My male cat keeps getting urinary tract infection. What is a home remedy for this problem? What medicine can I give him that I can purchase at a store?

Many home remedies that work well for humans and sometimes even for dogs DO NOT work well for CATS. Cats can have different reactions to herbals, and other human medications. SOMETHING is causing this problem. To treat it correctly, even with Homeopathic Remedies, you have to find out WHAT IS CAUSING the initial problem!

I understand that money may be a concern here, most of us are not rich. It may also be that you prefer NOT to treat with typical western medications, such as an antibiotic.

Unfortunately, I would strongly suggest that you have blood work done on this cat to help determine WHAT is causing him to be prone to these infections. There are many illnesses that can cause this problem as a SIDE EFFECT to the REAL problem. Foods can be but ONE issue, with a neutered or spayed cat.

If you are against using typical Western Medicine, do a Google for a Holistic Vet in your area. If money is tight...ASK your vet if you can pay the bill in 2 to 3 payments...settle on an amount to pay and a date to pay it and follow through. You have the right to ask them, and heaven knows I've had to do the same thing on some "bigger" vet bills.

The bottom line is if this is happening over and over, you have to do something productive and proactive about it. You can't just blindly try this, that or the other and "hope for the best."

You must determine the cause to create the cure!

susang and redhawk.....go to http://nativeremedies.com/petalive/index.html for some good info. Check out the UTI testimonials. Hope you get this before you have your pet put down. God bless

I'm not sure if there is a medication you can purchase, but various makers of cat food sell "Urinary Tract Health Food". One is Purina One, and my cats have been eating it for years. Never any UTIs.

EDIT: This question asks for HOME remedies. I provided a HOME remedy. What the F is with you people and your ratings?

Put your cat on a totally natural diet, no commercial food, no grains especially. Cats cannot process grains and many veggies.

Here is a link that will help you learn to fed your cat. And on that page in the right column is a link to how to MAKE your own cat food. This site can even help you find some suppliers if you have a hard time finding some of the ingredients.

http://www.catinfo.org/

I can't recommend this diet any higher. We first went all natural with our dogs, feeding them what is known as the B.A.R.F. diet (Bones And Raw Food) and they couldn't have been healthier. THe vets were worried but they hadn't given us any real answers and they couldn't deny the glowing health. We finally started doing it with the cats. Much harder to do but they are getting used to it.

Cranberry juice works for dogs and cats too. Just get a baby medicine administer and squirt it in his mouth. That should help keep those UTI's at bay. It puts acid in there UT and helps kill the bacteria that gets in there.

I too believe it is all the crap they are putting in the food now days. I had my male cat into the vet 4 times. The first time I got a antibiotic. Next time same thing but by that night he was dying. Brought him in and they operated due to crystals. Brought him back one more time. Now during each vet visit, the vet was out straight with sick cats and dogs and operating and that was just during a 2 hour wait. Now that tells me something is going on. I am taking advice I found here. I have been giving him 3 cc of cranberry/water all day and just water. I am giving him wet cat food mixed with water by mouth and a month later he is still alive. I say this because the vet told me she had 2 cats come in and die of the same thing. She said it is the dry food. I am trying to switch him over. I just recently bought the product for UTI problems at http://nativeremedies.com/petalive/index.html. So just the fact that he is still alive and not screaming is good to me. I hope something in here helps someone.

Cranberry extract will help. You can get it in gel caplets at Walmart or any health food store. It would take a ton of cranberry juice to do any good so the gel caps are your best bet. You can give them to your cat using hemostats and placing them down your cats throat. If you can't do that you can puncture the caplet and squeeze the contents into some warm water adn mix it up really good. Then you can give that to your cat with a syringe. Be careful to not be forceful with it. Give the cat 1 to 2 caplets a day. If you give 2 it is best to space it out. Do one moring and one night.

My male cat, George, gets unrinary tract infections regularly around March-April. Try swtiching over to wet foods, and avoid grains, as cats can't digest them well. Also, avoid giving him a lot of table food, unless it's stuff like fresh lettuce and things like that, which have little to no artifical preservatives, flavorings, or colorings. NEVER GIVE YOUR CAT HAMBURGER HELPER! It contains TONS of MSG, which isn't even good for humans, let alone cats.

