bladder crystals, psychogenic alopecia

[paperball4]

hi everybody

my cat etre is having a bit of trouble lately and i'm sending this in hopes of getting some advice.

backstory: about a year and a half ago, etre was having trouble peeing. she would crouch down on anything in our house and try to pee, but little or nothing would come out. we took her to the vet; they told us she had crystals in her bladder. i looked online for naturopathic treatments for bladder crystals and apple cider vinegar was recommended. i put some of this in tuna with water and after a couple of days, this seemed to do the trick.

a year and a half later, though, it seems they've reappeared. i know this is a result of an all-dry diet and not enough water, and i am going to try switching her to wet food again, though last time she completely rejected it and the food always went bad.

i'm wondering if anybody has any other tips for naturopathically clearing these crystals out? or success with acv? she is in and out of her litter box all day and i just want to make this better as soon as possible.

another issue we've been having--and this happened before her uti reappeared--is that etre has been biting the hair off of her belly and hind legs. i took her to the vet and they told me (along with the fact that she's overweight) that it must be fleas. i had her treated for the fleas and she's still biting. i thought maybe it was her litter--i use the world's best cat litter--and i was using the lavender scented one--but i switched it back to the unscented kind in case the lavender was the issue. however, she's still biting. after some research, i'm thinking she might have psychogenic alopecia and is biting out of boredom. i play with her as much as i can and i give her a *lot* of attention when i'm here but she is still biting. getting another cat has been recommended but i can't possibly do that at this point in my life. has anyone experienced this with their cat?

any advice, sympathy, and shared stories would be greatly appreciated.

-L

[pamela81]

Hey there, sorry to hear your etre is having a few health issues .

We have a male cat whom had problems with crystals in his bladder. He had exactly the same symptoms that you have described. We took him to the vet and got meds for him, however, we now don't give him dry food as anytime he had them it gave him a sore tummy which we know as he constantly meowed during the night and took a day or so to calm down. It was the vet who advised the changed in diet. Both of mine are on wet food only. We were also advised by the vet to get a water fountain to encourage him to drink more water to help prevent a build up and this has worked as well. I have never tried any of your mentioned remedies purely because we haven't had the problem recur again due to changing the diet.

I hope you get success with the remedies and etre is back to full health as soon as possible xx

[Velvet]

We have a dog with renal disease (kidney failure) & she gets very itchy & licks/bites herself - your wee cat may be uncomfortable in the area she is working at, hence the licking/ biting. I would ask the vet to carry out some bloodwork. x

[angieh]

Sorry to hear about etre's problems. My cat Merlin had struvite crystal problems for years and lived to be over 23! He had flare ups but was on a high pH diet for a very long time, so long in fact that the same brand of food was changed by the company three times during that time. This was quite a long time ago now and I have to admit that I did not try any natural remedies at the time so cannot advise. A water fountain is a very good idea, any additional intake of fluid will help. Cider apple vinegar sounds like a good option if your cat will take it - I would try and get the good stuff with the "mother" but I expect you already know that.

I hope that you can find something to sooth her skin irritation, if it is not due to anything like flea or flea allergy or her litter then something to calm her, like Feliway, may help stop the cycle.