From: klier@iscsvax.uni.edu
Newsgroups: rec.pets.cats
Subject: Re: Cat food/boarding questions
Date: 11 Nov 92 21:20:16 -0600
Organization: University of Northern Iowa

In article <Qf0MIsO00iV086T2QK@andrew.cmu.edu>, Anna Matyas <am2x+@andrew.cmu.edu> writes:
> Anyway, the people there told me to make sure I buy cat food with a
> low ash content because this will help to prevent the infection from
> recurring.  However, when I took Gracie to the vet in September,she
> said that ash content has nothing to do with it and I should buy
> food that has no magnesium in it.

"Ash" is the weight of the stuff that's left after a sample of cat food
is burned.  In other words, it's the mineral content (since carbon,
hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen are burned off).  Most plant-derived
foods are going to have a fairly high magnesium content, since there is
a magnesium atom in the middle of every chlorophyll molecule-- and
plants store up magnesium "for a rainy day".  You can have a food
that is high ash but low magnesium -- the residue might be mainly
calcium and iron, for instance.

Cat kidney and bladder stones are made of magnesium ammonium phosphate
(human bladder stones are mainly calcium oxalate though).

If you reduce the amount of magnesium in a cat's diet, the cat should
be less prone to making stones.  Both Diana and I have found that if
you live in an area with significant amounts of magnesium in the water
(usually because you're also living in an area with a lot of dolomite),
it seems to help to give your cat distilled water instead of tap water.
I've never found any studies of *drinking water magnesium* effects on
cat bladder stones and FUS, but I consider a jug of distilled water a
minor expense.

Foods that are high in meat tend to produce an acidic urine, as does the
addition of methionine to foods, or ammonium chloride.  Magnesium
ammonium phosphate doesn't precipitate easily in acidic urine.  That's
one of the reasons that I switched from my old standby "grocery store
foods" to a high-meat premium catfood.  I have only anecdotal evidence
to offer, since I've only had one FUS-y cat (Bear), but since I've
switched to the high meat catfoods and distilled water, we've had no
recurrence of Bear's FUS -- and I used to make emergency vet trips 
2-3 times a year.

> 
> Also, I'm going to board Gracie soon for a week when I go away.  She has
> a rather gentle constitution and I'm so concerned that she's going to feel
> like she's been dumped yet again.  If stress really can cause urinary
> tract infections in cats she could develop it again. Does anyone know if
> stress really does this?  Also, I have this fear that she's going to get
> ill or even die because she's going to be so sad.  (Perhaps I'm being
> vain here thinking she'll miss me so much -- she might have the time of
> her life!).

I don't board my cats at all, unless the vet needs to keep them for medical
reasons.  Boarding can expose your cat to other cat's diseases, and it's
almost always more stressful than leaving them home with a cat sitter.
My choices of cat care, in descending order, are: leave them at home with
a friend they know living there, leave them home with a friend they know
stopping in to feed them, leave them home with a stranger stopping in to
feed them, and moving them to a house of someone they know.

Again, this is anecdotal evidence, not a scientific study, but my cats
always seem to be more prone to all sorts of illness when stressed, just
like humans.

Kay Klier  Biology Dept  UNI