Advice on make cat bladder issues( crystals in urine) and water intake please

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I have a 7 year old male moggie- never been unwell up until this week.
we had to rush him to the vets- he had a blocked urethra and couldn’t pee. Very managed to rush him out, saved his life. He said he would need to be on a special diet from now on- so I went and spent a stupid amount of money on royal canin and Hills food.
the cat will not touch it. He has always been a hideously fussy eater.
He is refusing to drink too.
spoke to vet again yesterday and he said it was more important that he ate his wet food to get some water in him and to give him his regular pouch. I have added water to the pouch gravy and he ate that.
For those with cats who are similar very fussy eaters and have this urinary issue are there tricks and tips you can give me?
I am so worried it will happen again.
i wish there was something I could put on his regular food to break up any struvite crystals that might form again. Does something like this exist?
Thanks

Not sure about the food but have you got a water fountain? My cats drink more since getting that.

Thanks- we used to have one- but he ignored it. He likes to have water from the bath occasionally. I am loathed to buy yet something else he won’t use. I tried him on cat milk yesterday and he refused that too.
perhaps I could mush his food up?

My boy has had this problem in the past, apparently triggered by stress (house move).

He has:

• water fountain so he drinks more
• Cystease sprinkled on his wet food
• We keep a stock of prescription Loxicom and immediately add to a meal if he’s not peeing as efficiently.

With that we can usually head it off by catching it early and avoiding a trip to the vet, though our boy apparently loves him 🤔. But after one midnight dash to the vet with a cat in obvious pain, I don’t want to repeat!

If the above wasn’t effective we’d rush him in and the vet would give a shot of gabapentin. So far this has always been enough to relax him enough to wee and to not need the invasive treatment to empty his bladder. It helps me be less anxious about it to have an action plan we can start straight away. Sometimes if I feel something’s starting, a couple of Cystease capsults has been enough to head it off!

I hope your boy feels better soon!

Boil chicken (whole or thighs) and once water cooled give him that to dink, that’s what I was advised. Also she said to make sure water bowl was fit to burst for him to drink from it.
My boy had this about 10 years ago, focus on giving him wet food over dry. He drinks water and eats wet, won’t touch the fountain.

My male cat also had this problem and since having Nutracys sprinkled onto his food has not had an episode since. I started off giving him one full dose a day to ward it off and now split the tablet over a few days, the tablets are easy to pull apart and sprinkle into his wet food.

Also provide fresh water every day which I am sure you do anyway.

Hope he feels better soon

We moved house last August. It was very stressful for him. Next door has three cats that beat him up if he goes outside. Could this be part of the issue? I have never thought about bladder issues being stress related?
I will get some of the cystitis powder and put that on.
will all try the chicken thigh water. Thank you.🙂

I've had two cats with urinary issues over the years.

My current boy is four - he also refused the urinary food so we just give him normal wet food (currently Sheba but he gets whatever he'll eat really) plus he gets daily Cystease and D-Mannose tablets.

He still gets some dry food but we swapped him to a high quality brand (Scrumbles) and he only gets a small portion a day.

Been doing this for over two years and he's never had any further issues.

My cat had this for 12 years (lived to 19) and he would not eat wet food. I gave him the royal canon urinary s/o dry food every day and it never flared up again. The food made him thirsty so he drank a lot more than I’d ever seen before. I used to sometimes add water to it in the summer. Might be worth a try. Good luck.

p.s. Also water bowls in more than one room, he much preferred to drink away from his food.

My cat likes Almo nature urinary help cat food from Amazon.
Also has Cystaid mixed in with his food.
He likes to finish off the milk left in the bowl from my cereal too although milk dies upset sone cats. Not mine who has a cast iron (albeit flabby) stomach. Losing weight is supposed to help too.

My parents' cat much prefers to drink rain water or hose water from a plant pot saucer outside! Does he have those options? The nearby cats do sound very stressful though 😞

Stress is a huge trigger in feline urinary tract issues.
As well as everything people have already suggested, always use ceramic/glass bowls, not plastic and make dietary changes very slowly.

There is lots of useful information here.
https://icatcare.org/advice/feline-idiopathic-cystitis-fic/

@Beachy77 that is interesting re the water and food.
i will put bowls round the house. Flummoxes me that he will drink from ponds and dirt puddles and taps but not from a bowl!

I have powdered D mannose that I take myself- can I just sprinkle that on his food?
definitely going to get the cystitis powders.
he is such a fussy bugger. There is only one cat food brand that he will eat gourmet perle and then only some flavours.

