I call that the "Everything Must Have A Name" rule. None of this "poultry fat" stuff - gotta tell me if it's chicken or duck or whatever. Just "animal fat"? Run away screaming. On the "meal" issue... if your pet food contains fish meal, make sure it is specified as "ethoxyquin-free". Not that the entire pet food in total is ethoxyquin-free, but that that particular ingredient is. (Pet food manufacturers are not required by law to tell you what may have been added to an ingredient before it comes into their possession if they don't want to, so all kinds of preservatives, contaminants and such can be in there. They just have to tell you what THEY do to it.) By US law, fish meal not intended for human consumption must be preserved with ethoxyquin. A very few processors have been granted waivers to produce fish meal preserved with something other than ethoxyquin and usually it's trumpeted loud and clear as a marketing point when a pet food manufacturer uses ethoxyquin-free fish meal - Wellness is one of them, and it took some digging but Natura Pet Products (Innova, EVO, California Natural, Healthwise, and Karma Organic) is on board there too. "Digest" must be avoided at all costs even if it does have a species name although more often than not it's just on there as "animal digest". It's gods-only-know-what waste material chemically or enzymatically broken down - predigested - into a slurry in order to convert it into supposedly-bioavailable protein that a less-than-scrupulous pet food manufacturer can use to raise the "crude protein" content on the label. Not only does the animal usually get little actual nutritional value out of the substance but what can legally go into "animal digest" is gruesome to say the least - there is no control over quality, source, or contamination. I do have to nitpick just a little bit though - by-products are not necessarily always bad, but it's a case of Know Thy Manufacturer. See, people go on and on about by-products being whatever junk swept up off the factory floor when by legal definition it is just the stuff that isn't "striated muscle" (either skeletal muscles, diaphragm, or heart): "lungs, spleen, kidneys, brain, livers, blood, bone, stomachs and intestines freed of their contents" and specifically excludes "hair, horns, teeth and hoofs". If you've got a food company that gets that material fresh and handles it properly so it doesn't spoil, it's very good stuff. C'mon, people eat kidneys, brains, liver, blood (usually made into sausage - black pudding being a famous variety), stomachs (tripe), and intestines ("chitlins" and sausage casings), and many of the frozen-raw-diet manufacturers are all over the stuff. A hot trend in natural pet food is "green tripe", which is cow stomach without the contents removed, just ground up semi-digested grass and all. (The smell of it will clear a house though. Whoooo-eeee!) So really it's more a question of knowing your manufacturer than avoiding an entire class of ingredient. Many of the better pet-food manufacturers are avoiding brains entirely these days though, because of worries about BSE.

I see there is interest in this so I'll link to my animal communicator's website. The communicator, Gayle Nastazi, has always been very helpful to me. I have used her services with many of my cats in various situations; from dire emergencies (missing animal- found after 3 weeks!), to behavioral issues, to intergration and rescue issues with feral and abandonned cats that come into my care. I always learn something from every session. Although I know the whole idea strikes some people as pretty far-fetched (and that's OK), I feel comfortable saying that it has worked very effectively for me, and that I think it makes resolution of some difficult issues much easier. One thing I can say for certain is that Gayle is completely legitimate. I have met her in person. I also have no financial interest in this referral - just a hope that my suggestion might be useful. Click on the clink below and look for the Animal Communication link at the top left of the page. Carry on from there if you are interested. RE: Various Animal pee cleaners/destinkes - I think many (most?) employ some kind of enzyme. My conclusion after using all of them is that after the bottles are opened and partly used that it's possible that exposure to air in the emptying bottle degrades the enzyme significantly. It always seems to me that they work like gangbusters at first and then less so, particularly if not used up in a short time. Then I try another brand and it seems to work better (even tested side by side), but eventually poops out, too. I have tried Odor-X, Nature's Miracle and Get Serious, along with scads of others. The pattern seems to hold for all, so now I only buy in quarts not gallons, even though it's 'way cheaper in big jugs. I haven't experimented with decanting a gallon into smaller jars and keeping them closed until I've used up the other portions. Also I find it's helpful to vigorously shake the plastic bottle before applying. The idea mentioned by olychik about using rags is v. interesting and I will keep it mind. I hope that my link may be useful to you. Here is a link that might be useful: Link to Gayle Nastazi, Animal Communicator's webpage

