Treating Feline Urinary Problems: Cranberries

Cranberries

If you go to any alternative medicine site and look for natural treatments for bladder infections, cranberry in its many forms is touted as a cure or prevention.  But does it work?  And more importantly for me, does it work for a cat?

Cranberry seems to work because a proanthocyanidins (an antioxidant) prevents the E. Coli from attaching to the cell walls in the bladder.  In vitro studies have confirmed that proanthocyanins do cause deformation of the E. coli cells and thus suggests prevents them from adhering to the bladder walls.  The adhesion in one study was reduced by 75%

There are no studies in cats.

There is a study in beagles showing that the metabolites of the cranberry do appear to make it to the bladder and do reduce the adhesion of the E. coli.  The researchers administered 1 Crananidin tablet per day and the dose peaked at 7 days after which it remained steady.

There are human studies that show no significant improvement with the use of cranberries.  Several of the studies do comment that perhaps the potency of the cranberry used in the study was not sufficient.

So what does this all mean?  It does seem that cranberry can prevent UTIs in cell cultures, but there is no evidence that it does in cats.

There are however many anecdotal accounts by cat owners that cranberry pills, cranberry powder, and even cranberry juice has helped cats.  I know from personal expereience, I have used cranberry powder with cats exhibiting UTI symptoms and the symptoms disappeared in 2-3 days.  Was it coincidence?  Maybe, maybe not.  I do know that 1/2 a cranberry extract pill is a much larger dose for a cat than 1 pill 2x a day is for a person.  So maybe, the proanthocyanins did reach a therapeutic level in my cats.

There are also a couple of concerns about using cranberries with cats.  One is cranberries contain salicylic acid (aspirin).  Now, before people panic, cranberry juice contains 7mg/L of juice.  Presumably poders and extracts would contain more.  But.... for cats, the toxic level for aspirin begins at about 50mg/kg of body weight.  So an 11 lb cat (5 kgs) would need 250mg to reach a minimum toxic level, of about 37 quarts (35L) of juice.

The other concern is the presence of oxalates.  Oxalates have been tied to the formation of oxalate kidney stones in humans, but cats rarely develop kidney stones -- they are more likely to have bladder stones, so I am unclear if this is even a concern.  In any case, cranberries contain 5-7 mg of oxalates per 3.5oz of food.  This is the same level for pumpkin, which is wildly used for cats and regarded as beneficial.

Bottomline, if I have another cat with UTI symptoms, I will use it again.  If and when the researchers ever do a sound study on felines and show it does not work, then I may rethink my position.

Summary of scientific studies from "Complementary and Integrative Therapies" by Donna Raditic, in Vet. Clinics of N. Am.: Small Animal Practice,  July 2015

Anya's Peeing

Well, I spent most of yesterday cleaning the carpets in the bedroom and in my studio.  They really needed it in general, but the reason I did it was because this room began to smell.  With a bit of warmth from the sun, it was bothering me, and I'm not terribly sensitive to smells.

And what was the smell?  Cat urine... from Anya.

Anya is my 14 year old, one-eyed, lilac-point himalayan cat.  She also has herpes and on/off nasal infections, which I can control with lysine and echinacea.  But she's quirky at times.  She'll be asleep, wake up, stretch, and then howl.  She's also very loving and affectionate.

She just doesn't always use the litter box.... And this is probably part of the reason she was dumped at a shelter.  Anyway, sometimes she will go for 2-4 days with no accidents and then sometimes she will go 2-4 days without using the litter box.  Well, you know a cat has to pee, so she does it on the floor.  (And she occasionally poops on the floor too.)

Normally, peeing outside the box normally comes down to 3 causes:

1. Urinary tract infection -- Cats relate the pain of peeing to the litter box, so will pee outside the box.  The pees are usually small and frequent.  Maybe with a drop or two of blood.
2. Dislike of litter/box -- Some cats object to deodorizing crystals in litter, or the size of the grains, or the height of the box, or ...  If the cat doesn't like the box, the cat will find a place and substance it likes to pee on.
3. Dirty boxes -- Many cats object to using a dirty box.  And if you think about it, it's like going into a public toilet and finding "stuff" in the toilet.  With these cats, you need to get more boxes and/or scoop frequently.

