my cat got bladder stones

this morning my 5 1/2 year old cat billy wasn.t able to pee.
i took him to the vet and she told me that there was renal gravel blocking his urethra. i had to take him to an animal hospital.

they xrayed his bladder, no big stones visibal.
he got an anesthesia.
than they put a catheter in his bladder to get the urine out and some of the gravels.

he also got antibiotics since he got high temperature. will get the test result of that tomorrow.

for the stones:
they are so calles calcium oxalate. the vet told me that those are acid based (in contrary to the alkaline stones).
the calcium oxalates won.t resolve due to diet.

the vet says that billy has to eat a special diet.

he is a cat who only eats dry food.
i also offer wet food, since my second cat sunny only eats wet food.
so both cats have options.

billy also loves sometimes a cooked fish or a coocked chicken.


has anybody a cat with similar problems.
when feeding the vet prescripted diet, will the problem be solved?
can billy have some chicken or fish ocassionally?
is there a posibility to give him some homeopathics or herbal mixtures to help the body not to suffer from the stones?


any suggestions?

thanks for your help

Wow I truly wish you and your cat all the best. I know a similar thing happened to my friends cat. The vet told them what kind of stuff they should feed him and the he was pretty much better in about a week. They caught it early so there wasn't any difficulties. I'll ask my friend more about the experience and post here if he has any good advice.

thanks truekn
that would be very nice


i guess it was a quiet early stadium for billy as well
on monday i will talk to my regular vet

did some researches on other forums.
most tell me not to feed dry food, but non tells me how to act if that little honey just wants to eat dry food

We had to spend 2500 for same thing to my son's cat,had to spend 4 days in hospital,and yes now on a magnesium free special diet,almost lost poor cat,but he is doing well now

than the cat of your son got this "struvit" stones which hopefully dissolve themselves by the magnesium free diet.
crossing my fingers for you.


did the cat easily adapted to the new diet? or did you had to work with tricks?

today my little one is sitting on the bench at the window and enjoys the warm heating from underneath.
he feels better, ate a little of his usual food, i have to buy the diet stuff tomorrow, and a little of a mixture with yeast flakes and water, i mixed it to get him to drink!

I'm so glad Billy is doing fine, poor thing. My cat is 15 yrs. old and had kidney disease and on a special diet and meds but she has never eaten anything but dry food. She is still healthy...but I don't know for how long.

Rush

yep he is better rush

so your cat is also only eating dry food?
strange!
have you ever tried to feed her meat aka wet food?

billy and his siblings completely refuses that.
i am still in contact with the guy in whichs house billy was born and he kept his siblings and nephews and nice


15 years is a hig age but cats can become 20 years
even i know a couple who got 20

was it easy to confirm your cat to eat the diet? or - as cats act mostly - did she refuse at first?

She's always had only dry food and a couple of 'treats' after she takes her pill. But no, we've never fed her anything other that dry food. She doesn't like her prescribed food as much as her old food, but she eats.

Rush

low ash cat food, or an indoor cat mixture is good if he only likes crunchies. This is VERY common in male house cats.

For my boys: a mix of raw plus crunchies and the OCCASIONAL can of wet food (makes the poo smell awful!!! and there's too much filler *cereal* in the wet usually) the number one ingredient on most if not all canned cat foods is water, animal byproducts and then cereals, the cereals is the bad part.

For cats that don't like raw foods, lightly braised and semi raw until they get used to it.

raw chicken is great as it has TONS of minerals, proteins and fats that a cat's digestive system needs. Even the larger bones of a chicken are safe for a cat to chew on NEVER COOKED as they will splinter RAW only.

Fish is okay for cats but lacks many vitamins and fats the cats need. If raw its always better.

Raw beef is also great for them.

A raw egg as a treat or scrambled and runny.

If using oil to cook meat for your cat use only a little bit or they may get constipated/runs or may vomit a few minutes after eating.

Stay away from pork as it takes too long to break down and can cause tummy troubles, diarrhea and/or constipation.

cat's have a slough of natural enzymes and bacteria in their stomachs and intestines that are designed to break down meat and small bones, crunchy cat food and wet canned cat food aren't all that great at keeping the cat's system in check.

