Urinary s/o diet-opinions please?

[JBalways2000]

Hi all

As some of you will know AJ has been on the royal canin urinary s/o diet since August as it was found he had crystals in his urine after a bout of having blood present in it. He has been absolutely fine since then, we are due to bring up another urine sample next week to make sure all is still ok but i have high hopes as he has no problems in that area now.

You will know the trouble we have had with feeding him from my other threads-i made one recently about the fact that he wakes us several times a night for food. Well he has actually been doing better with that too but i know it wont be long until hes back to his bad habits-our boys seem to have phases and AJs right now is sleeping on the bed cuddled up with me so he doesnt get up as much during the night, but im sure it wont last!

Anyway cut a long story short, i was always under the impression that the other boys couldnt have AJ's prescription diet as the receptionist at our vets told us when Raven was on it not to let the others steal it as it can cause problems in cats that are healthy. I emailed Royal Canin last night to ask, as Rhino and Hernie are forever trying to steal AJs food and i wanted to make sure this wasnt putting them at a risk. Well they got back to me this morning to say it is perfectly safe to feed all of my cats, even those without urinary problems, aslong as they dont have any other health problems. That confused me! as i said i have spent all this time thinking it would cause bladder problems with them if they ate it without having crystals because of what the receptionist told me

I will also be asking for my vets opinion on this now but i just wondered if anyone here has had a kittie on this prescription diet and if so, have you also opted to feed it to cats that dont need it? Does anyone know if there is anyway at all this could cause problems with Hernie and Rhino if we started feeding it to all 3 of them? I know Royal Canin have already answered my questions but i guess i just want as many opinions as possible.

[angieh]

That's a tricky one JB and the short answer from me is - I don't know. Merlin was on urinary diet for many years, in fact longer than I think is recommended - he had similar problems to Raven and AJ. But he lasted until he was over 23 years, although in the last few years he refused to eat the urinary food after the recipe changed. When Merlin lived with Smudge, as far as I know she did not help herself to his food - she was on a light diet herself. She passed due to thyroid problems aged around 19 years.

I'd discuss the issue with your vet, especially in the light of your response from Royal Canin.

[alexgirl73]

I can answer this one When Broxi had his first bout of crystals we put him on the RC urinary food, and my vet told me it was perfectly fine for all of my cats to eat it, which they did quite happily. However, when Broxi then developed crystals again I decided that it didn't really matter what food he ate, he was susceptible to it anyway. And they now have whatever food I give them . I do however try to make sure they have plenty of wet food down and only give a small handful of dry (which unfortunately Broxi prefers), and also plenty of water. HTH x

[JBalways2000]

Originally Posted by alexgirl73

I can answer this one When Broxi had his first bout of crystals we put him on the RC urinary food, and my vet told me it was perfectly fine for all of my cats to eat it, which they did quite happily. However, when Broxi then developed crystals again I decided that it didn't really matter what food he ate, he was susceptible to it anyway. And they now have whatever food I give them . I do however try to make sure they have plenty of wet food down and only give a small handful of dry (which unfortunately Broxi prefers), and also plenty of water. HTH x

Thankyou so much for your replies, i knew someone on here would be able to help! great to know that Royal Canin were right. My plan for a while has been to limit how much dry food all the boys have and i have slowly been doing this for the last few weeks. Im trying to get them used to having 2 wet meals a day with a little dry food as a sort of topper and at the moment when they come looking for a nibble during the day Hernie and Rhino are given a little dry food, and AJ gets more of his wet food.

Hernie and Rhino have definately gone off the dry food they have been on the last couple of years(arden grange fish and potato) so i have been looking for a new dry food for them anyway, seems like a no brainer to try them with AJs dry food now then! Im not a fan of the ingredients in it and despite being on the moderate calorie version AJ still seems to have put a little weight on but i dont think that will be a problem for Rhino and Hernie-they are such active cats!

So yes i think the plan now will be their own wet foods(Im actually about to try bozita for Rhino and Hernie after not being able to get their usual hilife food for the last couple of weeks-getting it tomorrow so fingers crossed that goes down well!) obviously keep AJ on his prescription wet food, but let all 3 of the boys have the s/o dry food-that will be a life saver as we will be able to leave a little of that down at night now and hopefully we can start sleeping like human beings again!

Thanks again, will let you all know how we get on and i will be updating with AJ's results when we get them too-fingers crossed im right to think all is ok!