There should be other companies that make low phosphorus food. If it's not listed on the ingredient label then call and ask. There should be a phone number in the bag. Also if you're not already you may want to start feeding a good percent of canned food for the higher water content. That will help keep kitty's system flushed out. Stay away from fish as an ingredient.

Lisa

First, I recommend you feed your cats separately so that you can meet each of their individual needs. It's really not difficult to do. I feed all of my 14 cats separately, portioned meals so that I know exactly what everyone is eating. I just stick each cat into a room by himself or herself at mealtime until they're finished eating. Since I don't live in a mansion, the cats eat in two shifts. If you only have two cats, putting them in separate rooms to eat should be easy.

Next, the most critical consideration for your blocked boy is to feed him canned food - NO dry unless you soak it in hot water until it turns to mush. You want to increase his water intake in every possible manner, including adding water to his meals. Kibble contains virtually no water, while canned food contains mostly water. I go a step further with my cats (3 of whom have experienced complete blockages in the past) and mix hot water into their canned food to turn it into a gruel that they can lap up.

Place water bowls all around your house. Leave a faucet dripping. Buy a kitty fountain. My most successful strategy for promoting increased water intake is to keep a goldfish in a large, wide=mouth bowl on a cat-accessible table. The cats (and dogs) LOVE to drink out of the fishbowl. It doesn't bother the fish at all, and the bowl in constantly having its water supply replenished as the animals drink it down.

If you can keep enough water going through your boy's system all the time, it'll keep any newly formed, small crystals flushed out of his urinary tract before they can cause any harm.

Each of my boys who blocked recovered completely without ever suffering a recurrence ... knock wood. I wish you the same success with your boy.

Laurie

I have been through this, and found that Eukanuba is excellent for keeping kidneys crystal free. Their percentages are almost identical to Prescription Diet.

As Laurie stated, water is essential in any form, whether it be wet food (I add water to Sofie's once-a day tablespoon of wet food) or a fish bowl.

Here are two links with nutrient comparisons of both canned and dry cat foods. You can find the phosphorous content of most commercial and prescription foods at these links:

cat food comparisons

Here is a link that might be useful: more cat food comparisons

It's not just the phosphorus that keeps the crystals away, it is also the lower protein content and the acidifying pH. The CD food does all of these things to keep crystals from forming. Just having low phosphorus may not be enough to prevent crystals from forming in your cat. I am not at all a fan of Science Diet either, so I certainly understand why you would change the food. But being that your cat is already a known crystal-former, I would be *extremely* cautious about using a diet that was not specifically designed to prevent crystals. A cat that has formed crystals in the past is likely to do it again, especially if the crystal were due to food. Changing his diet based solely on the phosphorus level could lead to conditions that enable him to start forming crystals again.

There are other foods that are not Science Diet which may work for your cat, but please consult your veterinarian on which ones are appropriate for him. Crystalluria is a life-long battle in most cats, requiring life-long special diets. Has your cat had a follow up urinalysis since he has been on the Blue Buffalo to be sure that he isn't forming crystals again? Just because he hasn't blocked since switching foods doesn't mean that he isn't forming crystals- you could just be lucky. But luck always runs out with these cats.

Before choosing a food to prevent crystal formation, you need to know what type of crystals your cat was forming. Struvite is the most common, but quite a few cats form oxylate crystals, instead. The diet that helps prevent one type may contribute to the formation of the other, so it's critical that you know exactly what type of crystals your cat is having a problem with.

You could end up doing more harm than good if you feed the wrong type of prescription food.

Laurie

He was forming the struvite crystals. He has had a urinalysis and that was all-clear which is when he got switched to the other prescription food. He started out on the d/f kind to get rid of the crystals, this c/d kind is supposed to prevent them, but if I could find another food that also would help prevent crystals that isnt Science Diet I would like to switch to that. I will talk to my vet before switching.

The reason we had both cats on the c/d prescription food is that I went on vacation and the cat-sitter couldnt necessarily keep them apart for feeding.

Both cats drink a lot of water and both use the litter box about a half hour after drinking so they are in there many times a day. I made sure the boy was using the box (we found out about the blockage from his urination outside of the box) and that he can pass liquids without straining. I still follow him around. I dont want to put him on a wet food only diet since it makes him have very smelly poop and breath. He's an in-your-face kind of cat.

We do feed the cats in separate rooms but as they each know the other is getting fed they go speeding off to see if the other one left food in the dish, and frequently they get into one another's food. When he was on the s/d food we would shut him in and make sure he ate all his food so the other cat wouldn't get in and steal it. With our work schedules we cant always keep him shut up like that, they like to interact while we are gone and we feed them before we leave for work usually.

