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Cat Forum / Health and Behavior / April 2005Ping Phil P: urinary crystals
I posted this question a couple weeks ago but there are so many posts here these days it got buried. Can a cat have crystals in her urine temporarily? Our cat (age 7) had routine urinalysis at her annual exam which showed the pH "off" and some crystals. The second urinalysis a week later was completely normal and no crystals. She is going back in a couple weeks for another urinalysis but I'm wondering how a cat could have crystals temporarily. Can it be due to stress? She was very stressed at the first office visit because another cat there was yowling in pain. The vet said not to change her diet just yet because the crystals might have been a one time thing but I'm just wondering how that is possible. Thanks-- Yngver Yes. Google Interstitial Cysititis Feline. Stress can indeed be a factor. A Feliway Diffuser may be all she needs! > I posted this question a couple weeks ago but there are so many posts > here these days it got buried. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Thanks-- > Yngver Thanks, Karen. We used to use a Feliway diffuser but haven't in a while. I'm just wondering if it was a one time thing as the vet suggested since nothing showed up on the second urinalysis. -Yngver > Yes. Google Interstitial Cysititis Feline. Stress can indeed be a factor. A > Feliway Diffuser may be all she needs! [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Thanks-- > > Yngver > I posted this question a couple weeks ago but there are so many posts > here these days it got buried. [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > to change her diet just yet because the crystals might have been a one > time thing but I'm just wondering how that is possible. Stress could raise urine pH- but the stress would need to be sustained for crystals to form. Another possibility is insufficient time elapsed for the crystals to dissolve. This is why struvite is sometimes found in acidic urine- which leads some vets to automatically assume the crystals are calcium oxalate. Buy yourself a package of urine dip sticks or a cheap pH meter for $25 and monitor your cat's urine pH at home- this will take stress out of picture as a cause. Good luck, Phil > > I posted this question a couple weeks ago but there are so many posts > > here these days it got buried. [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > Stress could raise urine pH- but the stress would need to be sustained for > crystals to form. That's what I thought--that it would be unlikely she developed crystals just in the time she was waiting at the vet's. > Another possibility is insufficient time elapsed for the crystals to > dissolve. This is why struvite is sometimes found in acidic urine- which > leads some vets to automatically assume the crystals are calcium oxalate. He didn't tell me what kind of crystals they were. But this scenario sounds quite possible since the second urinalysis was normal. She came in the next week for a dental extraction and they did the second urinalysis then. I don't know whether they would extract the sample before or after anesthesia. In fact, now that I think of it, she was in a lot pain from a decayed tooth so I wonder if that was creating enough stress to cause crystals. She was like a changed cat when I brought her home--I never saw a cat recover from dental work so fast. She was happy and playing and purring as soon as she got home. Having that tooth removed must have been a big relief. > Buy yourself a package of urine dip sticks or a cheap pH meter for $25 and > monitor your cat's urine pH at home- this will take stress out of picture as [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Phil Thanks. Good idea about the dip sticks. With three cats, sometimes you can't tell whose urine it is but it would be good to keep tabs on all three. -Yngver > He didn't tell me what kind of crystals they were. If the crystals weren't present in the second urinalysis they were probably struvite- since calcium oxalate doesn't dissolve. > Thanks. Good idea about the dip sticks. With three cats, sometimes you > can't tell whose urine it is but it would be good to keep tabs on all > three. I f you only want to monitor pH, with three cats, you'd probably be better off with a pH meter. Here's a decent meter that will probably cost less than two packs of dipsticks : http://www.labdepotinc.com/product_details~id~225~pid~12463.aspx OTOH, with dipsticks you can check for blood, glucose, protein, pH, etc. at the same time. Phil > > He didn't tell me what kind of crystals they were. > [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > Phil Re: Urine crystals in general. Somebody posted here, in the last few days, that only 2% of the population of cat actually develop urine crystals. It was probably on a wet-dry food debate somewhere here. Anyway. I questioned it then, but didn't say anything. But I'm realizing, with this thread, look how many people, just the people who post here, whose cats have had that problem. Besides the people IRL I know whose cats have, also. That information can't be right. I wonder where that statistic came from. Sherry > > > He didn't tell me what kind of crystals they were. > > [quoted text clipped - 29 lines] > know whose cats have, also. That information can't be right. I wonder > where that statistic came from. Probably from the Veterinary Medical Database at Purdue. But the VMDB only uses records from cats seen in the 26 vet university hospitals and not the records of local vets. Vet hospitals see a very small portion of the owned feline population. So, I don't think the VMDB figures reflect the actual percentages. Phil > > He didn't tell me what kind of crystals they were. > > If the crystals weren't present in the second urinalysis they were probably > struvite- since calcium oxalate doesn't dissolve. So those are due to acidic urine, from what I read. > > Thanks. Good idea about the dip sticks. With three cats, sometimes you > > can't tell whose urine it is but it would be good to keep tabs on all [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > OTOH, with dipsticks you can check for blood, glucose, protein, pH, etc. at > the same time. Thanks, sounds like a good monitor. If there is a problem with our cat's diet, I need to think about what's different from what the other cats eat, since they have never had crystals. They all eat a variety of canned food, but this cat has also been eating SD Oral Care dry food for a couple of years. The other two don't like it and won't eat it, so I suppose that's the food I'd have to suspect is causing a problem. But maybe it was stress and nothing to do with her diet. I imagine if the third urinalysis is normal the vet will just say he wants to watch it. -Yngver > I'm wondering how a cat could have crystals temporarily. > Can it be due to stress? Hodge had them for a while, we treated, he's on a diet, and he hasn't had them since. I didn't think they were a permanent condition?  Signaturehttp://www.slywy.com/ > > I'm wondering how a cat could have crystals temporarily. > > Can it be due to stress? > > Hodge had them for a while, we treated, he's on a diet, and he hasn't > had them since. I didn't think they were a permanent condition? > > -- > http://www.slywy.com/ No, I think the question is whether we should change our cat's diet. The vet said since the second urinalysis was normal, not to change anything just yet. I assume if the third analysis later this month shows crystals again, he will want to put her on a special diet to eliminate them. -Yngver |
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