Hey, haven't been on here in years, but I'm hoping PhilP is still reading/posting here. I have a problem with a male cat, Archer, 8 years old, just had a blockage due to urinary crystals for the first time in his life (thankfully I'm an ailurophile and was able to diagnose it myself and got him in in time so he had no internal damage). Changes lately: we got a bit carried away with dry cat treats, and we added a dental solution to the clowder's water fountains (we have a clowder of 4, 2 boys, 2 girls - nobody else is having any health problems). Their main food is canned, Fancy Feast.

As we all know, vet's know nothing about feline nutrition. The vet recommended Prescription Diet C/D Multicare Urinary Stress canned food (although she wanted to give me the dry formula, but I refused that). [The other vet who works there, when I brought Archer in for a dental, told me I needed to feed my cats dry food. When I started to protest, I didn't get two words out of my mouth before he snorted and said "Well *I'M* a PhD.] Otherwise they're good vets, do good work and are affordable, so I just ignore them on that subject.

She thinks this was brought on by stress because I told her Archer hides under the bed when we vacuum, cut grass near my bedroom door, or if a stranger comes in (I'm disabled, husband works long hours so we don't ever have visitors). My bedroom is his main hangout, he is more petted and spoiled than any cat on the planet, so I don't think he has any sustained stress that would cause this.

The vet thinks he needs a low ash diet. I disagree, I think he needs either a higher Ph diet, or his regular canned FF with meat or meat by-products as the first three ingredients and cut way down or quit the dry treats. But I freely admit that, like my vet, I've never taken a course in feline nutrition. I *DO* know that PhilP knows more about feline nutrition than a lot of PhDs. So I'm really hoping he still posts here or that someone here knows how I can get in touch with him. With 30 cat colonies I know he doesn't have a lot of time, but I can't figure out his nutrition page without him to explain it in plain English.

Hugs,

CatNipped