Cat Urinating Outside Of The Litter Box - Page 2

[bumblecat]

I have a cat with FLUTD and he's on the Royal Canin S/O. He doesn't have a history of UT infection or crystals, mostly just inflammation, which in the past has caused bloody urine and obvious discomfort. I tried him on the purina UT health food and it didn't work for him. When he used to get the inflammation, he developed a habit of peeing in select places - usually in the bathtub, which isn't that big of a deal to me, but he'll also pee on clothing or towels if they're left on the floor. That is no fun but it is a good incentive to keep clutter off the floor. We recently moved to a place with a basement and he will pee down there on the floor or in the laundry sink or who knows where else. It is a PITA, but we plan on getting better lighting for down there and trying to organize and remove things he can hide behind, etc so that it's easier to find and clean up when he does it. Since he's been on the S/O, he hasn't had the blood in his pee and he hasn't had any obvious discomfort where he's licking himself down there all the time like he used to, but he does still seem to like to find smooth cool surfaces or piles of soft things to pee on. I took him in recently for a UA and they found no signs of inflammation, so I guess it has become behavioral for him. So I guess I would say the food works for him, but not for me. I can manage dealing with his peeing because it is pretty much limited to the basement or bathtub, unless we leave things lying around on the floor, which we can avoid doing. However, my other cat has a worse problem which I'll start another thread about. Anyway, if your cat is allergic to grain, but a raw diet isn't right for her, would you be able/willing to mail order her food? I know the EVO brand is grain free, not sure of any others, and not sure if her dietary needs for her urinary tract issue might be conflicting with her need for a grain free food due to allergy. That's a tough one. Good luck.

[NaturallyKait]

Originally Posted by Nicole915

How is she doing on the current diet? Any vomiting or diarrhea?

She was doing great, on a combination of raw and some canned food from the vet (She sells Medi-Cal, which is apparently made by Royal Canin) but she started throwing up and scratching at her ears really badly again, both of which are usually signs of allergies for her. Now I need to figure out which is causing it, and at this point I sort of hope it's the raw because she took to the canned food better than the raw, but I'm worried it's probably because of something in the canned food. I've eliminated the meat for a few days and fed just the canned, and the vomiting stopped, but the scratching is still really bad.

Originally Posted by Nicole915

Your vet knows your pet better than I do, better than anyone on the internet, so I'd trust her. If she's good at what she does, you're paying for her advice... I often wish clients would take the advice they pay for. =)

I wish I could trust my vet, I really do, but I have a hard time with it. I live in a very small town full of horrible vets, and drive to another town to see her. She's usually very good, but can be very stubborn. She tells every patient she has that if they don't eat food she sells then their animals will get very ill, so you can't really trust anytime she recommends the Medi-Cal, because most of the time it's for no reason.

[NaturallyKait]

Originally Posted by bumblecat

Anyway, if your cat is allergic to grain, but a raw diet isn't right for her, would you be able/willing to mail order her food? I know the EVO brand is grain free, not sure of any others, and not sure if her dietary needs for her urinary tract issue might be conflicting with her need for a grain free food due to allergy. That's a tough one. Good luck.

I'd be willing to mail order, but I can't. I don't have a credit card, and that makes things hard.

The allergies and her urinary tract issues worry me a lot. I have no idea what I'm going to do if they conflict. I know for sure that the Med-Cal Urinary SO has wheat in it, and I'm not 100% sure that wheat is her allergy, so I'm going to wait and see. If she reacts to that, I have no idea what the next step will be.

[NaturallyKait]

Originally Posted by crunchycanadian

The allergies and her urinary tract issues worry me a lot. I have no idea what I'm going to do if they conflict. I know for sure that the Med-Cal Urinary SO has wheat in it, and I'm not 100% sure that wheat is her allergy, so I'm going to wait and see. If she reacts to that, I have no idea what the next step will be.

So now she's starting to show signs of allergic reactions to her Medi-Cal Urinary food. I'm going to call the vet later when she's done surgeries for the day, but I'm worried about what's going to happen. She needs this stuff for her crystals, but she's allergic. I hate the thought of her being sick either way.

[Nicole915]

Bleh, wish I had seen this while I was still at work. I had a patient a while back with grain allergies who was also FLUTD. We did find a food that worked, but I can't remember which one it was for the life of me. I want to say it was one of the Euk prescription foods... but not sure. I'll try to remember to look tomorrow morning.

Have you been able to do a good food trial to make sure that wheat is the problem? Once she gets well, I can send you some good information on how to do a successful food trial, they're so easy to throw off, but I found a handout at a conference last year that is really great.

Sorry to hear that your vet is all about the food sales. Sadly, if the population base isn't there to practice the kind of medicine you'd like, some vets have to turn to profit centers like food. Thankfully, after the Hills debacle a few years ago we now stock many different brands, and don't make a bunch of cash off them so I never feel pressured to sell. The way I see it, if a client only has X number of dollars to spend on health care, I'd rather see the pet twice a year and do preventative care than see them buying food every month.

[Nicole915]

Good Morning.

Just pulled that chart, and it looks like it was a Euk food that we used, but it is no longer in production. I glanced at a few we have on the shelf, and they had wheat products, but didn't get a chance to really comb through them. I have not checked the Hills foods yet.

