Food For A Cat That Has A History Of Uti. Does Ash Lower The Ph Levels In Urine?
Posted by: Alan in Cat Health Problem, tags: Does, Food, History, Levels, Lower, That, Urine, Uti.
My cat has had three UTIs since I got her two years ago. The vet recommends buying cat food that reduces her urine ph level.
I’ve been feeding her Purina One urinary track health. The problem is that she doesn’t like the food. She avoids eating it, has lost weight, became grouchy and has taken up hunting for food. Before switching she was a sweet loving cat, but now she is cranky and irritable.
I was looking at the store for other brands to buy. I couldn’t find any other brands for urinary track. (at my grocery store. I’m in the county: I don’t live near a petco/petsmart) But I did compare ingrediants and the main difference I found in Purina’s One Urinary Health and the other purina varieties is ash. Is that the ingrediant that lowers the PH. If so can I switch her to IAMS orginal. It contains ash in it’s ingredaints list, but doesn’t mention helping with reducing PH levels.
Or does anyone have any recomindations as to a brand of food that reduces PH levels that my cat would eat
Entries (RSS)
October 26th, 2009 at 5:28 pm
CATS AND URINARY ISSUES
This is not my area of expertise, but this has been my experience: As a kitten, Poppy developed both a weight problem and a UTI. My vet told me to start feeding her special food which he happily sold me *gulp*. Poppy refused to eat it. Back then I was less aware of how to get cats to eat new foods, so I just said the hell with it and bought Purina’s urinary health food, mixed with weight management. She ate that from then until she was 2 years old. She never had another UTI, so that tells me that the overpriced CRAP the vets sell you are typically unnecessary. The grocery store crap is just as good.
For various reasons, I soon thereafter began researching cat nutrition. I learned about the benefits of wet food, and found that in many cases, that’s all that’s required to prevent future UTI’s. Even the crappy brands like Friskies would be better than dry food!
I don’t claim to be a vet, vet tech, vet student or anything like that. But I know how to research and examine results. I’ve read a bit on this topic which is how I’ve reached the conclusions I have.
At the very least, were I to have another cat with urinary problems, I’d sooner try them on a GOOD QUALITY canned food before shelling out the dough for a “prescription” dry food (or even their canned varieties). That’s because I believe that good nutrition and species appropriate food is much more likely to keep a cat healthy than something designed to change their chemical composition.
October 26th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
They used to think it was the ash that caused problems but later discovered it’s the magnesium. You want to look for canned food with low magnesium. That will be the best thing for your cat. I think Iams has low magnesium. My cats used to eat Iams until I found Wellness (turkey & salmon is quite popular). You can buy cat food online too, or make a special trip to a pet store.
October 26th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
On my vet’s recomendation, I use IAMS Urinary Care cat food. It’s designed to be easier on the kitties system. My kitties are both two and I’ve never once had a problem with either, and I’ve been using it since they were about six months old. I’m not sure what makes it work, but check that brand out – we haven’t had a problem. Good luck!
October 27th, 2009 at 5:33 am
Ash is what CAUSES those UTIs. When that fact was made public +/- 20 years ago, it seems that most manufacturers didn’t disclose the ash % on their labels anymore.
As far as getting the cat to eat that new Urinary TracT food, try sprinkling 1/2 teaspoon of cooking oil on it, and add a drop or 2 of cod liver oil. You might also get a small bag or can of powdered Brewer’s Yeast (health food store item, usually) and sprinkle a big pinch of that on her food, then stir it all around until the food is coated with it.
You might also try this: put the food out at the same time every morning, leave it out for an hour or so, then put it in the fridge until the afternoon…put it out, stir it up, leave it out for another hour or so, then refrigerate it. Do that again in the evening. Pretty soon sheer hunger will probably force Kitty to eat.
Another thing: old food tastes as bad to cats as it does to us, so if she doesn’t eat it the first day, throw it away. Put a pat of butter on the food once a week (to help break up hairballs). Every so often, put a little bit of fish or meat on her food, finely chopped up and stirred in thoroughly so she can’t eat just the meat or fish, she has to eat it all. GHood Luck!
October 27th, 2009 at 10:12 am
Good for yor cat! yes ash does lower the ph levels but that is not a fix all. Why do I say good for your cat? because that food is crap and not what your cat nees. The system needs water to pass through and dry food depletes the system of it amoung it’s many other problems. Get a good quality canned food
Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s health
Contrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat.
Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingrdiant a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things?http://www.catinfo.org/#Learn_How_To_Rea…
Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u.t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptoms
The problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process them. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but in
Dry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and don’t use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive.
You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesn’t have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp…
Please read about cat nutrition.http://www.newdestiny.us/nutritionbasics…http://www.catinfo.org/feline_obesity.ht…http://maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.ht…
October 27th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Hill’s Science Diet Prescription Diet Feline c/d.
I’m surprised your vet didn’t prescribe it. I can only get it thru the vet’s office. My cat really likes it.