Cat With Health Problems
By angiemac4444
@angemac23 (2003)
Canada
September 26, 2007 8:10am CST
My cat has been diagnosed with urinary problems. Last year I came home from work to find him laying on the floor, screaming in pain with a trail of blood going from the kitchen to the living room. I rushed him to the vet and after a lengthy operation and a vet bill of 800 dollars, he is now fine. The thing is he has to stay on a special prescription diet which costs me 40 dollars a month! I am afraid to take him off this diet and feed him Iams because his condition may return. Also, there is another cat living here now and she is on a regular diet and when her dish is down, my cat eats from hers! Not sure how to separate them or just say to heck with it and feed him the regular stuff again. I would ask the vet, but I know they will tell me to stay on the expensive diet no matter what because it is extra money for them. Anyone know anything about this feline problem? Any suggestions?
5 responses
@janninemc (2)
• United States
26 Sep 07
Hi, I have two cats as well and they are like part of the family. About a year ago my father had a cat he had for 18 years. She had something like what your cat has and the vet bills added up. The cat was on a specail diet for about 2 years. It is better to try and do what the vet suggests as far as food and the other cat my have benefits in the long run and stay healthy. I have a question, does your cat have a hairball problem? Both of my cats have short hair so you would not think that we would have a hairball problem, but we do. I have tried specail cat food that should help control the problem, but they only made them vomit shortly after eating the food. Is there anything you know of that helps?
@angemac23 (2003)
• Canada
27 Sep 07
My cat doesn't have hairballs, but I have heard that specialty foods that are for that problem actually make cats vomit for some reason. Im not sure of anything else that could help, except that maybe brushing the cats every few days will get rid of some of the excess fur and cut down on some of the hairballs.
@RuneAmok (13)
• United States
3 Oct 07
I do, but unfortunately I'm new here and I can't paste in my blog on this topic. I'll do my best in spite of that.
That so-called "prescription" food is overpriced crap. It may technically work but it is inferior quality food. And if you're feeding the dry version it's even worse.
In most cases, all you really need to do to keep a cat's urinary tract healthy is to feed it wet food, and that usually means canned food. Doesn't have to be special food either, but a good quality food is of course important.
Go to http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=017 and read their article on urinary tract issues. Also read their article on why cats need canned food. Then go to http://www.catinfo.org/commercialcannedfoods.htm and look over all the highly recommended canned foods you have to choose from.
@Polly1 (12645)
• United States
27 Sep 07
I had a male cat with peeing problems. Unfortunitly I didn't catch it in time and had to have the cat put to sleep. The vet said that cats get something like kidney stones. Female cats have a larger urethra and usually don't have troubles passing the stones. She said male cats have longer and smaller urethra and sometimes the stones get stuck and rupture, this causes the bleeding. I would explain to the vet about the other cat and the expense of the special food. I do know you can buy the urinary tract health food in the grocery store, maybe that would be good enough. Good luck with the kitty.
@delladidit (466)
• United States
27 Sep 07
...Allowing your cat to eat too much regular foods will cause the problem to return &/or kill him this time. ;(
...Read your cat food bag, in fact, cut out the ingrediences list and take it with you to a pet store, as they are more like to have something very close. You can find prescription diet dry foods there. I think, Purina has one called Prescription diet. It is the protein and phospherous content you need be concerned with, sodium will fall into place with these two.
...As far as feeding, I had the same problem. My cat was even eatting the dogs food, he hated his food so much. I had to set up feeding schedules and close up my urinary problem cat while I was feeding my healthy cat and dog. It was a lot of work. It worked until he turned up missing. I never found out what happened to him, I never found him.
...Good luck with this. Peace be with you. =(^;^)= Della
