Pet Lovers

[58Meezer]

JaxMom - thank you so much very for this link - http://catinfo.org   I was able to find the information I needed to find for our 2 male cats that suffer from urinary tract crystals.

One of our male kitties had to have perineaul urethrostomy (PU) because they could not unblock him and was on some terrible antibotics.  It was a nightmare - thought we were going to lose him and it was very expensive.

Ironic vets won't come right out and say never feed your cats the dry food because it sets them up for this type of problem - probably dogs too.  I am giving everyone more canned food - though my husband insists on giving them dry food - cringe.  Perhaps this article will convince him.

Again thank you so much JaxMom - I have been searching for something like this for months!

http://catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

[Andreatoo]

I had a femal cat that was prone to UTIs.

We switched her dry food to a special (dry) urinary health formula and never had another issue.

[jaxs mom]

@58Meezer I'm glad you found it helpful. I found it after one of my cats had a UTI from 3 different bacteria including ecoli, and the vet wanted him on rx food for life. I found her site very helpful. I haven't had any problems with UTI since ( I have 4 male and 3 female kitties) and none of my cats are on rx food. I was free feeding dry and giving them canned 3x a day before the UTI incident. Now they eat low carb grain free canned food and they also get fresh raw meat. I've been raw feeding my dogs for about 10 years. The cats don't want raw full time though. 

The rx foods are absolutely horrible ingredient and nutrition wise. I was amazed at how ignorant my vet was regarding the dangers of dry food. 

[58Meezer]

One thing I found very helpful in managing my male cat who is prone to urinary crystals and a female who has had repeated UTIs is adding DMannose - it is a sugar made from cranberries.  It doesn't cure UTIs or crystals but what it does is the sugar attracts the bacterial and it bonds to the sugar and then the kitty voids it out.  I use DMannose by NOW off Amazon.  Its also good for UTIs I get from time to time - again its not an antibotic but it can help manage these symptoms.

I also now feed my cats 95% canned cat food - and use dry food only as a treat once in a blue moon, but use about 1/8 teaspoon for our kitties.

Here is a good article on DMannose -

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/01/06/prevent-urinary-tract-infection-...

[58Meezer]

Do you have a recipe you use to feed your dogs and kitties raw diet??

DMannose by NOW on Amazon is very helpful with UTIs and crystal stuff - it is a sugar made from cranberries.  Is not an antibotic, but the sugar attracts the bacteria and then kitty voids the bacteria.  Feeding them probotics their system seems to be able to rebalance themselves.

I have also used DMannose myself I use it as a maintenance tool I use it once in a while myself   so far no UTIs.  I have auto immune issues and sometimes these things when your immune system is taxed tend to crop up  ..

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/01/06/prevent-urinary-tract-infection-...

[jaxs mom]

My dogs are on prey model raw. They basically just eat raw meaty bones with organs occasionally. Their staple diet is chicken leg quarters but we rotate other protiens in depending on what's on sale and what's they've eaten most recently. We don't feed weight bearing bones from large animals though. My current dogs are a German Shepherd and she eats whole pieces, my chihuahua gets her cut into smaller pieces her small mouth can handle. 

My cats won't eat ground raw, so I don't follow the catinfo diet. They eat mostly canned food but get raw offered 2x a day when the dogs eat. They have 3 meal times and the raw is a suppliment at two of them. Some of my cats eat the raw almost every day, some eat it only occasionally.

They get boneless chicken ( since I'm mostly feeding canned I'm not as worried about calcium balance like I would if they were only eating raw) or on parts that have small bones they will get bone in. Mine prefer their food cut into chunks. They also get chicken hearts and some of them love raw pork. We don't give them pork often though.