Thread: Poor Monty... peeing probs / cystitis

Poor Monty,very unpleasant time for him,better cystitis though than stones.
Working for a vet from "The old school"I have always been very wary of dried food,never had the number of problems with cats suffereing from cystitis pre the dried food era,some seem to cause problems more than others...We used to find our fountain seemed to go slimey & needed cleaning out frequently but stuck with it because we knew by how the water dropped daily that it was being well used,not only for drinking,have come up with a good remedy to prevent it though,since there has been six cats using it the slime side has disappeared ! We assume it is because for most of the day there is one cat or another at it,alongside big bowls of water as well.If Monty will eat tinned food give him one of the cheaper jelly ones,lots of jelly equates to lot of fluid intake.....along with his prawns in water of course ! I would keep him well away from dry for a little while anyway & although mine don't have much dried food in their diet they are given Hills Oral a couple of times a week,its a really large kibble & I actually count out the number of biscuits I allow each cat,how sad is that,I also make sure that the magnesium content in any of their dry is no higher than 0.08% although Hills is good because it is normally 0.07%,another whim from a vet of the old school !
Hope he is soon feeling a lot better.

I don't have a water fountain, just a big ceramic dog bowl of water, and between the 3 of them I top it up every other day. Still, I don't actually know if they are drinking enough, so I add water to their food when I can. If I am cooking them some fish or meat, I add water to the pan and when it's cooked, I let it all cool down and serve the cooking water with the food. They have something like this once a day. Sounds a bit like your fish swill! Except I don't whizz it up. They've had no problems so far, but they are only young...hopefully this will be OK for them.

Hope El Presidente is back to strutting his stuff very soon! xxx

We have a water fountain, the washing up bowl in the utility room and two more water bowls. All of ours, particularly Hobbes, seem to adore water and drink copious amounts. The biggest problem with the fountain that we have found is that clumping cat litter tends to clog and cloud the bowl and the mat that the whole contraption sits on - we had run out of our duck & goose crumb litter and had to wait for it to come in.

Poor Monty - hope he is soon back to his normal self!

Originally Posted by jckkerrison

Working for a vet from "The old school"I have always been very wary of dried food,

Yes, I think I am coming round to the ‘old school’ philosophy as well. Hill’s Oral is on top of my list to try as dry food. For canned food I will have to find out what they like and what agrees with their tummies. They love Whiskas and it doesn’t give them the squits, but I am not sure about the nutritional value.

How exactly did you prevent the fountain from getting slimy? I’d gladly cash out for a new one if I knew.

Monty has been quietly dozing for a couple of hours. Then I gave him some Prawn Swill, while hubby and I frantically tried to keep the girls away – they got their own bowls but the little minxes insisted on helping themselves out of Monty’s. He just lets them, he’s such a wuss. After that battle Montyman went to the loo… I snuck after him and boldly lifted his tail (yep, sad lot we are) and saw he’d produced a rather nice amount of pee… not yet a tsunami but significantly more than this morning! YAY!

I just think we were lucky that when more cats started drinking from it that it seemed as if it kept everything flowing more & didn't clog up so easy,not the cheapest way though of doing it,wouldn't recommend you bought six furries just in case it didn't work for you..
If your cats are fine with Whiskas I wouldn't worry about that being their main source of food,as I have put in other threads mine have been brought up on tinned Felix,even the babes although they did have a vitamin suplement for the first few months,I have had no growth or health worries with any of them,I think companies play on the fact that we all try to go that extra mile for our pets now a days but not always to the best advantage for them,never used to get obese cats & dogs but now it is one of the biggest problems we have which in turn causes other health problems that once were rarely seen,if you could compare the contents of one of the cheaper meats to that of a little mouse or bird I don't think you would find that you are giving them a lot less goodness...!
So pleased that Monty has had a fairly good pee,shows that your ways of getting fluid in is working, keep it going.....! More prawn swill ? The girls are just going to luv his misfortune...x

Originally Posted by Antonia

How exactly did you prevent the fountain from getting slimy? I’d gladly cash out for a new one if I knew.
!

Hah! Wash them every 3-4 days. Disassemble the pumps in particular. I have run one through the dishwasher (not the pump), and have also used rubbing alcohol and dilute bleach to try to kill the nasty looking stuff that will grow on them. Seriously, I was each of our two out twice a week. It is a big pain in the butt! However, they definitely encourage three of our four to drink more water. The fourth prefers water bowls in a couple of sinks.

Originally Posted by NCarver

Hah! Wash them every 3-4 days. Disassemble the pumps in particular.

We did that even more frequent than that at some point... still got the slimy stuff.

Originally Posted by candes

Tap water has chlorine in it.

Not in Holland... over here tap water is disinfected with ozone, UV and membrane filters.
But we did use to clean the fountain pump with bleach (=chlorine)... perhaps that was what caused the problem.

When I disinfect anything of the cats I always use Milton,safe for babies so....! We change the water daily in the fountain,what is left of it,but as we have water softner fitted {hard stuff around here} I think that does help anyway but where as we were stripping it right down a couple of times a week with the added use it has been reduced to complete overhaul every 10 to 14 days,quick wipe round dome & bowl othertimes,also thinking about it we went from clump litter to the chick pellets about the same time,could this also be something to do with it because the grey litter is slimey when wet & the darlings always have to stir before drinking,perhaps I don't need six furries after all to make life easier with the water fountain,now which ones bags are going to be packed to go & sit up on the bypass & hope someone feels sorry for them.....!
Hope we soon hear some more good news about Monty.

Originally Posted by jckkerrison

Hope we soon hear some more good news about Monty.

Thanks jck... we’ve been out for part of the day, so I haven’t been able to monitor his peeing. I heard him scurrying in the downstairs litter box earlier, but when I got down there he had already buried whatever he’d deposited. But he certainly seems well enough… he’s relaxed, not agitated, has an appetite. I’ve put extra drinking bowls in various places around the kitchen with different kinds of fluids such as water with a tiny bit of milk and fish cooking water. But so far Monty hasn’t paid particular attention to them (and neither have the girls, much to my surprise).

This afternoon we popped into the local pet shop for wet food. We bought Gourmet mousse and Whiskas sachets with fish in jelly. With the Gourmet came a scratch card and we won a cream blanket with gold trimming… which is of course very befitting for El Presidente! He thought so as well and immediately claimed it as his personal blankie. Here are some pics of him on it, sleeping off a copious Fish Swill luncheon.