My cat's urine is alkaline. How to lower pH and dissolve crystals?

What a cute kitty! Your vet can prescribe a special prescription diet to help manage the crystals in his urine. The one we commonly prescribe is Royal Canin SO diet, but there are several others available as well. These diets help keep the urine pH at an appropriate level and can decrease or eliminate the crystals in the urine.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! First of all, if you haven’t yet, see your vet for a urinalysis because a UTI can change the smell and increase pH of the urine. Obviously, antibiotics are the way to fix that problem. If you’ve been to the vet and there was not bacteria in the urine- just a change in pH, then you can consider a urinary supplement like UT Strength which can help acidify urine. There are also prescription and non-prescription diets that achieve this purpose as well. Best of luck to you and Chance

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Beatrice. Royal Canin Veterinary Diets makes a prescription urinary diet as does Purina ProPlan Veterinary Diets. These options may be better for her if the current diet is not helping the crystals. This should be verified by frequent urine examinations. Adding more moisture to her diet through water or canned food will help dilute her urine. This will help as well. I hope this information helps!

In most cases, a prescription urinary diet is recommended in the case of pets with a history of bladder stones. These diets not only help maintain the pH in the optimal range to aid in stone prevention, but are formulated to help manage urine volume and mineral concentrations to reduce formation of crystals and stones, and in some case contain ingredients to help reduce the risk of inflammation in the urinary tract. I recommend speaking to your vet regarding management of Petal's tendency to form bladder stones. They will likely recommend regular urine testing to make sure she doesn't show signs of crystals or infection, and may recommend a prescription diet for her. The Vetoquinol Methigel may or may not be recommended, depending on what Petal's urine pH is.

Poor Dylan! I would recommend you keep him on a canned prescription diet for urinary crystals. Your veterinarian can recommend one that should work. I usually recommend rechecking the urine after at least 2 weeks of this diet to make sure the crystals are no longer present and the diet is working. You also can try environmental enrichment to see if that helps with his stress level. For example, you can use shelves to make space so he can perch up high away from the other cats and have his space. I would also make sure you have multiple litter boxes and they are cleaned regularly. We want to encourage him to use the litter box often and not hold his urine. Feliway is a product you can purchase either through your vet or at a pet store that sometimes helps with stress. It is a synthetic cat pheromone that is sometimes effective to help with stress and urinary issues with cats. It will not impact the crystals, but hopefully help calm him and make him more relaxed and use the litter box more readily. Some vets also will add in glucosamine to the cats diet. It won't hurt and could possibly help with his cystitis. Some cats needs other medications, like anti-depressants, if they are still having problems. Hopefully a few changes will improve Dylan's overall situation. Good luck!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Speedy. If his veterinarian has recommended a prescription diet, then he should stay on one. Royal Canin Veterinary Diets Urinary SO, Hills Veterinary Diet C/D or Purina ProPlan Veterinary Diets U/R are all great choices to help prevent crystals in his urine. I hope this information helps!

Special diets like the Royal Canin urinary diet work by keeping the urinary pH at a good level so crystals are less likely to form. So by feeding treats this may have thrown off the urinary pH and caused crystals to form. For this reason it's recommended to only feed the prescription diet. Feeding an all canned version of the prescription Royal Canin diet may be even more beneficial in preventing crystals so if Nila will eat canned food I'd recommend the canned version of the diet. Blood in the urine can also be related to urinary tract infections and bladder stones. It sounds like your veterinarian may have ruled these issues out, but if Nila has not had a urine culture or X-rays of her bladder these may be indicated (especially if the problem persists). Thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach and best wishes to you and Nila!