First of all, your male cat probably does NOT have a UTI (very rare in young cats). It does obviously have cystitis, which is just another name for an irritated bladder. The crystals and mucus created by the diet and the inflammation of the bladder wall combine to form a plug sometimes, which male cats cannot always fit through their dinky urethras (and end up 'blocking', which is indeed an emergency). However, a cat that has been catheterized and cleared of his blockage will still have an inflamed bladder so will still 'act' like it has to pee all the time. Telling a blocked cat from one with an empty bladder that just thinks he still has to pee and strains a lot with only a few drops coming out is not easy. One should be shown by their vet how to feel for a large bladder, which a blocked cat will have, but a cat with cystitis that is just straining a lot will not have. To resolve this issue you will sometimes need several 'ingredients'... 1- time.. if your cat truly has been unblocked and there are no more crystals and mucus plugs in the works, he will generally improve over 1-2 days. But often his cystitis needs to be addressed, too. 2- to make your cat's bladder feel better will often relieve the straining, and in turn some of the cystitis. So Pain Medication is VERY IMPORTANT. I hope they sent you home with some. Buprenex is usually the best one and works great to keep bladders feeling better during the cystitis recovery period after blocking. 3- to facilitate the urinating of all the crystals out of the bladder before they 'get together' again and form another plug, your cat needs to take in a lot of water- usually more than they want to should they be eating a dry diet... this is one reason why canned food is usually a MUST for these cats, and in my opinion, a permanent must... life long canned food (perferrably not a fish flavor) is an excellent way of avoiding cystitis in the future (this goes for female cats as well... they get just as much cystitis as male cats to, but are graced with a large bore urethra so 'blocking' is far less likely to occur). I have hardly ever seen a cat block on just canned food (in fact, I cannot think of a single case, and i see at least one blocked cat a week in practice). 4- lower the carbs... this is one of the more controversial aspects of FIC (feline interstial cystitis) and the exact details still need to be worked out.. .but it seems high protein diets (particulary NON fish diets) make it very difficult for a cat to continue creating struvite crystals. Unfortunately not all cats that block form struvite crystals.. .some for oxalate crystals, and there is some doubt whether high protein really helps these cats much... but high water intake sure does, so again, CANNED food! Dry foods are very high in carbs (industry so far has not managed to create a lot carb dry food) and MOST canned foods are significantly lower in carbs (the cheaper the canned food, though, the more carb fillers may be in them, so some canned foods do not fit this description). 5- lower the stress. Not sure how it plays in to this problem, but high stressed cats are much more likely to get cystistis, though this form of cystitis is not always associated with blocking. Still, more litter boxes, hormone plug-ins, and sometimes anti-anxiety meds and make a cat less likely to develop cystitis. Good luck with your kitty.. if you are not sure how to feel for a large bladder and he continues to strain, particularly if he starts of vomit or feel really bad, take him in ASAP. A ruptured bladder is a very bad thing.

Ok looks like I had some typos...I should have been more clear, too, about what foods he was on. When we first got him we fed him the Science Diet food that they had been feeding him at the shelter. Once that got close to running out we switched him to the Blue Buffalo Indoor formula that our other cat was on. He ate that for about 6 months before he started having troubles. We took him to the vet and he stayed for a few days (little bugger kept pulling the catheder out) where they put him on the s/d food and some other medicines. He got to be home for a couple days when he strained again and I noticed his urine was the wrong color so back to the vet he went for another couple of days. He stayed on the s/d food until the first week in November where we switched him to the c/d food once his urinalysis came back clear and he was using the box with no troubles. I then went on vacation and the vet said it would be ok for both cats to eat the c/d food. I want to find a food that I approve of (I really liked the ingrediants for Blue Buffalo, too bad they dont agree with little boy's system!) and a food that I don't have to purchase from my vet. I work over nights and they are only open during the day. Plus 50$ for a 20lb bag of food that I dont find to be of high quality is hard to swallow. I can pay 30$ for food that I like and that makes the kitties have soft fur and nice breath but this stuff is already making them feel ragged. It could be the dry weather though so I shouldnt blame the food. Anyhoo, I looked at that link listed above and there seems to be a couple of foods I could look into. Hopefully they are available in my area and the vet knows something about them. I'm guessing, since no one offered it, that there wouldnt be a home-cooking option for this little guy. It would probably be very difficult to make sure he got everything he needed and would still be something he'd eat. The girl cat eats any and everything so whatever dietary needs she may have will not be hard to get her to eat. My husband wondered if we should not give him tuna fish water since fish is something to be avoided. I'll tell him not to. Thanks again for the help!