And here is where I make my confession.
My cats eat crap. There. I said it. They eat crap.
Years ago, I got them to eat good dry kibble. Grain free, high protein, and high calorie. But somewhere along the line, Big Pete here became overweight and developed osteoarthritis in one of his knees. And he's not that old. So we put everyone on scheduled feelings, which meant adding canned food to entice eating in one sitting. That took a long time. And the only canned food that they loved was Soulistics, which is basically Weruva rebranded for Petco. Unfortunately, it's high in fish.
Back then, I didn't know anything about struvite crystals. In dogs, they are primarily a result of a urinary tract infection; in cats, it's much more tied to diet (tuna=bad) and other factors that increase the likelihood of having them. Like being overweight.
One day, my chow hound Chester stopped eating. Just stopped. I don't know what made me think to do this, but I locked him in a room by himself with a litter box and food. I enticed him to drink some water (by adding broth) and after a while, I realized he wasn't peeing. He would sit in the box and nothing would happen.
So off to the vet we went. Where I found out that crystals in male cats are serious business. His urinary tract had completely blocked and he was backing up. They put in a catheter, flushed his bladder, dislodged the crystals and mucus, and sent him home with an open catheter and special food.
Let me say that again. An open. catheter.
He was dripping bloody pee for a full week, on a steady drip. He ate crystal dissolving food and then went onto a maintenance prescription food. I read a lot of info about raw and while I felt in my head it would be the best thing for him, my nervous temperament doesn't want to rock the boat on a life threatening condition.
Then 2 of the other cats (females) developed crystals, so we switched them to the Rx food and added Fancy Feast classic food. It's surprisingly, basically, grain free, low carb, high protein, high calorie. We tried every single other good food with no luck. And then my picky allergy grazer Birdie went on strike. We'd kept her on high quality kibble since she did so much better on it, but she stopped wanting it. So she now gets Royal Canin sensitive stomach formula and Fancy Feast. Her coat isn't nice, but she's not throwing up.
Eventually, I became of the opinion that the stress of trying to force them to eat "good" food was worse for them than the bad food. And I'm still of that opinion.
So that brings me back to today. Chester is sitting here with me, and I'm petting him. He's still overweight, though less than he used to be. Thing is, I feed him as little as I can. And he's fat, but I can feel his backbone. He had an arthritis flare up a while back. His coat is greasy and coarse at the same time. He's losing muscle mass, retaining fat, and not gettingt he right nutrition for his coat. I won't go into how crappy the ingredients of that dry food is, but
I think it's time. He's only 11-- our oldest cat is 17or 18. Monitoring urine is more difficult with cats, but they make the special litter for that. I can isolate him with that litter periodically to check.
Today, I order the good grinder. I'll go back to the catinfo.org website and revisit the needs for cats, as they are different and more restrictive. I won't push it if they get stressed. Or if I get too stressed.
They're all eating and doing well, so I hate to screw that up. But it's time.
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