Dietary Changes for Cystitis

For kitty gut and bladder inflammation, check your cat's food for Carrageenan. It causes inflammation in the gut, GI tract, and can cause diabetes type symptoms, etc.

Carrageenan is used by pharma companies to induce inflammation in lab animals to test anti-inflammatory medications. The only food I could find is Feline natural and Ziwi Peak from New Zealand.

Carragennan is in human foods too, baby formulas, ensure, coffee creamers, juice....It should be banned.

My 15 year old female got cystitis and I went to 3 vets and spent a fortune on food, tests, apple cider vinegar, and the probiotic liquid, and meds. Nothing worked and I was at my wits end. My cat was trying to pee on everything, my house stunk, and my cat was in horrible pain, and it was breaking my heart because I couldn't help her. I was really afraid I was going to have to put her down. I was so mad at myself for giving her dried food her entire life. After searching and searching online I found a holistic vet video talking about cystitis. OMG 3 months later this cat has been back to normal since the week I put her on it. Get your hands on ANY rabbit canned food and add a little water for extra moisture and feed them that. And never take them off of it. That is what they need. It was hard to find. I get mine from pets plus but its expensive :( I did find an alternative thats actually better and less expensive on chewy. But she turned her nose up to it after eating the expensive stuff. So I would personally try chewy first and then if not get it from pets plus or whatever you have. The one I used is by the company pride in a blue can. Please please if you have a serious case and nothing is fixing it and the cat is in pain. Please put the cat on rabbit. Im spending around $70 for this food a month but theres nothing I can do its all she can eat and I have my baby back for however many years she has left :) I am grateful I found this vets video and I wish I could remember her name but she is my angel. I hope I can help anyone else that is in the situation I was. Good luck everyone!!!

My 8 year old cat kept getting recurring urinary tract infections every 2 months or so for the past year. The vet suggested testing for kidney stones and possibility surgery. Before I submitted her to the testing, I tried another approach. In the end, I found that her food was the problem.

I had been mixing her (hard cat food) Friskies with (hard cat food) Science Diet kitten food ever since she was born. I thought she loved the "richness" of the mix.

Before I submitted her to the testing and surgery, I removed the Science Diet kitten food entirely from her diet and wha-la! It's been 6 months and she has not had any more urinary tract infections! Her weight has normalized and she's as happy and healthy as ever.

So...if your cat has been getting recurring urinary tract infections...look to the food as the culprit!

I have 6 cats. One of my Males and one of my Females can not tolerate any grains in their diet. Cats are carnivores; they are meat and water animals. Some cats can do okay on minimal grain. Brown rice and barley, NO CORN, NO WHEAT, NO SOY. If these two eat any grains they urinate blood. I put them on a grain free wet food and add more water (spring water or at least filtered) to make it mashed potato consistency. They cleared up within 12 hours of changing their diet and I have not had any urinary tract problems since. The food is more expensive but a lot cheaper than the vet, my babies are very happy and I am back to sanity.

I would like to tell of my experience so that it may help other cat owners. Mine starts with human cystitis. I suffered for 12 years with tons of doctor visits and medications, one operation and ONE CURE! Apple cider vinegar was suggested to me by my sister inlaw who is a chiropractor. But it ended up giving me heartburn after the first day. So when I called her to let her know she said that a lot of her patients tried cranberry pills, the juice usually has too much sugar. That was it for me, I tried them and have been using them since. One pill when I feel it coming on is all it has taken. I have not had to go to the doctor for cystitis in years.

I was very concerned when my big male kitty that we addopted came with the same problem as me. After spending over a thousand dollars in vet bills and special food diets from the vet's office, I decided to research what was in the foods myself. I was shocked to find that they sell cat food with cranberry in it. We switched my "pudgey" to a food that not only had cranberry but also had more meat in it. We stuck with the dry because we were concerned with his teeth being healthy. What a difference! This last food change worked. No more having to buy food at the vet. Almost all of the one's the vet suggested didn't have cranberry, so I can only assume that's what helped. Pudgey is going on 14 years now and is very healthy without cystitis any more. I worry about the ACV that people may be giving to the cats. The cat may be getting heart burn and may not be able to convey that to the owner. It is much easier to try a food with cranberry to see if it works than to syringe ACV into kitty. Thanks.