Understanding Your Cat's Urinary Condition

Finding out that your cat has a urinary condition can be distressing, as these can be emergencies or recurrent and unpleasant for your cat.

What Causes Urinary Conditions

Cats are small drinkers and produce very concentrated urine, which makes them more prone to urinary problems. These can be caused by crystals or stones composed of minerals that naturally occur in the cat's urine. They can irritate the urinary tract and even cause a blockage. The most common types are struvite and calcium oxalate. Cats can also develop Feline Idiopathic Cystitis, inflammation of the bladder, often triggered by stress.

Cats with urinary conditions may have difficulty or pain when urinating, blood in the urine or may urinate outside the litter box.

The risk factors for urinary conditions include low water consumption, being overweight and emotional or environmental stress such as multi-cat households or changes in daily routine.

Diet is Important

Depending on their type, urinary stones can either be surgically removed or dissolved by feeding a formulated diet such as Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets Feline UR St/Ox Urinary.

Whatever the cause of the urinary condition, a key aspect of management is to increase the production of a larger volume of dilute urine. Feline UR St/Ox Urinary is formulated to encourage cats to take in more water and has been shown to increase urine volume and dilution, when feeding the wet formula.

Purina Pro Plan Veterinary Diets Feline UR St/Ox Urinary is highly palatable and its effectiveness in the management of urinary conditions has been verified by pioneering analytical methods called RSS and APR. The ST/OX claim highlights its efficacy in promoting a urine composition that will help dissolve struvite stones and help reduce the formation of calcium oxalate or struvite stones.