FLUTD frustration in cat

[4horses]

Can you catch urine samples at home? You should ph test his urine and that will give you an idea on whether the prescription diet is working to prevent crystals. If you buy a microscope you can check for crystals as well.

Urinary ph needs to be kept in the correct range. If it is in the correct range, you should not have crystals. Buy some ph test strips in .1 increments and monitor his ph.

Use the ph values to tell you if the prescription food is working correctly. I had my cat on Hill’s C/D and that was not strong enough to control the problem. He had food allergies as well and I had to switch to methionine tablets along with a special diet to control both issues.

It’s certainly very frustrating! Goodluck!

[Warmblood1]

Do you know what type of crystals were found in the urine? Many different types can form dependent on the conditions in the bladder. Some are much more prevalent than others.

I would then want to know if all the foods you are feeding target those crystals specifically. I would think crystals would be more so the issue if bacteria isn’t usually present in the urine.

[saitou_amaya]

So the last few times they’ve done a UA, there weren’t even any crystals in the urine! So that’s why I’m questioning why we are even giving the prescription food.

He did go into the vet today. They gave him the usual combo of convenia antibiotic injection, onsior for pain, and sub-q fluids. He is feeling 100% better tonight, no frequent urination or meowing or licking. They did a UA and again, no crystals in the urine this time. The only abnormality was some protein in the urine. The vet didn’t really explain why, just that it happens sometimes.

So he seems to be feeling better for now until the next episode. And there’s no telling if that will be in a week or a month or longer. I am going to try some of the suggestions here to see if that might help.

[Warmblood1]

I’m glad he is feeling better. I hope he stays that way.

What you might consider doing is finding out what crystals were present previously on his u/a’s. If I’m not mistaken, I believe I read he did have crystals a few times previously? If that is the case, it would be helpful to know the type. It may be that crystals are present but not present in the small sample collected today, especially if he is urinating very frequently prior to collection and the sample is not ideal. The most common types of crystals are struvite (most commonly associated with bacteria infections) and calcium oxalate. Struvites form in a high pH environment, calcium oxalate form in low pH environments. I can not recall specifically what prescription diets treat what, but I’d be very curious to know if what you are feeding is tailored specifically to the crystals seen previously on u/a’s. That way you could truly see if diet could potentially eliminate the underlying problem (assuming it could be crystalluria). Also, if you needed to verify information regarding what the prescription diet treats, you can contact the manufacturer directly and speak to them about what is going on as well. Royal Canin, for example, has been excellent to work with for me personally.

[CanadianTrotter]

@saitou_amaya

So the last few times they’ve done a UA, there weren’t even any crystals in the urine! So that’s why I’m questioning why we are even giving the prescription food.

Quite possibly there weren’t any crystals present because the prescription food was doing its job? I had Ralph’s urine checked every month for almost a year after I almost lost him, then twice a year and now not at all. The prescription RC Urinary SO was doing its job, taking him off of it would only mean the crystals would most likely come back. Because I never want to go through another urinary issue with any of my cats, they are all on it.

@Warmblood1mentioned finding out which type of crystals were in the urine, I think that’s a good idea especially if this is recurring. We kidney stone prone humans have to go through it, so why not our cats?

Recently there was a big back order on the prescription RC because they were changing the design of the bag. The vet still had the smaller bags available so I stocked up on those for Ralph but I had to buy other urinary food for the other cats in the interim. The other cats turned their noses up at the other foods and glared at me for weeks because I had taken their prescription RC away. I also want to mention that in the 6-7 years the cats have been on the prescription RC they have had no bowel issues at all.

[Simkie]

I’d really get your vet in touch with the guys at CSU about kidney infection not descending into the bladder. Spilling protein isn’t uncommon when there’s an infection. Not culturing is frustrating but explainable by the CSU data, and recurring symptoms makes sense if the infection isn’t fully treated (understandable, because you really don’t know it’s there.)

I’d push hard for an extended course of abx to see if that will either delay onset of next episode or prevent another entirely.

Do you track these episodes? It would be interesting to chart it out & see if there might be a common thread.