Cat with recurring cystitis.

beveragelady

He's a long-haired chap of unknown parentage, neutered. Indoor/outdoor. At least 9 years old, probably more. He had a kidney infection about three years ago and in the last two months he has had two bladder/UT infections, both cleared up with antibiotics. He's getting Nutracys+ with his dinners at the moment.
Any suggestions for meals or supplements that might prevent this from recurring? It doesn't appear to bother him at all but I do not enjoy cleaning up the tiny puddles of bright red wee.

Alun

Our female cat also had a tendency to get recurring attacks of cystitis. The usual antibiotics she got, forget the name but little pink pills, would sort it for a while but would always come back. Anyway in the end the vet got us to take a urine sample and cultured it to determine exactly what bacteria was causing it and then prescribed a more powerful and specific antibiotic which was a liquid (banana flavour!!!) which had to be administered in her mouth with a syringe, which was fun! Anyway, it worked, so that may be an option. I think the other antibiotic was just suppressing the infection a bit rather than completely eliminating it.

beveragelady

Alun wrote: »

Our female cat also had a tendency to get recurring attacks of cystitis. The usual antibiotics she got, forget the name but little pink pills, would sort it for a while but would always come back. Anyway in the end the vet got us to take a urine sample and cultured it to determine exactly what bacteria was causing it and then prescribed a more powerful and specific antibiotic which was a liquid (banana flavour!!!) which had to be administered in her mouth with a syringe, which was fun! Anyway, it worked, so that may be an option. I think the other antibiotic was just suppressing the infection a bit rather than completely eliminating it.

Thanks. If it happens again, I think we'll probably have to take similar steps. I'm looking at this now: https://www.miscota.ie/cats/bioiberica/p-102311

Alun

We always used a supplement called Cystaid. I'm not sure there's much difference between any of them though to be honest.

beveragelady

Alun wrote: »

We always used a supplement called Cystaid. I'm not sure there's much difference between any of them though to be honest.

They can't do any harm, I suppose.

SillyMangoX

The nutracyst+ has been a lifesaver for us. One of my boys is very prone to cystitis, we started him on two tables a day and after a couple of weeks it starts to kick in, then when he was stable we reduced it to one tablet a day. If there are times when we know he’s going to be extra stressed like a trip to the Cattery or if we had people staying in the house (pre-covid) we’d up the dose again for a couple of weeks!
The other thing is to make sure they have plenty of fluid. If your cat isn’t great to drink then maybe consider one of the moving water fountains, and try feed more wet food instead of dry. Cats get most of their hydration from what they eat not what they drink so the more wet food the better.
There are specific diets available for cats with urinary issues that you could talk to your vet about but I was talking to the rep from nutracyst before and they said it’s basically the same thing as what’s in the foods. It’s no harm to have them on the supplements and the food at the same time but the tablet does what the food would do!

beveragelady

SillyMangoX wrote: »

The nutracyst+ has been a lifesaver for us. One of my boys is very prone to cystitis, we started him on two tables a day and after a couple of weeks it starts to kick in, then when he was stable we reduced it to one tablet a day. If there are times when we know he’s going to be extra stressed like a trip to the Cattery or if we had people staying in the house (pre-covid) we’d up the dose again for a couple of weeks!
The other thing is to make sure they have plenty of fluid. If your cat isn’t great to drink then maybe consider one of the moving water fountains, and try feed more wet food instead of dry. Cats get most of their hydration from what they eat not what they drink so the more wet food the better.
There are specific diets available for cats with urinary issues that you could talk to your vet about but I was talking to the rep from nutracyst before and they said it’s basically the same thing as what’s in the foods. It’s no harm to have them on the supplements and the food at the same time but the tablet does what the food would do!

I have a water fountain for them in the house and he likes to drink out of the river too. He gets mostly wet food and there's very little stress in his life. I'm hoping the supplements will be enough to stop it recurring. This is the same chap who on three different occasions has had surgery to remove things from his intestines that he shouldn't have eaten. I haven't ruled out the possibility that he's doing this to annoy me.

jesuischarlie

Hi I don’t think I can share links here? Google icatcare and cystitis and icatcare and flutd. Make sure your vet checks him for back pain and arthritis . It’s definitely bothering him, cystitis is really painful. Cats are experts at hiding pain.