Her symptoms returned almost immediately. We went back to the vet where the vet now said that she probably never had a UTI based on her age (apparently they almost exclusively affect older cats - she was diagnosed by another vet at the same practice). She was then diagnosed with stress related bladder inflammation. She had been stressed lately - a roommate moved into my old place with an aggressive male cat, and I got a dog. I have since moved so she now just lives with my male cat (who she gets along with well) and the dog. We have used a baby gate to section off a dog-free room for the cats to eat in which helps with her stress. Also she has mostly gotten used to the dog and will happily sleep on the floor next to him.
The vet said that once her symptoms improve (which they have to the best of my knowledge) we can move her to a diet of 70% dry 30% wet. I will probably keep feeding her at least 50% wet but would like to give her some dry food. Right now she eats about 75% high quality wet food (regular - not urinary health brands) and about 25% urinary health Royal Canin dry kibble. The problem is, she is super picky about wet food (will only eat about a tablespoon at a time, will not eat pate, will not eat anything with red meat, will not eat the same flavour twice in one day). She loves all dry food. The other cat has taken to the wet food and will eat hers after she’s abandoned it. He gained a lot of weight and is now on a diet (eating 50% wet and 50% of the royal canin). He has lost the weight but is hungry all the time.
I am having trouble feeding the urinary trouble cat a diet of wet food because she is so picky and because she will eat so little at a time that it means that I need to feed her 4x per day which is not sustainable on a full time work schedule. If I try to feed her in two feedings she will leave her food for the other cat to eat, who will balloon up while she loses weight. She is happy eating dry food and the other cat is less prone to gorging on it. However, I feel bad feeding the Royal Canin because the ingredients are so terrible (first ingredient is corn, second is wheat gluten, most of the ingredients are grains). All of the urinary health foods (Hills, Purina and Royal Canin are all that is available in my area) are similar. I have read that cats with urinary troubles should eat high protein low carb diets so it seems wrong to feed them a corn-based food. I will keep feeding her at least 50% wet food, but I need to be able to give her some dry food. Any suggestions on high-quality dry foods that are at least comparatively better for urinary issue prone cats?
Yes you can add it to food.