Expert: Ali - 6/19/2009

Question
Hello, i took my 12 year old cat to the vet 2 months ago  because his pee was
brown in colour and he he was peeing very frequently all over my home. The
vet said he probably had crystals and gave me meds and we changed his food.
After the meds were done we took the cat back to the vet to be re tested and
everything came back great . a week latter my cat started peeing all over my
home again , except this time the pee was red with chunks of blood or
something in it. I immediately rushed my cat to the vet, she said it could be
the crystals coming back, but that we should do a ultrasound to make sure he
dosn;t have a tumor or cancer in his bladder..... she quoted me at 800
dollars. I have already spent $2000, trying to figure out this crystal thing,
I love my cat so much, but dont know what to do now. I really dont think its
crystals, from what I have heard cats usualy get crystal when there younger
not when there 12.

if you have any insight at all please help me out . I dont want my cat to
suffer, he seems completely fine, he is eating the new food we got him , still
grooming himself, hasnt lost any weight still plays around, really the only
thing going wrong is the frequent peeing of blood around the house.

We just started him on the new meds today hopefully that will help the
situation temporarly?? I m just so confused as to what to do ....and just want
to make him better, but feel like this may be a way worst situation than my
vet is saying.

Answer
Nicole,

I'm extremely concerned by your cat's condition. Over the past couple of years I've done a fair amount of research into the pet food industry including prescription pet foods purchased at vet clinics and I have to say that I was horrified and shocked at what I found. Since the massive Menu Foods pet food recall in 2007 I lost a fair amount of trust in the pet food industry, in order to understand why I have to tell you a bit about my situation. I always chose pet foods that were supposedly high quality and vet recommended and I always felt that the premium prices I paid were worth it for a premium quality product.

In 2007 before the pet food recalls became public news my oldest cat MC (she was 8 at the time) began vomiting which I was a little concerned about because she isn't normally the kind of cat that vomits all that frequently, in fact she typically hides her hairballs in the litter box so it was completely out of character for her to be vomiting on the carpet in our home. I figured that she probably just had a nasty fur ball so I gave her some pure canned pumpkin and I thought that would be all I needed to do. On day 2 of MC being sick I became slightly concerned that something else might be going on, but we went to bed that night as we normally did thinking that we could deal with the problem in the morning.

At 2 am MC's symptoms took a terrifying turn and it was obvious that she was very scared of whatever was making her so sick. I woke my partner up and told him the bad news - we had to go to the vet immediately so we wrapped MC in a fleece blanket and went off to the 24 hour vet clinic...After we paid the clinic an obscene amount of money the on call vet came into the exam room where we were waiting to tell us that MC's kidneys were failing badly and that her condition wasn't uncommon in middle aged cats but due to the severity of the renal failure I'd most likely have to euthanize her within a few days. My partner and I were stunned, MC had just been for her annual physical about 2 months before and she was a healthy, happy cat with loads of energy.

With the blood test results and x-ray in hand we called our vet's answering service at 6 am sharp and passed along the information we'd been given and the numbers that MC's blood work showed (at that time she didn't accept calls between 11 pm and 6 am and referred emergency cases to a 24 hour clinic) at which point she said she'd meet us at her clinic at 8 am. We were terrified that MC wouldn't be coming home and we tried to treasure every moment as though it would be our last with her. When we got to our family vet's clinic everything started happening very quickly, the fur on MC's front paw was clipped and disinfected to place an IV so that she could receive supplementary fluids to help her kidneys flush out the toxins causing her symtoms.