Mine developed this through stress after being caught in a humane trap. He needed a catheter, which he pulled out and was sent home as strssing in the vets which was making things worse!
I used cystease sprinkled on food and I ordered loads of different types of urinary food from zooplus.
Wet food is better, thankfully he now has normall food with no issues, but keeping stress down is vital.
If he's gettingbullied outside Id try keeping him in or cat proofing the garden, he needs to feel safe. Also things like zylkene or feliway might help.

@BigButtons I would double check it's cat safe but I assume so!

I buy one that's especially doses for cats and dogs - he gets two tablets every morning plus his Cystease. He's very compliant though and just sits there and takes them 😂

My cat has this if I give him dry food without enough water content.

We had the same, wouldn't touch the special food. He has wet food only, absolutely no dry food at all including Dreamies etc and a Cystaid capsule broken up in a lick e lix daily . That was 8 years ago and hasn't had one since.

Mine wouldn't eat the other foods but would eat virbac U2 specialist food. My other cat also liked it. Multiple water bowls in random places. I actually find mine favour the water that's been there a day or two over the fresh (I change some daily and some every other for him) he has a fountain but my new cat loves water and destroys the thing trying to play

Try warming his food, or put some shredded chicken mixed In, the broth is a good idea

Female cat with endless urinary issues:

Upped fluid intake with wet food plus cat milk
Vetpro Urinary everyday - we thought this was a con until we stopped it and the issues came right back
Always have a stock of Metacam ready for the first hint of trouble
Feliway/Zylkene or whatever works for your cat
A lot of enrichment and play to up his confidence and reduce stress - check out Jackson Galaxy on Youtube

My experience is that it is always stress that triggers it. With previous cats I could sort this very quickly, with current cat she just basically has an anxiety disorder and it is hard work.

Can you build a catio so he’s safe outside? Poor lads being bullied I would t go outside if I knew the neighbours weee going to beat me up

My cat preferred filterd water over tap I think he didn’t like the chlorine smell.

I mixed food with a bit of water too.

We've been through recurrent blockages with our boy.

Did they actually confirm crystals were the cause of the blockage, and not just that they were present? We had a referral to a specialist, and despite crystals being picked up in the sample and our vets indicating it was the cause, some crystals are completely normal and in our case it is stress-related spasms.

Given the house move you describe, this could well be the case for you. In which case, reducing the stress will be key.

Re diet, prescription foods basically increase the ph in the urine and contain low levels of phosphorous and magnesium.

There are diet tweaks and supplements you can give to create the same effect alongside raw/homecooked or even wet food - daily cystese alone didn't prevent blockages with our boy. Uri Balance/ Uri Care can be given short term as an acidifier but we're also now using Urinary Gold from Amazon. If he uses a litter tray you could ph test the urine to make sure it's not getting too high (crystals form in high ph), if this was indicated as a cause by the vet. We now test daily.

Alongside reducing stress, the biggest thing you can do is try to increase water intake. Like you, we had a battle as he's NEVER drank water, despite many different foundation, cups, bowls, you name it... We added extra water to his food, but again, this alone wasn't enough to prevent the recent blockages. He's now on a homecooked diet (with a completer) and we keep boxes of the broth from cooking it which thankfully he will lap up.

Juice from tuna (in spring water not brine) also gets recommended but imo there's not much per can plus there is also some research on a link between fish and cats with bladder problems, so we tend to avoid for that reason.

There are a couple of really great facebook groups for advice too - one called feline lower urinary tract and another called feline nutrition - feed cats like cats.

Unfortunately there are a lot of us out there battling these conditions, but there's also a lot of advise too.

It's a horrible condition for cats and you have my full sympathy trying to navigate this.

@alwaysrootingfortheantihero thanks for such detailed info. Yes the vet found the crystal clumps which were blocking his urethra.
what home food do you make for him? My cat loves tuna spring water but I am wary of giving him too much of it.

Be careful with homemade cat food as they do need to have a certain level of taurine in their diets to remain healthy.

Lots of good advice already but just to add my girl prefers bottled water to tap or filtered.
Also cook fish in water and let him drink the cooled water. Water from a tin of tuna in spring water can tempt them too. Sheba cat soups get extra fluid in too.
Agree avoiding stress is very important. A catio could certainly be a good suggestion if he is getting bullied outside but it must connect to the house. I see some that are just stand alone in the garden which people put their cat into for a while and I think this is worse than nothing as the cat can’t choose to be in their own home or not.
I have had cats with various ailments over many years and none have ever agreed to eat the prescription diets. They eat what they like and the most important thing is to keep weight maintained and a happy cat.
If you have to give tablets at any point I strongly recommend greenies feline pill pockets ( there is a separate dog version) from amazon. Transformed the daily stress of giving my old girl her hated pills.