Hi Empress of the Known Universe! I have been feeding Wanksta Iams since he was a kitten and occasionally Tuna. Any other suggestions? He is a bit spoiled, he had me start turning on the bathroom sink for him to drink water or he would beg for my water bottle. We have this intuitive connection, I just wish I would have caught the part of I am not getting enough water?? We would have preventive this. He got his name from an ex- boyfriend who was into rap. I ended up keeping him because I did not want him to be an outside cat. He is one of my best friends.

I already have my cat on urinary tract food but he still keeps getting infections. Help with home remedy.

Best thing to treat UTI's and keep them from ever coming back is White distilled vinegar. Add 1 tablespoon to a bowl of water, or mix 1/4 teaspoon of white distilled vinegar with 1/4 teaspoon of water and add to their wet food. A cats urine is more acidic than a humans or dogs etc, this helps to fight infections. And when they do get a water infection, the urine can become more alkaline allowing for bacteria to grow. The vinegar corrects this. Males are also more prone to it than girls because their urethra is narrower. And when they are on dry food all the time, then they need to drink lots of water. So if they don't they can get an UTI, also if they get any crystals forming they can't pass them like girls can due to the narrower urethra. Here's a link to an article on white distilled vinegar.

http://www.ehow.com/how_5748412_add-vinegar-cat_s-diet.html

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Adding water to each meal of canned food is imperative. Once the infection has cleared up with antibiotics I've found adding a little cranberry powder (60 capsules from Wal-Mart $4), a few drops of apple cider vinegar and a small sprinkling of garlic powder to each meal seems to be effective at preventing further infection.

Each cranberry capsule is lasting about 3 days feeding two cats twice daily so it's inexpensive and doesn't seem to have any noticeable side effects.

If you must feed dry food be sure to moisten it thoroughly so your cat is taking in a sufficient
amount of water.

A wide-mouth rabbit water bottle saved me $1,000's of dollars I spent at the vet.....I was force-feeding my cat water with a syringe, dunking his body in water every morning to get him to lick, spend hundred's on fountains and water spout lick valves to no avail. I attached a large mouth rabbit water bottle to the side of my dog's crate on the outside and my cat drinks all day long from it.....the bottle is large enough to last 4-5 days and I only use pure drinking water (reverse osmosis,deionied you can get from the grocery story that says DRINKING WATER, DO NOT USE SPRING WATER OR BABY FLOURINATED WATER, JUST USE THE DRINKING WATER ones.
He's been UTI, crystals in urine, pain free for over 4 months now! He drinks all the time from that thing!

I just want to say thank you to all these people's suggestions on here. My cat Wanky went to the vet today and he does have a u.t.i. He started antibiotics but,I am going to get him started on the 3cc's of water every half hour for 3 days. I feel really bad because I think he was trying to tell me by piing on this particular carpet and he has never done that. I thought he was just mad because I wasn't taking him for a walk enough at the time. I feel really bad because he had to suffer since Sat. night and is suffering. He is a really well trained cat and highly intelligent. Thank you everyone and I hope this isn't a constant problem because the vet bills are ridiculous and they over do it on the testing!!! Tullies-

For us the food was the answer. We found an excellent on-line product you mix into raw meat, and since we began on that diet (which is also cheaper than the prescription diets) we have had no more blockages and no more urinary tract infections. Look up the options. We've been using Feline Futures/Instincts.

Mountain Sun Not From Concentrate Pure Cranberry unsweetened juice and water, force fed with a squirter, 2 to 3 squirts, 2 to 3 times a day, is working for my male cat who was peeing frequently in tiny squirts making the litter box nearly impossible to clean. He has a vet appointment for tomorrow, but since this home remedy worded for my UTI about a month ago, I tried it with Tino not wanting to wait for the vet. After a day and 1/2, he's peeing in bigger clumps less frequently and not licking himself down there nearly as much. I've also fed him Nutri-Vet, Uri-ease treats and put Cranberry & Papaya Digestive Supplement (both from Petsmart) in the water. However, the improvement only came after the pure cranberry juice/water mixture.