My own vet is a wonderful holistic vet and she used a combination of conventional medicine and homeopathic remedies in the 4 days that MC was hospitalized. Our vet found out about the Menu Foods recall and let us know that she believed MC's renal failure had been brought on by eating tainted food (the recall list includes well known, high quality brands routinely recommended by vets as well as some prescription diets). On day 2 of MC's hospitalization her blood results weren't encouraging, in fact they were worse. My vet told me not to give up yet and recommended waiting an extra day before doing anymore blood work - during those 2 days she administered homeopathic remedies to help MC's kidneys recover and on the second day I went to see her in the hospital. On day 3 my vet's business partner called us and told us that something amazing had happened - MC's kidney levels were completely normal and we could pick her up the following morning since we live a ways away and wouldn't be able to get there before the clinic closed. MC was extremely lucky that she survived, and it's an absolute miracle that she no longer requires any kind of special diet and we've finally managed to completely wean her off of supplementary fluids. Thousands of cats and dogs died as a result of consuming tainted pet food and for so many pet lovers the nightmare isn't over and the expense of vet bills continues to add up. MC's recovered completely and this isn't something that normally happens once a cat develops kidney failure, I credit the expertise and skill of my family vet and her treatment using a combination of conventional medicine and homeopathic remedies.

I got to a point where I didn't want to feed commercially produced cat foods because I was concerned about the possibility that a second insult to MC's kidneys might kill her. My vet referred me to catinfo.org which is a site created by a vet to educate concerned pet parents about their cat's unique dietary needs and how best to meet them, she offers a recipe for homemade food as well as a recommendation for one of two commercial pet foods (neither of which has ever been recalled for any reason to my knowledge) I feel comfortable recommending to pet parents. Over time the guilt of poisoning my cat by feeding her ate away at me and that's a hell that I would never wish that on anybody so I've taken the initiative to do the research so that I can provide honest, accurate advice that might save another pet from medical problems caused by an inappropriate diet with the hope that I'll save at least one cat or kitten from the fear and suffering that a serious medical problem can cause.

Crystals in the urinary tract can happen to any cat, at any time in their lives. Crystals most often cause problems in male cats because their urinary tract is much narrower than a female cat's which is why this serious health concern is most often seen in male cats. Many sources say that these crystals are without question related to the fact that many cats aren't being fed high quality, species appropriate diets that contain everything a cat needs in order to thrive and remain healthy. Far too many commercially produced pet foods are grain based and contain low quality ingredients. Crucial problems with a cat food's formulation combined with the chronic dehydration often caused by feeding a cat a diet mostly made up of dry cat food for an extended period of time.

Peeing blood is an extremely serious sign that something's very wrong in your cat's urinary tract - in fact I'm amazed that your vet hasn't hospitalized this cat for treatment and close observation so that any sign that could indicate a negative change in his condition can be treated as early as possible to prevent potentially deadly complications. Your cat could have a bladder infection in addition to crystals so if your vet hasn't already sent a sample of his urine to the lab for cultures and testing it's something that should be done ASAP. If your cat's crystals are plentiful and large enough to block his urethra completely this is a condition that requires immediate medical treatment if he is to survive. I strongly suspect that your cat's house soiling is a direct result of being in absolute agony, in fact he may have been experiencing moderate to severe discomfort for some time before the issues within his urinary tract were discovered. That having been said I sincerely hope that your veterinarian is providing the cat with pain medicine because if you've ever had a bladder infection or kidney stone you know just how painful these conditions can be, unfortunately the cat doesn't understand why he's in pain, he just knows that it's not stopping.

I really believe that it's in your cat's best interest to seek the advice of an experienced holistic veterinarian and making sure that your cat receives appropriate medicine to manage his pain. If I was in your situation I'd seriously consider switching this kitty's food from a lower quality or dry diet to a high quality canned food such as Wellness or Spot's Stew by Halo - some cats will take longer than others to switch over from dry food while others dive right in and forget about dry food altogether. If you aren't able to get ahold of holistic veterinarians in your area you can check out the Ask a Vet portion of this site and contact Dr. Christine Chambreau, she offers phone consultations and advice, unfortunately they aren't free. Regardless of what you decide to do the most important thing that needs to happen right now is that your cat must receive appropriate pain control because I'm sure he's very painful given what's happening with his urinary tract regardless of the diagnosis. Unfortunately cats are famous for hiding some fairly severe pain because they don't like to appear weak - in the animal world a weak animal doesn't survive.