"dgk" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:36:48 -0600, "Kelly Green"
wrote:

Has anyone any idea how to prevent these problems in castrated cats?
Spirit
will be the first castrated male I've had since the 1960s. I had a male
with
endless urethral blockage problems back then and I vowed I'd never adopt
another male cat or have one "fixed." Now I find myself probably keeping
Spirit who will be fixed at the vet clinic tomorrow. What is the
recommended
diet these days to help prevent his painful condition? I know the vet I
worked for in the 70s believed it was due to poor diet and secondarily by
the castration itself causing the urethra to shrink and narrow. Any ideas?
Thoughts on this? Advice? I don't want Spirit suffering like that cat did
for years.


I've had six or seven fixed male cats during the last 25 years and
only one of them had that problem:

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-feli...y-blockage.htm

The vet didn't prescribe a special diet for Espy after it happened,
but I was at the local pet store and found this

http://www.petco.com/product/105817/...-Cat-Food.aspx

Oddly, my three cats all really like it so I asked the vet and he said
that it was fine for them and might even help.

I've very attuned to the problem (see the posting about litterboxes
today) and have a surveilance camera over the Litter Robot so I can be
sure that Epsy goes regularly. If a day goes by and I don't see that
he went I pay real close attention. Sometimes they go out in the
backyard though so I cut him a bit of slack on those days. He will pee
outside if fthe urge strikes.

Thank you for this information. I have both sites open on MozillaFF and
will read them to the end as soon as I finish this group. I remember there
was a small pill I had to give my cat back then to keep his urine more acid.
He fought tooth and nail when pilled. The little pill helped but he
had problems all his life. They didn't know as much about cat nutrition and
diet related problems than as they do now.

I've been reading on feeding more of a raw diet. What do you think of that?
Getting a balanced diet into them using raw meat would be my main concern.