Enola
About 3 years ago my cat was diagnosed with urinal tract infection, the vet successfully cured him, and strictly stated that I should not feed him with any other cat food than "Urinary S/O". Which is very expensive compared to regular commercial cat foods. At the moment im short of money, I still could by that food, but I need the money for other things. So how big is the risk that my cat will get sick again if I feed him with regular cat food, for lets say a month.
Shandi
Most cats dealing with struvite crystals (FLUTD) do well on a high protein, low carb, and grain free wet food diet. You many want to look into these while switching food. I am uncomfortable with giving out brand names when it comes to cats with special dietary needs as a result of certain medical conditions. I do suggest however, that you join a FLUTD support group here on Yahoo. The members have extensive knowledge on how to feed and care for cats with this condition as well as links to important information and educational resources. http://groups. yahoo. com/group/FLUTD
Otilia
If your cat has been healthy all this time, I would say its okay to feed him regular food for a while. You should, however, make sure he has plenty of water. Hope this helps!
Andria
Well, I cant imagine that your vet would have told you you have to feed your cat that if you didnt really have to. Im sure its much cheaper to buy the RX cat food for one month as opposed to paying vet bills to fix the problem later. Some Petsmarts and other stores sell Friskies canned food for urinary problems. Have you looked into that? Im not sure how it compares to other foods, but I know people who successfully use it.
Joann
I know what you mean about the expense but there are some "regular" foods now that are for kidney/urinary issues and they are less expensive. In fact my cat just passed away from kidney failure and before she left me I switched food and noticed there is an unbelieveable amount of kidney products out there. I would visit the pet store and look around. Maybe you could sort of feed your cat half and half for a month. Like mix it? I dont know. But I think the other person has a point, it would be less expensive to get the food than pay vet bills later on. Good luck.
Joellen
He can have the same problem or worse and block again. I know what you are going thru as my one Ocicat had to stay on the Royal Canin for Urinary SO in the dry. However, we also increased in feeding him quality canned food in chicken, beef, lamb (Wellness, Blue Buffalo mainly).Unfortunately there is no guarantee that staying on this food will prevent them from blocking again. We lost our boy due to another UTI where he DID block (we had added raw chicken and I think that may have trigger it). But for almost two years on the RC and the quality canned food he had NO problems. Stick with the special dry food (if its the Science Diet, switch it to the Royal Canin) and add in quality canned food to help stretch it.