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll see if there is another crystal-safe food for him and I'll call my vet.

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!

If you don't have time in the morning to feed the cats separately, then it'd be best for your at-risk boy if you switch to feeding them when you get home from work and have more time.

If you don't like the way his breath and poop smell when he eats canned food, and you don't want to give his body time to adjust to canned food so that he stops producing those odors, then consider soaking his kibble in hot water until it turns to mush before feeding it to him. At least that way you'll be feeding him something that will add water to his system rather than sucking water out of him as dry kibble will do. You'll find that the vast majority of vets will recommend that a cat who suffers from crystal formation should NOT be eating dry food.

Laurie

I feel for you because I have 2 cats and 1 was diagnosed with CRF almost 2 years ago. My cats free feed, and the CRF needed to free feed and gain weight. I am a SAHM, so for several months I covered and uncovered bowls of catfood depending on who wanted to eat- wow, it was awful. And days when we had to be out of town for 14-16 hours were even more difficult, the cats went hungry, we had to leave them less than ideal food, or we had to cut our day short.

I switched to Royal Canis (see the link someone posted above) that had very similar levels to the ones that matter for CRF cats (phosporus and protein), but it was also a commercial food, so it was fine for the non-affected cat. Things went very well on that food. It was good for both cats and they both liked eating it. My sick cat did better on that than she did on the RX diet.

I don't know if it's an option for you, but my cat was on canned Hi-Tor for a while. They make both food for cats with CRF, and food for cats with urinary tract problems. It is non-prescription. They also make a dry food for cats with urinary problems. I had to mail order mine and shipping can cost a bit, but it is still much cheaper than sci-diet and the cats seem to like it much, much better. If you check the company website (just google Hi-Tor- I can't remember the name of the manufacturer), they can give you stores in your area that might sell it. I know my local stores sold the urinary diet and not the renal diet.

GL.

Home cooking is an option, if you are willing to do it!

If your vet is unable to formulate a diet, there is a company called BalanceIT that s/he can use to get a recipe. It is a free service for veterinarians, so the vet will only have to charge you a small fee to cover his/her time. It is program designed by board certified veterinary nutritionists.

I have a dog with several health issues which are best managed with diet, but no single commercial or prescription diet really addressed all of his problems. So the nutritionist at school used BalanceIT to design the perfect food for Max. The recipes come in 2 forms, one using human supplements and the other using BalanceIT brand supplements- you can choose either one. You can also choose the carbohydrate and protein source for the food. Poor Max has kidney disease, heart disease, recently had a recurrance of struvite stones, and he has food allergies, and I still got 2 different recipes for him.

BalanceIT does not allow owners to make prescription diets for pets with health problems, so you wouldn't be able to use the program for the struvite cat. But you could use it to get a recipe for your healthy cat if you wanted to cook her food too. I got recipes for my healthy dogs using the same ingredients as Max's diets, so now I cook for all of them. You do have to follow the recipes exactly- no substitutions- but they are easy to make. Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: BalanceIT for petlovers

No No! Science diet is BAD along with Iams, euk, purina, friskies, ol roy!! dry is BAD! Truth be told thats what gave your kitty the health issues in the first place. That your cat is " barely a year with kidney stones" screams to me that you will kill your baby IF you listion to the vet! Vets for the most part are great with medical problems and heath issues but not with food, they are trained and brainwashed for lack of a better term, mostly by the pet food reps that put everything from dead companion animals to condemed cattle and poultry rejects riddled with tumors and disease, even poop and sawdust CAN end up in many common pet foods. " look up online, What goes into pet food?, the truth abut pet food?, or Ann Martin"

She writes a shocking book Food pets die for. Although I agree with her on her researching, her cooked diets are a little to 'humanized" for me, we should ideally be feeding our cats like the zoos feed their lions, tigers or even better like small African wildcats. Frozen and then thrawed whole Rats and mice, along with small birds are the way to go but now because your cat is nearly an adult he will not eat such healthy fare.... cats teach kittens what not to and what to eat, basically if you were to go this rough you'd need to contact a holistic vet for a fast program( don't fast him yourself because cats need small meals and only a vet would know how to do it safely) gradually try interducing meat and meat with raw, not cooked bones, as being it is the only way to ensure you won't ever have to be paying for dentals. I recomend rodents because there bones are never large enough to cause issues with eating and cracking, bigger bones you should closely watch or smash partly with a hammer. however at 1 year your cat has the teeth if not yet the jaw strength to do it himself, but watch to be safe.

If you cannot handle such a gory diet then feed Innova evo or Ziwi peak.

I was being hasty, I thought he had kidney stones,After reading the writing I now know better, whatever the urinary issue, they can all be traced to the same thing. diet.