"jamina1" wrote in message
...
I have a male cat, neutered - probably about 3-5 years old. He's been
happy and healthy these 8 months that I have owned him, but suddenly
two weeks ago he started peeing much more frequently and then taking
forever at the box. I knew this was a UTI so I took him in.

Vet did urinalysis and determined that there were crystals in the
urine. Vet also gave me 10 days of Baytril to administer. Vet provided
24 cans of Royal Canin urine health food. My cat refused to touch the
stuff.

As a bit of a back story, cat has been eating holistic food the whole
time he's been with me - mainly Eagle Pack chicken dry kibble. I have
now switched to Wysong Uretic formula as of 2 weeks ago to hopefully
replace the prescribed food he will not eat.

The cat greatly improved with the antibiotics but the administration
of them was irregular. I'd come home from work and find that he had
spit out the morning pill sometime during the day, so I'm not sure
exactly how much of the 20 pills he kept down. I know that the last
3-4 days were 100% though because I got pill pockets.

2 days after the antibiotics are gone, symptoms reoccur and there is
blood in the urine. I go to emergency vet who performs blood work and
says its clean. They confirm crystals in urine and give him a shot of
antibiotics and painkiller. They give me painkillers to be given
orally for the next few days. Vet says that he thinks its just the
crystals causing issues and the diet change will fix it.

My problem is that I've already spent close to $600 on kitty and I
can't afford much more. He won't eat the prescribed food but is the
Wysong good for this problem? I don't want to have to go back to the
vet, I want this problem to go away without stressing the cat more
than he already is. I've heard Apple Cider Vinegar is good to acidify
the urine.


Before you attempt to acidify the urine, make *absolutely* sure the crystals
are struvite. If the crystals are calcium oxalate, acidifying the urine will
only promote crystal growth and exacerbate the problem.

Years ago 97% of the crystals found in cats were struvite. So when a cat was
found to have crystals in his urine, it wasn't too risky to assume they were
struvite and treat them accordingly. Since then, practically all feline
diets have been reformulated with lower magnesium and more acidity to
prevent struvite. Now, the most common crystal found in cats is calcium
oxalate. Struvite can be dissolved medically- but calcium oxalate can't be
and usually must be surgically removed.