Combining Hill's c/d-s and Uroeze (Ammonium Chloride)

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MarkF - 04 Sep 2003 03:43 GMT

I have a question regarding my cat with FLUTD. My cat had two
episodes of being blocked so the doctor recommended him eating a
prescription food, Hill's c/d-s. The cat would not eat it at all,
neither canned nor dry, so instead the doctor recommended that we put
Uroeze (Ammonium Chloride) in his normal wet food. This worked well
and the cat ate the food. Sometimes as a snack, my wife tried giving
him the dry Hill's c/d-s food and he began to eat that. Recently when
we spoke to the doctor he told us that the cat should not eat both
food, only one or the other.

This does not make much sense to me. The analogy that I used was if a
person was vitamin C deficient and a doctor said, "You can eat 10
oranges or 8 lemons a day", it would be perfectly legitimate to eat 5
oranges and 4 lemons and you should still get the same amount of
vitamin C. Or another analogy would be if you were trying to eat low
fat foods, you should be able to eat any low fat food, not just one.
The same logic should apply to the cat foods.

Has anyone else had experience with this? Any advice? Thanks!

Sincerely,

Mark

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Karen Chuplis - 04 Sep 2003 12:44 GMT

> I have a question regarding my cat with FLUTD. My cat had two
> episodes of being blocked so the doctor recommended him eating a
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
>
> Mark

Wet is better than dry because of the extra water content, but since c/d is
specifically for the treatment of FLUTD, I'm not sure why dry as a snack
would be a no no from that standpoint, only that perhaps the doctor also
wants as much as possible. There are a couple of different vet brands for
this, but if he eats the c/d now, I guess I'd leave it at that. Also, put
bowls of water all over the house to remind him to drink.

Karen

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Alison Smiley Perera - 04 Sep 2003 15:26 GMT

> I have a question regarding my cat with FLUTD. My cat had two
> episodes of being blocked so the doctor recommended him eating a
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> Has anyone else had experience with this? Any advice? Thanks!

I think that the concern is that it is possible to over-acidify the
urine by combining the Uro-Eze and the c/d-s (which of course has an
acidifier built in). The vet's instructions, perhaps even the bag of
c/d-s, is full of warnings not to use acidifiers concurrently with the
prescription diet. I'm not sure how the Uroeze works physiologically,
whether its effects could carry over, so frankly I'd trust your vet on
this one if you've been quite clear with him on how you're managing the
cat's diet.

My cat has had both struvite crystals (form readily in alkaline urine,
can be dissolved by acid urine) and oxalate crystals (form readily in
acid urine and cannot be dissolved) so I am leery of mucking with my
boy's pH with artificial acidifiers. Oxalate crystals are present in
nearly 50% of clinical cases of FLUTD these days, so I'd think anyone
whose cat had the disorder would be similarly concerned. Since the
A-Number-One factor in prevention of blockage is providing a dilute
urine (if he's peeing a lot and frequently, he's flushing the bladder,
crystals have a hard time forming, mucus plugs have a hard time forming,
etc.) I personally think that feeding a wet diet (I even add water until
each meal is soupy) is of major importance and I don't bother fiddling
with pH or prescription diets. So if your vet is saying, feed the plain
wet food and if you have to give crunchy treats use the c/d-s? That
makes plenty of sense to me.

-Alison in OH

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Steve Crane - 04 Sep 2003 20:12 GMT

> I have a question regarding my cat with FLUTD. My cat had two
> episodes of being blocked so the doctor recommended him eating a
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
> fat foods, you should be able to eat any low fat food, not just one.
> The same logic should apply to the cat foods.

Mark,
Your veterinarian is quite correct on this one. If you dose the cat
with Uroeze according to directions and then add in a food which is
designed to acidify the diet to the proper range of 6.2-6.4 you run
the risk of over acidifying the diet and endangering the cat with the
formation of Calcium Oxalte crystals which form in aicd urine below
6.2.

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MarkF - 06 Sep 2003 21:00 GMT

> Your veterinarian is quite correct on this one. If you dose the cat
> with Uroeze according to directions and then add in a food which is
> designed to acidify the diet to the proper range of 6.2-6.4 you run
> the risk of over acidifying the diet and endangering the cat with the
> formation of Calcium Oxalte crystals which form in aicd urine below
> 6.2.

I spoke to my vet about the situation (my wife spoke to him first) and
though at first he kept to his first argument, ultimately he agreed
with me. I started by explaining that the cat primarily eats the
Uroeze-treated wet food, but that as a "snack" we give him a small
amount of the dry found. He again tried to argue that this would
"over acidify" him, but again this sounded like the argument of
getting too much vitamin C because you're eating oranges and lemons
instead of oranges only. I then asked, "as a snack, should I then
feed him non-prescription food instead?" and he answered, "no, the cat
should only eat prescription food." "Like the Hill's diet, for
example?" as asked. "Yes, that would be good," was his reply.

People don't seem to get the point that eating two foods with an
acidying effect should be the same as eating one food (as long as the
total quantities of food are equal). This seems like very basic
science to me. The only way that using both should increase the
acidifying effect is if I were add the Uroeze to the Hill's diet,
which I am not.

Ultimately, I think I stick with the current plan. Eating primarily
wet food will give him the liquid he needs, and the 1/2 cup of Hill's
diet at night will give him something to crunch on, which he likes.
As a 27 pound Maine Coon monster, the 1/2 cup shouldn't have that much
impact either way.

Thanks for everyone's advice!

Mark

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Steve Crane - 07 Sep 2003 04:29 GMT

> Ultimately, I think I stick with the current plan. Eating primarily
> wet food will give him the liquid he needs, and the 1/2 cup of Hill's
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
>
> Mark

Mark,
At what dose are you administering Uroeze in his morning wet food?

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