None of these fit Anya.  So, I'm left with the more exotic causes:

1. Incontinence -- Cats can lose control of the bladder sphincter.
2. Dementia -- Older cats forget where the box is.
3. Medication -- Oral steroids can cause sudden urges to pee.
4. Not trained -- I know there are some cats who never were trained by mom or the breeder to use a litter box, but I personally think these are few and far between.
5. Tumors

The dementia and incontinence fit to some degree because she will walk along, pause, pee, and continue walking.  If I see her pause and especially if she's pawing at the carpet, I can call her name and usually that is enough to interrupt her and THEN she will use her box.  But I really can't sit here 24 hrs a day!  This is why puppy pads won't work -- she will pee anywhere and not just one spot.

I also wonder with her if her nose isn't a factor.  Cats are attracted to places to pee by smell.  Since I clean the litter box and remove the smells, the carpet ends up being smellier.  Now that I cleaned the carpet (and 90% of the smell is gone), I'm hoping she'll be more attracted to the litter box.  So far, it is working... knock on wood.

I know many people wouldn't tolerate this and... well, I don't know what the alternatives would be.  Dump her at another shelter?  Put her to sleep?  Lock her in a bathroom with hard floors?  These just don't seem viable options to me.  When I adopt an animal, it's for their lifetime, come good or bad.  Putting up with this problem does not make me a saint -- I just love her for who she is.

But she has helped me clean my house... win-win for both of us!  

Cats: A Health Survey of the Herd

Continuing on what I was saying about my cats and their health...

About every 6 months, I sit down and think about how my cats are doing individually and as a member of the herd.  It's a time to put my prejudices away and really think carefully about them.  I do this in part so I can adjust supplements, including herbs and nutricals.  There's no sense in using something on a cat for years just because it is a routine -- it wastes money, it may lose it's effectiveness, or it may actually harm the cat from long-term use.  But with herbs and nutritional supplements, I can't see the effectiveness of something in 2 or 3 weeks -- usually these products are slow to work.  So, each 6 months is a good time to reassess things.

So let's look at a couple of the cats:

Isabel taking a nap

Isabel -- She's my silver chinchilla Persian and about 4.5 years old.  To most people and vets, she's perfectly healthy.  I have a slightly less rosy opinion.

I did have to shave her this fall because her coat got terribly matted.  The reason it was matted was in the Spring of last year, she had a UTI and/or a large bladder stone.  The vet tried to get a urine sample by flipping her upside down, holding her down, and sticking a needle in her bladder.  It didn't work (and one vet tech has scares to prove it).  It did make her impossible to groom, especially on her tummy.  Eventually, she was so matted, I shaved her.  Since then, I have been working patiently with her to get her to trust me to groom her tummy and back legs.  That has gone very well, and she's back to trusting me.

On the down side, I know she has nose problems.  My vet says "It's just a Persian thing" but I disagree.  when she was antibiotics for the UTI, her nose improved.  I also know that with high doses of lysine, her nose and eyes improve.  (Her eyes water and stain her pretty face.)  So, it is a problem that can be fixed.  Lysine alone helps, but I have been giving her echinacea extract, off and on, for a couple of months, and this seems to hold it at bay.  But I'd like something more permanent, so I'm considering Chinese herbs, Immunoplex, and/or goldenseal nasal drops.  The last one may stain her fur yellow and is a fix for her nose, but not her immune system.  It would work to knock any infection down and then build the immune system to prevent it from coming back.

Her ears also have a lot of brown wax.  I'm not sure why, as she shows no sign of mites or food issues.  I'll thoroughly clean them this week and see what happens over a couple of weeks.  I do wonder if it's from the treats or the commercial food which hubby slips her when he feeds Clarissa lunch.

Psychologically, she's quiet and likes to be left alone.  Unfortunately, she's in the bedroom with Clarissa, the Tortie Monster.  While she has made great strides in trust since I've had her (she had spent the first 6 months under the bed), I'm wondering about trying some Bach flower essences.

