Urology food

[kittielittie]

Eric is now renamed Lazarus and has made a miraculous recovery from his blocked urethra and renal failure and his kidney function is back to normal. all good.
however, the vet has advised i use Virbac urology 2 for him and Ernie as a preventative from now on. she said it will make it easier for not separating them at meal times which may raise stress levels further. this is the brand they stock at the surgery.
the price is making my eyes water! it's 4 x more than the iams dry sterilised food i buy now. they are both funny about wet food and refuse all things decent quality so have a half a pouch of felix a day only.
obviously i want them to be as fit and well as possible but that cost plus medication and the inevitable increased insurance premiums are going to become a real problem.
where can i find impartial advice about alternative less costly urology food? i accept there will be an increase in cost but something a little more manageable would be helpful.
pic of the patient hopefully attached.

Go to one of the online pet food suppliers and search urology- there are other brands, but to be honest none of them are cheap. They rake it in with 'special diets'.

so any urology food will do the trick?
i know it will cost more but 4 x the current cost is frightening!
i should have shares in feliway as well as i'm told by the vet that i need to have one of these on the go as well.
i have to reduce his 'stress' - honestly they both have the life of Riley!
all the nurses said how chilled he was in the kennels (when he was on the mend rather than off his tits on morphine and gabapentine 😂)

I use
Cystease supplement from Amazon (about a tenner) which has the stress stuff in
I also force him to eat one pouch of wet food a day (he hates wet food!) and if I'm cooking chicken or something I'll give him some raw bits as he likes that
Then hills food, the one without the stress stuff as it's in the supplement already

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/drycattfood/hillsprescription/urinary/168631?activeVariant=168631.7

Or this is the one with the stress stuff in

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/drycattfood/hillsprescription/urinary/544372?zootopiaarec=true&activeVariant=544372.0&cn=initial&si=3&pn=webpdp&pr=containerr_1&strategy=28554372&rk=1-12&slot=1&pi=544372&rri=d54aa537-ed99-4e2f-ab6e-475ae855f81e

they are similar prices to verbac and as i am buying for two i need to shop around. i am going to have to push him to eat more wet when i find the right one as he does prefer biscuits.
he won't eat any titbits at all. won't touch chicken, fish, ham etc at all.
he has just drank some tuna in spring water juice and the vet did say a bit of tuna now and again would be a good idea so that's a positive.

What caused the blockage? There are multiple urinary foods out there but there are also different reasons for cats to block so you need to make sure you're feeding the right food for the problem.

One of mine has struvite crystals so is on a food designed to prevent them - a 1.5 kg bag is about £16 and he just gets standard wet food as he won't eat the urinary stuff and our vet said any wet food was better than none.

it was an idiopathic urethral spasm. no crystals in his bladder or kidney stones. we don't know why it happened. he has a very charmed and chilled life and is such an easy going boy.
interesting about any wet food being better than none.
need to have a chat with the vet on wednesday for advice without being pushed a brand.
bracing myself for it to be expensive whatever i do.

We had a brother and sister- the male needed special food as he had bladder crystals and he actually blocked a couple of times. We were advised to feed Hills feline CD and easier to feed both cats the same food. We did this for 17 years until they both had to be PTS within a few months of each other. He never had another blockage, so this food worked
Our current cat has virbac food on recommendation of the vet, she has no specific health problems but he really spoke highly of this food

@kittielittie our vet is very old-school and basically said that neutered males need a diet that's mostly wet food to ensure they get enough liquid - yes, a specialised diet is preferable if they have issues but if they won't eat it then it's absolutely pointless and anything is better than nothing.

that's really helpful. and yea our vet advised feeding both the same for ease and preventative for the other little rascal.

I have a girl prone to urinary issues and have gone with:
Wet food - any
Cat milk
Cat soup as treat

All basically to get more fluid in

We do feed separately as it was causing stress and fighting (and weight gain in the bully). Microchip cat feeder works wonders. We also use Vetpro Urinary supplement daily.

At the first hint of trouble (too long in the litter bin, lots of trips to the litter bin, wee over the side) we are on it with Metacam, an extra bin and Feliway plugins.

This regime has generally prevented any repeat issues for 3 cats now.