We contacted your sight back in May 2013, and you all provided us with some very good advise. Except for developing bladder stones Otis has been doing pretty well.
Otis is 13 years old, he has Cushing's Disease, and is also diabetic. In December,2014 he has surgery for calcium oxalate bladder stones. At that time my Vet recommended no change in diet. He was on Hills Digestive/Weight/Glucose Management (W/D) for his diabetes. At that time the Vet only recommended 1 ML of Potassium Citrate twice daily, which we have followed.
This month, he had surgery again for the same stones, same Vet. I went to get a second opinion from another Vet to see what could be done to prevent a reoccurrence of these bladder stones.
The second Vet agreed the Potassium Citrate was the correct medication, however, he felt we needed to change his diet to a urinary care food. I have gone back and forth with my current Vet concerning his diet, and she is persistent in keeping him on the Hill's W/D formula. She made a decision to change Otis' diet to a Hill's W/D Stew, and also told us to give him vitamin B-6 liquid once a day, and increase his Potassium Citrate to 1.5 ML twice daily.
One of our problems is that we are both retired, and the cost of the Hill's W/D Stew is $36 for 12 cans. Otis is currently eating 1/3 can of wet, and 1/4 cup of dry W/D twice daily. The switch to the W/D Stew would require us to feed him 1 2/3 cans of food per day. With the increase the volume which he would be fed would raise our food cost by $3,600 per year. That does not include his other medications which would put our total cost of just medications and food over $7,000 per year. This does not cover his Vet visits or his quarterly ACTH test.
The Vet also wants us to check his urine PH once a week using a swimming pool test strip. She stated that a good range would be between 7.0 and 7.5.
After reviewing the ingredients in the Hill's W/D Stew, there are several food products that he should not have for the production on the bladder stones. The only reason she has for changing to the stew is that it has more moisture, and will make him urinate more often.
Hill's U/D urinary care has all of the food products he should have based on the type of bladder stones he is prone to develop. The Vets concern is Otis being a diabetic, the U/D urinary care could affect his diabetes. I will call Hill's on Monday morning to get their advise.
Does anyone out there have any solutions or suggestions on how we should proceed? As I stated earlier, you all were so helpful when we started with the Cushing's and Diabetes. He has now survived for 2 1/2 years because of your suggestions, and the knowledge you have passed to us.
Betty and Carl
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