I know I need to keep the lysine in her food (and at 150% the recommended level when she is have problems).  I'm going to try the Immunoplex for long-term immune building, the echinacea for another cycle, and maybe try just plain saline nose drops, which she will love (or not).

And then there is:

Robbie

Robbie -- He's a 10-12 year old Maine Coon/Persian cross.  He nearly died of liver failure when I got him ~6 years ago but has been basically healthy since then.  He did develop an intolerance to poultry products, so he get beef, rabbit, lamb, pork, and venison, plus some fish occasionally   When we got ringworm and ear mites, he did get both pretty bad and he got an allergic reaction to both.

Physically, I worry about him.  He has seemed 'off' for a year or so, but blood-work shows nothing and I can't point directly to anything.  He is thinner than he had been, and he has itchy skin in spots.  There is also a tendency towards constipation followed by a drop or two of blood.  But I can't say, "Look at this."  So to most vets, this would just be an over-anxious owner.  To my homeopathic vet, ... she does take what I say seriously, but can't figure out anything.

Psychologically, he's more timid, more likely to strike out in fear-aggression, and less snugly   I'm not looking the combination because it says to me he feels vulnerable.

I really think with him the problem is his immune system being overactive.  The allergies and skin sensitivity all indicate that.  I have tried various things, with minimal improvement.  He has eaten more enthusiastically since I have been adding commercial raw food to his diet, which is where the venison, rabbit, and lamb come from.  I feel kind of lost as to what to do.  If I knew more about acupressure, I would try it.  I know there are a couple of Chinese herbal combinations with mushrooms that might help, so I'll poke around the Internet and see what I can find.

So, two cats looked, more to go....

But my whole point is I don't wait for clinical problems to appear before I tweak their care.  There is what is ideal health for a cat in general and then there is normal for a cat.  My goal is to move my cats' 'normal' closer to the ideal.

Cats, UTIs, and Herbal Treatment

Note to readers:  Somehow I had envisioned me discussing grand, eloquent discussions on weighty topics, but looking over the recent posts, I'm settling for less grand, basically readable, and fairly random posts.  And I'm not sure I care!

Today's topic is: Cats, UTIs, and herbal treatment

For those that don't know what a UTI is, it is short for urinary tract infection.  This can be from bacteria alone or from bacteria relating to bladder stones or crystals.  The cat will go from one box to another, peeing tiny amounts or just drops.  In males, if the inflammation or crystals get too much, the urethra can block and the cat can be dead within 12-24 hours.  (This is an emergency situation and I would take the boy to a vet, even on an emergency call.)  In females, the chances of blocking is slim.

So, Monday as I was getting ready to go to work, I noticed Olivia visiting several boxes, one after another, and peeing only drops.  She has done this before, I've had other cats do this, so I knew what it was and, of course, I went into panic-mode!  (Anyone who thinks I remain calm when my cats are ill doesn't know me.)

I knew I couldn't get her to a vet that night after work and I was out of antibiotics, so grabbed what I could figure out and tried it.  I gave her 1/2 a cranberry tablet, 1/2 a 500mg VitC, and 4 drops of echinacea glycerate.  And then did a whole lot of worrying the whole day.  Hubby reported good things at lunch -- no frequent trips to the box.

So, I've given this combination to her (echinacea in food, VitC and cranberry as pills) since Monday and she now is showing no symptoms at all.

I am so relieved.  And before anyone worries, I did mooch some antibiotics from a friend just in case.

My big concern is why this happened again.  I suspect it is stress related.  She's had UTIs 2 other times -- each near the time she got a bath.  I know she takes the blow drying, but maybe I'm underestimating the amount of stress it causes.  Or maybe her system is slightly 'down' -- a friend has recommended Immunoplex for a couple of months, to help build her immune system.  I'm also thinking of Cosequin to help strengthen the bladder.

I know, this is the part where I say, "I'll be sure to ask my vet.  And don't you try any of this without asking your vet."  Honestly, I may eventually mention it to my vet next time we chat, but I won't be making a special trip up there for her to tell me this is a great treatment.