View Single Post
  #5  
Old September 15th, 2008, 07:03 AM
sugarcatmom's Avatar
sugarcatmom sugarcatmom is offline
Senior Contributor
 
Join Date: May 2007
Location: Calgary, AB
Posts: 5,357
Ditto what Love4himies said. No dry, and you also want to stay away from grains as much as possible. The higher carbohydrate level in foods with grains encourages urine to be alkaline, which sets up the conditions for struvite crystal formation. A diet low in carbs and high in protein (the cat's evolutionary diet) predisposes urine to be naturally acidic (6.0-6.5 ph) which helps prevent struvite crystals. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1...?dopt=Abstract

There is nothing magical about the Urinary SO food. All they do is add an acidifier (DL-methionine) and extra salt to make the cat drink more. The ingredients are horrid:

Quote:
Chicken meal, rice, corn gluten meal, ground corn, chicken fat, natural flavors, cellulose powder, sodium chloride, dried brewers yeast, dried egg powder,
Feeding a quality meat-based, low carb wet food is the best defense against both struvite and calcium oxalate crystals. If you want to monitor Layla's urinary ph to make sure she's staying in the ideal range most of the time, get some ph strips from a pharmacy or health food store. If she consistently has a ph over 7, you can add your own acidifier to her canned food (I can help you with that if needed). But you have to be very careful her urine doesn't become too acidic and set up an environment for calcium oxalate crystals to form, which are way harder to get rid of (ie surgery).

I would be cautious about adding cranberries to her diet. Cranberries contain benzoic acid, which is toxic to cats. She would have to consume a large amount for it to reach dangerous levels, but why even go there. A better idea for dealing with the bacteria aspect of a UTI is adding D-mannose. For the inflammation and irritation caused by crystals, corn silk or marshmallow root are a good idea.
__________________
"To close your eyes will not ease another's pain." ~ Chinese Proverb

“We must not refuse to see with our eyes what they must endure with their bodies.” ~ Gretchen Wyler
Reply With Quote