Friday, May 21, 2010

How long does it take for a change in diet to dissolve feline urine crystals?

We put her on new food yesterday and discovered she peed on our carpet again today. We are thinking of confining her to a room when we are at work. Once her crystals are dissolved we can try letting her roam the house to see if she still pisses on the carpet.
Answers:
I think you should confine her for a while. The stuff that is in the "new food" is methionine to acidify her urine. The cat has a natural pH that is slightly acid. The crystals form when the urine is alkaline. I would think that a week to ten days would be necessary to correct the situation.

I had a male cat with this problem. Adding the methionine to his food did not solve the problem. When he was switched to a home-made raw meat diet there was never any further urinary issues.

You can go to: www.littlebigcat.com and read Dr. Jean Hovfe's article, "Urinary Tract Disorders in Cats." which may give you guidelines about deciding on a better diet for your cat.
you're asking this of course, AFTER you've taken the cat to the Vet.Shouldn't the Vet be the person to answer this question? All cats are different and heal differently. Soiling problem is also a GREAT Vet question.they love it when you ask them that
I have a cat that has FLUTD so I am familiar with the crystal thing. Give her a few days and dont let her eat anything else. Plenty of water too. The liquid from water packed tuna diluted with more water is tasty for that. Will she be on the diet for life?
Our cat had to be put on special food and can only be bought at the vet's office. He developed this problem after we adopted him from another family and he was straining/hollering while using the litter box.
Apparently, the food purchased in the local stores has a higher level of PH which is NOT good for them, hence is why we spend more money on their diet. They are all restricted to this canned food (about a tablespoon per day and warmed up) and their kibble is always there.
They periodically get people food as a treat but only in limited amounts.
When we adopted our Himmie, his stress level went back up and problems resulted. He was hollering and going to the litter box constantly. We noticed the clumps of urine.
Once he finally realized the other cat was not a threat, his stress level went down and so did his medical problem.

Hope this helps.
Take her to the vet, belive it or not this is serious. The same thing happened to my cat. The only way they took out his block was by surgery. Don't put it off to long cause it can cause your cat to die.TRUST ME!!

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