Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease Explained
Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease is a general term which is used to explain a variety of different disorders. The disease can cause struvite crystals and oxalate stones to form in your cat's blood. Cystitis can also occur, as can bladder and kidney stones. These can cause your cat to urinate frequently or strain to urinate. Blood may appear in your cat's urine or he may begin to urinate in odd places.
Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease is common; one in three cats will receive a diagnosis of this disease within its lifetime. Treatment might involve surgery to remove a urinary blockage. The disease can cause permanent damage to the urinary tract and even be fatal.
Preventing FLUTD
Fortunately, FLUTD is easy to prevent with proper cat nutrition. A diet based on dry commercial cat food makes your cat's urine very concentrated, and this can cause urinary trouble for him. The modern domestic cat evolved in the very arid regions of Africa, Europe and China, and because of the lack of drinking water in these regions, cats evolved to get most of the moisture in their diets from their prey. Dry kibble just doesn't provide your cat with the dietary moisture he needs.
Commerical kibble also has a very high carbohydrate content. This leads to a more alkaline urine. If your cat's urine is too alkaline, he'll be more likely to form struvite crystals, kidney stones and other forms of urinary blockage. Biologically speaking, your cat requires a meat diet, which produces a more acidic urine; a healthy urinary pH is essential to your cat's good health.
Benefits of Low pH Cat Food
Low pH cat food provides your cat with the nutrition he needs for optimum health. Low pH cat food can prevent FLUTD and its painful symptoms, such as kidney and bladder stones. It can also prevent more serious illnesses such as chronic kidney failure.
Chronic kidney failure occurs when your cat's kidneys can no longer efficiently remove waste from the blood. Chronic kidney disease causes your cat to produce lots of urine, without eliminating waste. It's different from kidney disease, which occurs when the kidney are overworked or suffere damage due to drugs, toxins or illness.
A low pH cat food diet keeps your cat's urinary tract healthy by helping to maintain appropriate levels of urinary acidity. This can prevent a host of urinary problems, including the development of struvite crystals, oxalate stones, bladder and kidney stones. A low pH cat food also prevents chronic renal failure, a failure of the kidneys to efficiently remove bodily wastes from the blood. Chronic renal failure can be difficult to treat and carries a poor prognosis; if kidney failure is complete, your cat may require intravenous fluids to maintain hydration.