UTIs (urinary tract infections) can be deadly for cats. They hit hard and fast, and they take no hostages — that is why vets so often immediately prescribe an antibiotic for cat UTI. UTIs are particularly dangerous to male cats due to a peculiarity in the formation of their urethras (the way urine moves from the bladder to outside the body), with the fine tube narrowing as it goes over the pelvic bones.
The narrow point of the urethra can act as a dam, allowing shed skin, coagulated blood, and crystalline debris from the urine to collect into a solid plug. When this condition exits, your cat can suffer a burst bladder or renal failure, either of which can leave the vet helpless.
However antibiotics have their own drawbacks. Side effects such as diarrhea, vomiting, dizziness, lethargy, not to mention the extreme reactions of an allergic cat can all combine to simply place your cat in more danger.
When possible the best choice is to avoid ever having to give your cat UTI antibiotics such as clavamox or amoxicillin. A health regimen including appropriate food, plentiful fresh water, a reliably clean cat litter box so that your cat does not try to avoid urinating for long periods of time, combined with a good, sound natural dietary supplement to help acidify the urine, strengthen the immune system and promote bladder health can go a very long way in helping you avoid UTIs entirely. But there will still be occasions when a prescription for an antibiotic for cat UTI is the best and only choice open to you and your vet.
In those instances it is vital that you follow the instructions precisely, and make certain that you continue to supply the optimal food, water, and supplements. Food should be in accordance with your doctor’s recommendation: there are several companies and formulas each designed to provide slightly different effects. Your vet will know which to try based on the testing of your cat’s urine.
Water is vital to ensure healthy bladder and kidney function, to dilute the urine reducing the formation of crystals, and to flush germs out of the urinary tract as quickly as possible. The supplements, however, can be as vital a support: by providing mild, gentle, natural backup to the antibiotic they can reinforce the positive effects while reducing the consequence of the negative side effects.
Look for a reliable supplier with a good reputation, and then look for formulas that include such ingredients as uva ursi, cantharis, staphysagris and berberis. These, taken together, can serve as an antiseptic, a bladder tonic, an acidifier helping the correct food provide a pH balance hostile to bacterial growth, and can strengthen the immune system.
Used correctly they can make sure that any time your cat must spend using an antibiotic for cat UTI is worth the side effects involved…and that the antibiotic will be given the best possible chance of eradicating the infection entirely, leaving no lingering resistant bacteria to start a new, harder to destroy infection lurking behind.
With reliable follow-through and a maintenance of good hygiene and good health practices based on food, water, and supplements, you may be able to prevent the curse of chronic cat UTIs. To be free of these, with the accompanying risk and the necessary prescriptions of round after round of cat UTI antibiotic is a blessing you don’t want to be without.
Take the time, discuss supplements with your vet, look for a good, reliable provider of natural homeopathic medicines, and know that you are doing all you can to keep you and your cat free from the future need for UTI antibiotics.
Jeff Grill is an editor of the Cat Health Guide and has written on many feline health problems. See this site for more information on antibiotic for cat uti and treatment options.