Veterinary Revisited
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Topic: Cats
Rei and I met our veterinarian neighbor while out for a walk today, and I told her about my experience with Loki and her bladder sludge problem, specifically about my dissatisfaction that it took hundreds of dollars worth of testing to discover she needed a different catfood. Donna pointed out that its fortunate that her problem was not as serious as the expenditure, and that clients should not be dissatisfied that their cats don't have a more proportionally serious problem just because the diagnosis cost so much. This is true, I admit- I was really afraid the diagnosis would point to diabetes for Loki, and I am very glad it wasn't. She said that simply trying the cat food would not have been a proper choice upon discovery of crystals in the u/a, due to Loki's age- that it would be neglectful of the vets to not rule out kidney issues, diabetes and liver function in cats her age (12) presented with these symptoms. So I retract my dissatisfaction with her vet. I continued that Finn had had urinary crystals as a kitten and not since- that I was keeping him on regular cat food and not sharing Loki's food primarily because her new food is expensive. She explained that when Finn was a kitten, commercial cat foods were composed such that cats tended to have struvite crystals. In response to that, all the cat foods adjusted their ash and magnesium content to create a pH that would dissolve those crystals. Then vets began to see these other crystals that begin with o- which is what Loki has accumulated- due to everybody having such a high pH in their system to prevent struvite crystals, this new pH was conducive to the formation of O-crystals. due to this, Donna said it would not be a good idea to let Finn eat Loki's food. Essentially, it was not the testing that was wrong at the vets, but it was the ability to explain this to me logically that was lacking. Either way, I am glad that both my old cats are healthy.