For cats who have been diagnosed with a large number of Struvite Crystals, our best recommendation is to dilute your pet's urine as fast and as much as possible right now and switch to one of the dissolution urinary diets temporarily to help dissolve away these crystals.
We ideally recommend giving fluids under the skin on a daily basis to guarantee dilute urine to aid in dissolving the existing crystals and preventing further crystal formation. We can teach you to do this at home or you can bring your cat in for us to do the treatments. Once we verify that the crystals are gone, this treatment can stop. If you are unable to have these fluid treatments done, please follow the recommendations to increase water intake.
There are only two diets available designed to specifically dissolve struvite crystals in cat's urine; they are Hill's S/D or Royal Canin Dissolution diets. Each is available in canned and dry forms and are sold in our Pet Nutrition Center next door to our hospital. Please feed only the canned form of these diets, with water added (if your cat will eat it) until we know the crystals are gone. We recommend feeding a full case of this diet. The urine should be rechecked when the case is almost gone, in about 2-3 weeks.
These diets are not meant to be fed long-term. Please work with your veterinarian to determine when it is appropriate to switch to a maintenance diet.
Preventing Struvite Crystals
For cats with fewer Struvite Crystals, our best recommendation is to dilute your pet's urine as fast and as much as we can right now and switch to one of the preventative urinary diets. These diets include Purina UR, Eukanuba Low pH, Hills C/D, and Royal Canin Control diets. They come in canned and dry forms and are sold in our pet nutrition center next door to our hospital. Please feed only the canned form of these diets, with water added (if your cat will eat it) until we know the crystals are gone.
Monitoring for Urinary Obstruction
Male cats (and very rarely female cats) with a large number of Struvite Crystals are at risk for Urinary Outflow Obstruction. This means that the Struvite Crystals cause inflammation and micro-lacerations in the urethra as they go through the penis. There is oozing of serum from the body along with clotting factors; together with the crystals this acts like cement to obstruct your cat's ability to urinate. This is a potentially life-threatening condition. If you have a male cat with a large number of struvite crystals, please watch him very closely to be sure that he is urinating. If you see frequent urgent attempts to urinate without urine coming out or only drops of urine he must be presented for emergency care to our facility during the day, or to ACCES (206-364-1660) after hours.
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