
While RC is a little better than HIll's and certainly isn't the worst thing she's ever eaten, I'm not happy about it. Three of the 5 cats are on the feline version. I'm kind of thinking this vet (there are 3 in our clinic) is a little slap-happy about Rx diets-- this is the FIRST UTI Robin's had in the 18 months we've had her. I really like this vet when I have a kitty who needs attention, but for the dogs, I like the other vets. For my male cat, I'm unfortunately going to keep him on the SO. He blocked completely before, and that's something I decided I'm not willing to experiment with.
Robin, however, would be easy to collect a urine sample from; I can try another diet for a month, say, and then take in a sample to see how she's doing-- more crystals or infection, back to the SO. Right before this UTI, we had recently changed to Taste of the Wild after using almost exclusively Nature's Variety since we got her. Robin was having some general allergy issues and even the grain free NV has a ton of ingredients, so we switched to something a little more limited. River didn't have any crystals in her urine, so it's not the food per se that's causing the crystals, but it might be Robin's reaction to it.
We're thinking of making the switch to raw or homecooked, at least in part. I'm thinking of giving them raw/homecooked in the morning and floating kibble and veggies in the evening. I'd like to keep them eating kibble at least part time so that I can board them or travel with them more easily. Now NV has a limited ingredient line, so we might start there with the kibble.
That was the long way round to my question-- I know I've heard from many of you that raw alleviated a lot of allergy problems. I'm also wondering if any of you have seen it prevent recurring UTIs. I'll do a site search, too, but there's a lot of newer members since I've joined and I thought I'd see if anyone had thoughts about this...