I took Tabs and Robin for their follow-up this morning.
This blogpost is about Robin first.
The backstory:
On 22nd January 2025, I rushed Robin to the vet’s because he was straining to urinate. Straining to urinate is always a medical emergency. Thankfully, he wasn’t blocked at all. So he was prescribed medication, a supplement called Cystophan and to be on urinary food for 3 months. Robin’s ultrasound also showed the presence of bright “sparkly” crystals in the bladder.
What Robin has was cystitis due to bladder crystals and possibly, stress (either from the CNY fireworks or the fight with Smurfy the day before). But these fights happen quite often, though, and this is the first time Robin has cystitis. Bladder crystals could be caused by stress, UTI, food or insufficient water intake (dehydration). Guilty as charged on the last count – Robin doesn’t like to drink water.
Robin recovered the next day.
From then until now, I have done my best to give him the urinary food, but he doesn’t really like it, and I had to mix it up with this raw cut chicken to coax him to eat the urinary food. I give him both the RC Urinary pouch and the RC Urinary kibble.
Today’s check-up:
The ultrasound shows very significant improvement and the crystals are almost all gone except for very tiny ones. There is also no more inflammation of the bladder wall anymore. Hooray! I requested the vet to check the gallbladder too. All good, no sludge. Usually, young cats have no gallbladder sludge, the vet explained. Last time when Ginger had FIC, he had gallbladder sludge too, but it was solved with Ursofalk.
Previously, we could see the bright sparkly crystals floating in the bladder but those are all gone now! Upon closer scrutiny, only very tiny ones can be seen, so Robin would still have to be on the urinary food for another month (please wish me luck!), increase his water intake (please wish me MORE luck!) and he only needs to finish up his bottle of Cystophan (another 9 more capsules to go). The vet explained that as tiny as the crystals are, they can still be sharp in the edges and might scratch the bladder wall, causing inflammation or injury. Crystals will form sediment.
Robin hates having water syringed into his mouth. He also boycotts the food if I add water to it. It’s no wonder he had the cystitis, isn’t he? Kenapa tak mahu minum air, Robin?
On the way to the vet’s this morning, Robin was mewing non-stop three quarters of the journey. In the vet’s examination room, he was also mewing. I was quite worried this would have stressed him up and caused another round of FIC!
The vet says I could give everyone RC’s kibble with the S/O index to reduce the occurence of stones formation.
The “S/O Index” refers to a measurement used by Royal Canin pet food to indicate that a specific diet is formulated to help prevent the formation of struvite and calcium oxalate crystals (the “S” and “O” respectively) in a pet’s urine, essentially creating an unfavorable environment for the development of urinary stones; essentially meaning the food is designed to promote urinary health by preventing crystal formation.
Both RC Neutered Satiety Balance and RC Dental have the S/O index.
Back home!
Celebrating with his family!
Next up is Tabs’ check-up for her PCKD…
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