I don't feed raw all the time, only about once per week

Chicken, fish (trout is cheap but debone as trout bones are fine), stewing beef with a good marbled fat on it or lean ground beef, a raw egg with a little cream mixed in (for one who loves milk - the other is lactose intolerant so no cream for him). Gizzards are great for them too (though I usually don't feed the liver of chickens or turkeys). Tuna raw or cooked is NOT good for cats.

One of my cats oddly enough isn't crazy about raw food, he prefers it medium rare and cooked with a bit of butter. Butter as opposed to oil or margarine is easier on their tummy

he is crazy about raw eggs though!

The benefits of a raw supplement or a raw diet are:

shiny coat less shedding, better breath, less smelly poops, softer consistency of poops and smaller size (easier on the cat and you), less likelihood of mineral/vitamin deficiency, healthier teeth and gums, less intestinal gunk and cleaner bowel as well as less tummy troubles. less infection and illness in general.

***It is a wives tale that feeding a cat or a dog raw meat encourages aggressive behavior. May make them more energetic and playful but certainly won't turn them into mean or aggressive animals.***

Always talk to your vet before starting your pet on a new diet regime, and it's good to have a check up done on them before starting so you can ensure it's what's best for them.

i am asking because i found some warnings of dry food
but cats can be so stubborn so what shall i do if he would rather starve than touch anything else
he also likes cooked or grilled chicken or fish
and sometimes i get some for him
as a treat

reply to post by Anonymous ATS


thanks for the tons of advices
usually the vets don.t want you to give the cat other food as the prescripted! they get money out of it.

but billy is used to a raw egg occasionally - he just loves it

i will try to include some raw meat to his diet. will see how he likes it


thanks again-



update:
he likes the prescripted food and he is doing well
no problems so far

Aww Orange! I just came across this thread, Just wanted to send a big hug your way and to wish your lovely kitty well,

reply to post by orange-light

It took a while,the cat had to be fed by an IV for a week,now he is eating normally,he had surgery to remove blockage,so now have to buy special 16.00 little bags of cat food,so other cat is real fat and she eats his food too,so now they are both on it

thanks asala
he is doing great so far and bears the visits to the vet very brave - afterwards he has to show us who is king of the house!

@olditmer
good to hear that your little honey is recovering.

it would be a shock to me if my one needed an operation.

xing my fingers for both of us that all will be well

Urinary problems in cats are quite common. And are becoming more and more common each year. I'm not sure if there is a way to prevent bladder stones from occurring in cats, but one way to help avoid them is to make sure your cat has a good diet. Which usually equals a more expensive diet.

I guess a good conspiracy would be to look back 20, 30, 40 years ago and you will notice that very few cats had urinary problems. Is this because of genetics and inbreeding? Or what I think it is, which is something now in the cat food.

Hope your cat gets better, and also make sure that he has plenty of fresh water.

Oh i hope your cat will be fine! I wouldn't worry so much, my cat had kidney stones a while ago too, and he completely recovered pretty fast, only with some meds (he's really not the type to accept a strict diet lol)

thanks guys

if you would see him today you wouldn.t think he got problems at all.

i tried to feed him some raw beef today. a former cat of mine was very intersted in raw beef, he even tried to fight with us for it or actually growling at my mom when he thought she might take it away.

billy is different. he doens.t like raw beef, but cooked.

i will try again.

btw, the other cat of mine didn.t like raw beef either

reply to post by orange-light


LOL (me again) You're welcome! Actually some of the cat foods available from the Vet are quite good for the cats. There are so many products out there that are comparable (and cheaper) and many house cats just don't like raw meats.

Vets may also ask you to limit the other foods so they can better gauge the cat's recovery. Once the health is back you can talk about adding other foods to the diet as a supplement.

Very glad your kitty is doing so much better. cats can get sick so quickly and it's lucky for him you know him so well or you may not have noticed until it was too late

cheers!! to healthy kitties!

I have a cat with this chronic problem.

You need to give him more wet and less dry food, and you need to change the dry food to a urinary tract food. We use purina one urinary tract formula.

He no longer has these episodes.

Originally posted by amatrine

You need to give him more wet and less dry food, and you need to change the dry food to a urinary tract food. We use purina one urinary tract formula.

sorry to hear your cat is suffering too

the problem with mine is, he doesn.t eat wet food, right from the moment he was born. no wet food
even his brother and his 2 sisters don.t eat wet food.

he is on a urinary tract food now, made by royal canin
hope it works out the way i want it