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State of the Sora
Sora is finally home! I called at 3 and he still hadn't peed for them, and at 4:30 I decided to leave work an hour early and drive by the vet's on the way. I got there, and the tech went and checked, and he'd FINALLY peed - naturally not in his litterbox, but on his mat. So I picked him up, paid the bill (he is turning into one expensive little monster) and went home.
Sora was most happy to be going home - he scrunched himself into the door of the carrier, which was the closest toward me he could get. He also registered complaints out loud for most of the trip.
The vet called me shortly after I got home, and here's the verdict...
No blood in his urine, which is good because it means his kidney are kidneying along strongly. However there are lots and lots of struvite crystals, which is probably cause his problems because they irritate the urethra. It can definitely be induced by stress, so there's no telling if that's the cause or if it was an underlying problem that was made worse by the stress of moving.
She told me we could either switch him to a regular canned food and feed him that for a long time, which will dilute his urine and dissolve the crystals, or we could come by tomorrow and get a prescription food in either canned or dry that was formulated specifically to dissolve crystals and which would work faster. We're picking the latter option.
Interestingly, the vet said she's noticed a correlation between feeding Blue Buffalo, the food we use because Nefer throws up the least on it, and cats with this problem. She stopped short of saying it causes crystals, but thinks it might. (I appreciate that she knows what "correlation does not equal causation" means! Although I do think it's a suspicious correlation also.) So we're going to be finding something else to switch to that Nefer's stomach can tolerate. I asked her about Felidae, which![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
puppleball and oldgreek feed their cats, and she said that she hadn't seen many cats fed that, but that none of them had the crystal problem. (I know Sora likes Felidae because puppleball gave me a sample and he jumped onto the counter, ripped the plastic bag open, and ate it.) She also mentioned Enovo, Wellness, and Halo as foods she doesn't really see this problem with.
So I guess we'll be getting small bags of them and trying them each out for a week or two and counting how many times Nefer throws up.
Something else I appreciate: when she asked if I had any questions, I said that I can never think of questions on the spot, and I usually go Google it later, and quickly added that I'm a librarian and am better than average at judging legit sites :D, she then gave me several keywords to look up. Woo! Struvite crystals, also known as MAP (magnesium ammonia (-ium?) phosphate), also known as triple phosphate. And to look up FLUTD - feline lower urinary tract disease.
So that's where we stand. Sora's hiding out for a while, then comes out and sniffs around the house a bit, then runs back into hiding for a while. We opened our last can of wet food for him in case he's hungry although he's currently turning his nose up at it. I saw him drinking water, so I'm reassured that he's doing that. Tomorrow off to the vet's to buy what is probably expensive cat food! Woo!
Sora was most happy to be going home - he scrunched himself into the door of the carrier, which was the closest toward me he could get. He also registered complaints out loud for most of the trip.
The vet called me shortly after I got home, and here's the verdict...
No blood in his urine, which is good because it means his kidney are kidneying along strongly. However there are lots and lots of struvite crystals, which is probably cause his problems because they irritate the urethra. It can definitely be induced by stress, so there's no telling if that's the cause or if it was an underlying problem that was made worse by the stress of moving.
She told me we could either switch him to a regular canned food and feed him that for a long time, which will dilute his urine and dissolve the crystals, or we could come by tomorrow and get a prescription food in either canned or dry that was formulated specifically to dissolve crystals and which would work faster. We're picking the latter option.
Interestingly, the vet said she's noticed a correlation between feeding Blue Buffalo, the food we use because Nefer throws up the least on it, and cats with this problem. She stopped short of saying it causes crystals, but thinks it might. (I appreciate that she knows what "correlation does not equal causation" means! Although I do think it's a suspicious correlation also.) So we're going to be finding something else to switch to that Nefer's stomach can tolerate. I asked her about Felidae, which
puppleball and oldgreek feed their cats, and she said that she hadn't seen many cats fed that, but that none of them had the crystal problem. (I know Sora likes Felidae because puppleball gave me a sample and he jumped onto the counter, ripped the plastic bag open, and ate it.) She also mentioned Enovo, Wellness, and Halo as foods she doesn't really see this problem with.So I guess we'll be getting small bags of them and trying them each out for a week or two and counting how many times Nefer throws up.
Something else I appreciate: when she asked if I had any questions, I said that I can never think of questions on the spot, and I usually go Google it later, and quickly added that I'm a librarian and am better than average at judging legit sites :D, she then gave me several keywords to look up. Woo! Struvite crystals, also known as MAP (magnesium ammonia (-ium?) phosphate), also known as triple phosphate. And to look up FLUTD - feline lower urinary tract disease.
So that's where we stand. Sora's hiding out for a while, then comes out and sniffs around the house a bit, then runs back into hiding for a while. We opened our last can of wet food for him in case he's hungry although he's currently turning his nose up at it. I saw him drinking water, so I'm reassured that he's doing that. Tomorrow off to the vet's to buy what is probably expensive cat food! Woo!
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I've been feeding Before Grain dry and Avoderm wet food lately. The cats are doing great on it.
State of the Sora
I'd also get him a water fountain. I find my cats drink more water if I have many containers (Including people glasses) and a fountain for them.
Hemi had a round of UTI when he was about a year old for no good reason and my vet said sometimes they get too busy to pee and give themselves UTIs.
But - it really sounds to me like Sora is just acting out. Now that he's had sufficient attention and been expensive, he may calm down. I swear sometimes they just like the drama.
But Mazel Tov! and Hemi gives MANY thumbs up to Sora.
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Now, my switches were always done the "proper" way where you slowly mix the food with what they're used to, and I never switched from one food immediately back to another, so that couldn't have caused any upset.
I'm sure there's nothing inherently wrong with the brand itself, I'm sure it just has too much protein or ash or magnesium in it for Shadow. But I don't recommend it anyone anymore. :\
It has been a year without touching it, and Shadow hasn't had any more problems with UTIs, even though I switched him off of the prescription food appx 9 months ago. Yay!
If you never see Sora drinking, though, I will recommend feeding him and Nefer a 3 oz can of wet food with a half a can of water added to it daily. Cat's don't naturally get the urge to drink sometimes, because they're structurally desert animals that are used to getting their water from the belly of their kill. Shadow also drinks a lot more now that I have a water "fountain" instead of just a still dish.
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If you want one that looks better than the average pet fountain, the Drinkwell Lotus fountain (http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150148844780681.329114.222822955680) doesn't look like a pet fountain. I've got it on my coffee table and it looks like just a tabletop fountain. The cats like it, it's got three levels for them to drink from (top, first tier, bowl) and I've had good luck with Drinkwell in the past.
The two biggest problems I have with it are the splashing and the fact it can be hard to put it back together after you dismantle it for cleaning.
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They do keep us on our toes, don't they?
Re: State of the Sora
Well, I guess I'm cheaper than a water fountain....
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I realize it's an anecdotal data point, but I've never had kidney problems again, I don't have hairball problems any more, and both cats have super-soft fur. The only trouble with it is you can only buy it at Petco, not Petsmart. I'd pass along a sample to you, but the boys are on the reduced calorie version, and I seem to recall that it's grain that sets off Nefer the Amazing Puke Machine.
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Re: State of the Sora
Re: State of the Sora
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