From: hannah@pomponio.ai.sri.com (Marsha Jo Hannah)
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: FUS diet (Was: How much food should a cat eat?)
Date: 9 Apr 92 20:42:01 GMT
Article-I.D.: pomponio.HANNAH.92Apr9134201
	<1992Apr9.063704.13770@pony.Ingres.COM>
	<1992Apr9.161755.21538@pony.Ingres.COM>
Organization: SRI International, Menlo Park, CA
In-reply-to: white@Ingres.COM's message of 9 Apr 92 16:17:54 GMT

In article <1992Apr9.161755.21538@pony.Ingres.COM> white@Ingres.COM (Bill White) writes:

   We now have three 1-year-olds who need to be fed more carefully because of
   a chronic FUS problem that one of them has developed.  They're all on a
   prescription diet ... , and no snacks are allowed.

   There's been one FUS attack, even during the diet regimen, so we've taken
   a couple more steps:  (1) Water bowls all over the house.
   ... And (2) removing the food between meals.  ...
   This is Fraser's Cardinal Rule, particularly in FUS cases, as she claims
   that the smell of food triggers a digestive reaction that causes the urine
   to become less acidic.  Less acidic urine does contribute to FUS.

I've only recently started reading rec.pets.cats, so forgive me if I
go over ground that has already been covered.  I thought I'd relate
what our vets had to say about our cases of FUS, and what has worked
for us.

First of all, our cats are indoor/outdoor rural cats---while we're at
work, they're outside climbing trees, pouncing rodents, and generally
behaving like cats.  When we get home, we let them in (and out, and
in, and ... ;-) ).  Sometimes they sleep on our beds overnight; often
they ask to go out prowling some more (usually about 3am), then come
in again for breakfast.  So far, we've always had cats 2 at a time---
pairs of male/female siblings (all neutered), raised from kittens.
Both of the males developed FUS when fed only Purina Cat Chow, free
choice (plus whatever "snacks" they caught and ate outside).  Things
that the vets recommended included:

1) Add canned cat food to their diet, as wet foods tend to be lower in
ash than dry ones.  Our current pair now shares a 6-oz can of ordinary
cat food (Alpo, Whiskas, etc), morning and evening.  Note that the vet
did not think that we needed to delete Cat Chow completely, nor remove
food between meals.  Adding canned cat food decreased but did not
eliminate FUS in our first male cat.

2) Try to get them to drink more water.  The vet recommended lightly
salting the wet cat food, or sprinkling a little soy sauce over the
dry food.  The cats weren't impressed, so we eventually gave up on
this.

3) Acidify their urine.  The theory was that FUS is caused by the
formation of large crystals in the urine, which then cause pain when
the (usually neutered male) cat tries to eliminate them via a canal
smaller than the crystals.  However, the crystals are less likely to
form in an acidic environment (and part of the cure for an acute case
of FUS are tablets to acidify the urine, hence dissolve the existing
crystals).  Our vet recommended giving our male cats a daily tablet of
vitamin C as a preventative measure.

We started our current male cat, Fats, with children's chewable C in
100 mg tablets; he decided it didn't taste that bad, and soon got to
the point that we needed only place it on his tongue; he would work it
around slightly in his mouth to get it into just the right position,
then politely swallow it.  We then moved up to adult C in 250 mg
tablets (the recommended dose---due to fillers, the chewable 100 mg
tablet is the same size as the adult 250 mg tablet).  Fats continues
to take his medicine politely, and will often pick up the tablet from
my husband's hand, rather than our having to open his mouth to give
it.  Our previous neutered male cat (Pigpen, RIP) had many bouts of
FUS around age 6, which stopped completely after we began the vitamin
C routine, and he was FUS-free for the remaining 8 years of his life.
Fats had one bout at about a year old, whereupon we began using C, and
he has had no further problems in the 5 years since then.  A side
benefit is that, having gotten used to taking his daily C politely, he
is also very good about taking his worming pills.

Standard disclaimer---it works for us, but your mileage may vary.

Marsha Jo Hannah
La Honda, CA
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats