[Diseased]

Hi everyone~!
I need some help. My dear, almost 2 year, kitty has kidney stones... When we first saw some problems we went to the vet to see what was going on, he had a blood test (Which was expensive) and something else, revealing he has stones. And the operation costs 600-800 Canadian dollars. That is A lot for us, if we had that kind of money, I would have gone to summer camp and such (Altho, if we did, it would go to the cat not camp) , but we don't.. I don't know what to do... My mom had kidney stones before and she had an operation, but before the operation she would drink this herb tea, and Ive been brewing it and giving it to my cat ( Around 3 tables spoons a day), if I don't miss it, he pee's better. We also swicthed his food, but he throws up his new wet food... Is there any suggestions for some good quality cat food? I really don't know what to do. I don't want him to die. Is there any thing else I can do? We just don't have the money for the operation.

[Sariss]

Try to work out a payment plan with your vet. Unfortunately costs such as this are something someone has to think about when acquiring a pet.
Last year I spent $1200 trying to treat my cat, but she passed away anyway (and that price was with my discount, it would have been $2400 if I didn't work there as a nurse). For this reason, I have a credit card solely for things like this that come up.

Good luck. If you are a good client of your vets (come for vaccines, etc etc), they may work out a payment plan if you explain your situation to them.

[morgaine300]

Well, I can't help with the surgery end of things, other than to add that there are places that will help with vet expenses if you want to try to go that route. You didn't mention the severity - it could conceivably pass on its own, though probably would be painful. Or... it could also block the urethra.

I don't know if what's helping about the tea is actually the herbs themselves or the mere fact that it is liquid. Cats can have certain herbs, but I'd be careful about just taking a human tea and giving that without knowing if it's OK. I know that cranberries help the kidneys and I've even seen that for cats, but again, you'd want to know how much you can give. For stuff like that, you might want to check out holisticat.com.

But just liquid helps. The more liquid you can get in him, the better chance the stone may dissolve.

I'm assuming the food you got was a prescription food -- because they really aren't very good quality. In the long-run, one of the best things you can do is just feed all canned. Cats don't naturally drink a lot and they generally aren't going to drink enough to make up for the lack of moisture in dry food. They get their moisture from their prey. Canned food has almost the amount of moisture they need. This does not have to be a prescription diet! Especially since those diets are generally poor quality.

Some good quality foods are Wellness, EVO, byNature, Nature's Variety, etc. (Look at the ingredients. Try to avoid grains - that can exaccerbate the problem. There are differing opinions on things like peas, carrots, berries and the like. If you simply remember they are meat-eaters... they do eat some plants and such, but not very much.) A better quality food will help keep your cat more healthy overall. And canned food will provide better moisture to help with urinary tract health.

Now... it also can depend on what caused those stones. Merely staying on a canned diet might be all you need. If he's prone to infection you may just have to stay on top of that carefully.

It would be nice to know what kind of stones. Struvite stones can be caused by too much magnesium and phosphorus. If you can get a hold of nutritional content, you can actually compare foods and find appropriate ones. My personal belief is that the better the food to begin with, that is, the closer the food is to being cat-appropriate, the less likely this stuff is to happen to begin with. Seems like we're forever fixing problems with "special" foods that sometimes are caused by a bad food to begin with. And most of the "special" ones are bad too.

Though there are breeds and other genetic things that can make certain animals prone to things like this. You can't help genetics - you can only nudge them a bit.