Welcome to the pet forum!

I agree with changing to canned food, but not necessarily to any of the Hill's Rx foods. SD has "powdered cellulose" as an ingredient, which is a nice way of saying "sawdust." I don't think that is a natural part of the feline diet. CD has pork by-products (any part of pig that people don't eat, including hooves which are undigestible sources of "protein"), corn starch, corn gluten meal, and guar gum. At least none of Hills' canned foods have artificial preservatives; their dry foods are loaded with toxic/carcinogenic/and otherwise unnatural preservatives and I would avoid them like the poisons they are.

Not only does canned food provide more protein but it also provides more water. This not only helps lower urinary tract health but also protects their kidneys. Most cats readily accept canned food (not necessarily Hills Rx diets which apparently taste like crap) and will eat an entire small can at one sitting. I personally prefer pets to eat in set meals, especially multiple-pet households, because you can more easily detect changes in appetite vs free feeding.

I would ask your vet if there are any crystals in your cat's urinalysis and if so what type. If there is another more natural diet that can be used instead of the Hills Rx diets, I would certainly switch to a canned diet. Some cats have urinary crystals require a particular special diet, but you are not stuck with Hills.

Did your vet also do a urine culture? Sometimes we pick the wrong antibiotic because we aren't expecting antibiotic-resistent or weird infections. He may have saved some urine for culture if needed. Sometimes UTIs are due to a predisposing condition; if there are problems clearing this UTI be prepared for additional diagnostics. Other times it's just plain bad luck. Hopefully it's the latter.

Other people on this forum can recommend specific canned foods for your kitty if she doesn't require an Rx diet. Good luck with everything. I'm sure that building a house is stressful enough without a sick furkid.

I started doing research when all the pet food recalls started. There is LOTS of information out there supporting not feeding cats dry food. Enough to convince me to change my cats to canned. Two of the three are all canned now, the third is a mix.

This link is pretty technical but actually reads pretty quick (Debra Zoran - Feline Nutrition): http://home.earthlink.net/~jacm2/id1.html

Lisa A Pierson, DVM: http://www.catinfo.org/

Here is a link that might be useful: Max House - Canned versus Dry

Oh - regarding the choice of food I think there have got to be better choices too. You didn't mention any health issues with your cats? One of my cats was prescribed Hills S/D about a week ago for struvite crystals. The odd thing is the vet has indicated it is very likely the crystals are related to his visit to the vet. So, not sure if the food is needed. After about a week he turned his nose up at it and won't eat it. We put him on EVO and Wellness instead - have to email the vet tonight about it. Not only does the Hills stuff smell and look awful, but the ingredients are awful as Meghane says. I think the vet had planned on recommending C/D long term but I think I will suggest otherwise.

FYI - I did email EVO about my cat. Thought I would share:
Thank you for contacting us about our products. Here is an excerpt from a letter our Vice President, co-founder, and nutritionist Peter Atkins wrote that might help to explain the Innova EVO Cat & Kitten formula as it relates to feline urinary tract health and other physical ailments:

"...EVO cat was designed behind the principle of feeding the cat true to its carnivore nature; a diet high in animal proteins with only incidental carbohydrates and none from grains; a diet which mimics typical raw and BARF diets. Based on advice from our veterinarian advisors, we strongly believe this philosophy to be the most healthful for cats.

Prior to the products launch into the market EVO cat passed a battery of nutritional tests  with flying colors. However, it remains to be determined what effect it will have on cats in ill-health. There are a number of conditions that weÂve been asked by the veterinary community to evaluate, such as, the effect on urine pH and crystal formation in cats experiencing struvite and oxalate crystals like yours, the effects on regulating intake for obese cats and the impact this might have on type II diabetes, and many others.

You may be interested to learn that with this type of a feeding strategy there have been several advantages reported in the research literature. Namely for FLUTD conditions, high protein diets have been shown to increase water consumption, leading to a dilution of the urine and an offsetting reduction in the incidence of stone formation. We just received the latest test data from UC Davis & the average urine pH on EVO Cat was 6.44. The ph showed a reduction from the Day 1 of the introduction to the diet, while the water intake showed an increase.

As a responsible company, we would recommend to always exercise caution and to work closely with your veterinarian if you remain interested in evaluating EVO cat for your catÂs struvite condition. We appreciate your inquiry and would be very interested to hear of your results."

Also, in case your cat does have crystals (otherwise why recommend C/D?) - If you look at the catinfo.org link above - she talks about crystals related to stress and water.

Thank you all so much for your responses. I will definitely do some more reading/research before I speak to the vet again.
silvergold- I did take my cat to the vet for this issue. She (the cat not the vet!) began using the litterbox about once every 5 minutes late last evening. This morning there was a slight pinkish tint to some of the urine spots so I decided to take her in to the vet.
I am unsure now if there were crystals in her urine or not! His exact words were "I'd like to see her back in 3 weeks to repeat the urinalysis to see if there are any crystals that could be causing a blockage." He also said that if her sx did not improve by Friday morning that I needed to bring her back. I'm not sure if they did a urine culture...it is not listed on the bill. The only thing that would relate states "urinalysis (USPG, chem, micro)." The antibiotic she was given is zeniquin tablets, 25 mg. He did not do any x-rays, etc.
Do you think I should request that a culture be done now?

Hi - I'll let Meghane respond with any details but it does sound as if the vet did the urine tests. I'm sorry your cat has symptoms - mine doesn't. The only reason we've done follow up in our case is that he had red blood cells show up in his first urinalysis. He also showed a 'rare' crystal and higher urine ph (7.0) - but he was extremely stressed. After that visit the vet wasn't worried about the crystals/ph, but wanted us to test at home to confirm the red blood cells but we couldn't get a sample. So, we brought him back 3 weeks later. This time, though, his bladder was dry. So, they kept him there for 4 hours. They told me he was sooooo stressed the entire time - never relaxed. They found moderate crystals, urine ph of 8, and red blood cells still there. They had to then give him bupronex to relax him enough to do an xray. The xray shows one kidney irregularly shaped (perhaps reason for the red blood cells) - but no other problems. All blood tests show a very healthy cat. The feeling in our case was that the extended vet stay caused the even higher ph and crystals. The food is precautionary although now he isn't eating much of it. They gave us a anti-anxiety pill to give him before his next visit so hopefully that will allow us to get a true reading.

Hopefully your kitty does better. Please keep us up to date.