Hope this helps narrow down the search some. Glad she's doing better. Keep us posted!

[NaturallyKait]

We haven't narrowed down the allergies yet. My vet is really starting to act fishy about this whole food thing. She's gone from "She just needs to eat the Urinary SO for a few weeks because it's not FLUTD, just a one time thing and then she can go to what you decide is best" to "She has FLUTD, she needs to eat this for the rest of her life" to "Well, any food as long as it comes from me will get rid of the crystals. She only carries the one brand of food, and she always recommends it. She doesn't carry the Hills at all.

Right now she sent home a sample of Medi-Cal Hypoallergenic kibble and wants me to keep her on the same Medi-Cal Urinary SO canned food, because she's convinced that it's only the kibble she's allergic to, even though I've told her multiple times that it gets worse after the canned. Unfortunately, she's super swamped right now because her Vet Tech just quit for another job, and she's all by herself with just my aunt, who is only a receptionist, so can't do much. She keeps saying that she'll start looking over the ingredients in all of the foods to see what the allergy might be, but the poor woman honestly doesn't have the time.

For now, Tachyon is eating what she suggested, but not getting better. In fact, I'm about to call and tell her that her eye is getting worse and she's still digging, poor thing. I'm hoping she'll say I can at least use the ear drops I have left over from last time to help her ears.

[Nicole915]

Grrr, that's really frustrating that she's focused so much on SELLING you food. As you probably know, the wet is much less likely to have wheat products, but that certainly doens't mean they aren't present. Do you think maybe she's just trying to keep you from doing an at home raw or prepared diet? As we previously discussed, raw would be profoundly contraindicated, perhaps she's thinking you'll go that route? If so, that's pretty shoddy communication.

Are there other vets in town who carry different prescription food? It sounds like your aunt has access to the foods, could she check, or just copy the ingredients for you to look over?

Just checked some of the Hills foods for you (well truthfully one of our techs did, she's great) and S/D wet/dry, C/D chicken dry and C/D canned all appear to be wheat free.

C/d canned

S/D canned

S/D Dry

You can click on the link and see the list of ingredients. I suspect your vet will want your cat on the S/D for a period of time, then transition her over to C/D for maintenance.

Ok, really better get back to work. Still have two spays and an afternoon of appointments ahead of me, and i managed to spill my sandwich on my clothes. I rock.

Lemme know if you're having a hard time finding someone who carrys those foods, if your vet wants you to try them (she'll have to write the script) and I can see if there is a way our hills rep can look it up in your town.

[NaturallyKait]

Well, I know all vets in my area carry the same brand, they all really like this Medi-Cal stuff...

I talked to my vet today, and she finally admit that food from her isn't some magic food source. confusingly enough, she told me to try raw. She says she thinks it was just the food she was on that made the crystals, not FLUTD. I wish she'd make up her mind. She says Tachy got enough urinary diet into her to disolve the crystals, and she's ok with her moving off of it. She recommends the raw, with regular urine screenings for a while to watch for crystal growth.

I wish I could get a second opinion, but in small town Nova Scotia that can be hard. This is the only vet I can get to that I trust, and even she's in New Brunswick. My local vets miss things that even I can see (seriously, they missed a tumor in my Nan's cat's neck I could see with my own eyes) and they are even more focused on selling food than my vet!

[Nicole915]

!?!??! My mind is boggled. Everything I've learned says raw is not a good plan for struvite crystal cats, but maybe she knows something I don't. I ran it by our feline internist, and she's not heard anything different than I knew, so we're intrigued. Keep me posted, would love to hear if things go well! I'm sorry you don't have access to other progressive vets up there, but just because she's rural doesn't mean she isn't 100% on top of things =)

Sounds like she's going to do a UA, make sure to keep an eye on the PH and Protien. If they just plan to do a sedimentation, you can ask for a dip too... shouldn't cost extra.

Glad to hear she's backing away from the FLUTD diagnosis, I find that it can be one of those umbrellas that we use and then stop doing good diagnostic medicine. And if all else fails, at least you know that the hill's foods I linked you are wheat free!

Nicole

[NaturallyKait]

I'm also confused about why she changed her mind, but I guess I'll go with it. She's only been eating raw again for less than a week, so no testing has been done yet. She's also still eating some of the hypoallergenic kibble the vet sent me (For free, which was amazing) while she's transitioning, since she can be pretty stubborn with her food and I've been warned of hepatic lipidosis and don't want her getting even sicker just because she refused to eat for too long. She's doing pretty well though, scarfing down her meat like a champ .

The day after we started the raw I noticed her peeing again, but it's in a place she's peed before. My mother thinks it's just because she can still smell it there (It's almost impossible to find stuff to dissolve that smell in my tiny town ) so, I've cleaned it the best I can and I'm hoping that stops. I've also told my aunt about it, so she'll talk to the vet. I'm hoping she'll check her urine again, but this time at least I get to collect the sample at home instead of leaving her at the vet for two days!

If this doesn't work, my next step is definitely going to be trying to get my hands on some of the Hill's foods you mentioned. In fact, I've been considering trying to find it anyway, and if it's simple enough to find then I could always feed raw with a bit of the Hill's also. Food for thought.