A couple of weeks ago my 7 year old cat Kotyo had his latest cystitis
flare-up. It was much worse than previous ones - he had two flare-ups in
four days. Both times the attacks lasted much longer than usual, and he
was panting and hissing and growling in pain, which he had never done
before.

Usually he has a flare-up every 5-6 months. I keep very careful track of
his litterbox habits and I always know when was the last time that he
peed. So when I see that he starts going to the litterbox more
frequently, and I know that his bladder is empty because he just peed a
couple of hours ago, I know he's got another cystitis attack. I give him
his spasm pill that the vet has given me for the flare-ups
(Phenoxybenzamine), and I give him lots of liquids so that he has
something to pass when he tries to pee and doesn't hurt himself
straining on an empty bladder. He keeps running to the litterbox every
10-15 minutes, then less frequently as the pill starts to work. In a
couple of hours the spasm pill takes full  effect and he's back to
normal, and there's no repeat of the flare-up for up to 6 months.

Until this last time, he had never shown any signs of pain like panting
and growling and hissing, and there had never been a repeat of the
flare-up so soon (within 4 days). This was a very bad flare-up, and I
had to take him to the vet this time. He was put on pain meds,
anti-inflamatories and antibiotics. The antibiotics made him lose his
appetite and the pain meds made him crazy - he almost hurt himself by
obsessively rubbing his face against any and all sharp corners he could
find in the house, hurting his nose and eyes.

It was a very stressful time for both of us. I don't want a repeat of
this. So I am trying to figure out what I can do to prevent these
attacks, or at least to prevent such a painful attack as the last one.

I have started him on a Glucosamine supplement called CystAid (as of 5
days ago). He eats wet food only, 3 times per day, with a LOT of water
added to it to encourage him to pee more often. Even so, he usually pees
only once every 12 hours. Without the added water he would pee no more
than once every 24 hours.

I used to give him a tiny bit of dry food as a treat each day - no more
than 10 bits of kibble of Royal Canin Sensitive. I have stopped this
now, because I read here that cats with cystitis shouldn't get any dry
food at all. But I'd like to know why dry food is bad for cats prone to
cystitis? Is it because cats fed dry food don't drink as much, or is it
because of what's in the dry food itself? If it's not because of the
ingredients, I would like to continue to give him his treat - he still
begs me for it every day, and he can't understand why I won't give it to
him anymore.

Also, can I give him fish-based cat food? I have occasionally given him
some fish wet food - tuna flakes in aloe gel, chunks of sardines and
mackerel. Is it ok to give him that from time to time, or should I stop
giving any fish at all? He does go crazy for the fish. In fact, it was
the only thing he would eat when he was on antibiotics after his latest
cystitis flare-up.

He also likes to eat a bit of cucumber and he always gets some when
we're making a salad. He used to only like the peel, but now he also
likes the actual cucumber. Does anyone know if it's ok to give him that?
My vet had told me that it won't hurt him, but I don't know if it might
not contribute to cystitis flare-ups? I haven't been able to find any
info linking cucumbers to cystitis, but then again most cats don't eat
cucumber...

His wet food is a mix of two different kinds. Each day he gets one 85
gram can of Hill's Chicken and Liver and one 90 gram can of Feline Porta
21 Chicken. The Porta 21 is what you would call a "natural" food I guess
- it's basically shredded white chicken meat in chicken broth, with
vitamins and taurine added - no grains, by-products or weird-sounding
ingredients. (The fish canned food I mentioned earlier was also of the
Porta 21 brand. This is cat food made by a German company -
http://www.portacat.de/catalog/product_info.php/info/p52_Feline-Porta-21-chicken
-in-it--180-s-own-juice.html).
I had wanted to switch him to the Feline Porta 21 food only and stop
giving him the Hill's, but even though on the label of the Porta 21 it
says "Complete food", I am not 100% sure that it has everything to
satisfy a cat's nutritional needs, so I am mixing it with the Hill's.

Here is the list of ingredients for each food:

Hill's Liver with Chicken (85 gram can)

Ingredients: (minimum Liver 26%, minimum Chicken 5%) Pork liver, Pork,
Chicken, ground maize, wheat flour, maize starch, cellulose, animal fat,
digest, rice flour, calcium carbonate, dried yeast, caramel (coloring),
potassium chloride, DL-methionine, calcium sulphate, dicalcium
phosphate, taurine, iodized salt, vitamins and trace elements.
Analysis: Protein 10.1%,  Fat 5.3%, Fibre 1%, Ash 1.4%, Moisture 75.8%,
Calcium 0.2%, Phosphorus 0.17%, Magnesium 0.02%
Additives per kg: Vitamin D3 470 UI, vitamin E 160mg, Copper (copper
sulfate) 1.3 mg (copper?! I'm not sure about that one - I'm translating
this from the small print on the can, which is in Spanish)
The PDF on Hill's site also says that the food includes Omega-3 and
Omega-6 fatty acids, vitamin A, D and E, taurine

Feline Porta 21 Chicken meat in whole pieces (90 gram can)

Ingredients: chicken 65%, chicken broth 35%
Analysis: Crude Protein 14%, Crude Fat 0.5%, Moisture 79%, Crude Ash 2%,
Crude Fibre 0.1%, Magnesium 0.0095%, Calcium 0.12%, Phosphorus 0.1%
Additives per kg: Taurine 200mg, Vitamin A 5000 IU, Vitamin D 700 IU,
Vitamin E 80 mg

Is there anything in these ingredients which should not be eaten by a
cat prone to cystits?

What else can I do to help him? Any other supplements, vitamins I should
be giving him? I would like to hear any ideas or suggestions you might
have. If you've had cats prone to cystitis, what did you do to help
reduce/prevent flare-ups?

thanks,
Nadia (and Kotyo and little Sweety)