My male cat, Tino, started peeing in little squirts last week, and continually licking himself down there. I went and got uri-ease treats and cranberry & Papaya Digestive Supplement to mix with their water from petsmart (have a female cat too). No better after a day or two. Since cranberry juice cured a urinary tract infection I was getting about a month ago, I made a mixture of unsweetened Mountain Sun Not From Concentrate Pure Cranberry juice and water mixture and started force feeding it to him with a squirter, 2 or 3 squirts, two to three times a day, and continued the treats about 5 or more two times a day. He's peeing, less frequently, in bigger clumps now after about a day and 1/2 on the mixture, not licking himself as much and he may be back to normal by the time I'm supposed to take him to the vet tomorrow. I think it might be both the treats and the cranberry that are helping. But you need the strong, not from concentrate juice. You can get it at health food stores - Giant has it, but it's more expensive there.

Do you not think that food is a home remedy? If you are looking for herb complexes and such, i strongly recommend going to a naturopathic vet. They will be able to pinpoint things better than conventional vetsIt may be expensive the first visit or so, but once you know what to do, it will help tremendously.
Good luck.

Hello, I know you feel bad and one person told you to take him to the vet. Well I know betterthan anyone the problems with a reoccuring urinary tract infection in a cat. I went through the exact same thing. The reason your cat keeps getting the infection has nothing to do with what you are feeding him now, sure it helps a little. Once a cat gets the infection the first time their urethra gets smaller. Noone knows for sure why, not even vets. Almost all cats that get the infection once, have reoccuring infections thereafter. Most, once a month like yours. It's not anything you are doing wrong or what you are feeding him, it's just a type of infection that returns once contracted the first time. If a cat gets the infection it's worth while taking them to the vet and spending the money on your pet. But if your cat gets it again, the best option is to get him put down because it will keep happening as every time they do, the urethra gets smaller and smaller. I have spoken to several vets on this matter and they told me UTI is an infection that is not 100% understood and probably never will be. I know you love your cat but you have to be logical. You are doing the right thing. So don't feel guilty, it's also the best decision for your cat as it will keep happening and it is very painfull. So you are doing whats in the best interest of your beloved pet.

This Worked For My Cat:

My male cat finished his second set of antibiotics and after a week, I could see the beginning signs that he was going to get another Urinary Tract Infection.

I couldn't afford another vet visit, so I took a syringe (one that holds 3 cc's), took the needle part off of it, sucked up 3 cc's of room-temperature water, and I shot it down his throat.

He kind of choked and sputtered and lost some of the water, but he knew I was trying to help him. I did this every hour and a half for 3 days (except when he was napping so I didn't interrupt). The symptoms started leaving the night of the first day. It is 10 days later and he is doing great.

I give him one "shot" of water down the throat a day just to make sure he is getting hydrated and flushing his system.

When my daughter had a U.T.I. as a child, the doctor said the best way to prevent it was to have her drink a bunch of water. That's where I got the idea.

When I get paid, I am going to buy one of those cool kitty water-bowls that keeps the water fresh by recycling it constantly. Maybe that will encourage Lucius to drink more on his own.

Hope your kitty gets better !

I had the same problem and eventually cured my cat with little to no help from the vet. I wrote a tutorial on some home remedies that I tried and found to work!

http://www.geocities.com/sneekysquared/catUTIhomeremedies.html

I am tearfully writing back. My poor beautiful male Himalayan cat died after the surgery. They never checked his kidneys after the surgery. I took him to another animal hospital and found that he never recovered from the surgery. In their attempt to save him they found that his kidneys were off the chart, the vet that performed the operation never fully removed all the stitches and he couldn't pee due to the crystal blockage again. I am so furious with the vet and the pet food companies. Please don't let this happen to any other pets. I am paying through the nose on the bills and still lost him to ignorance on my part and the vets part.

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I honestly believe it is all the crap they put in the food we buy for our pets- if you only have one pet, consider cooking for it, get chicken bits, with no bones and full brown rice in a pressure cooker- it stinks so I would do it once a month and freeze it.
uninary tract is a horrible way to go- I still feel the pain, from hearing my cat crying at the vet- he didn't make it, watching him go with so much pain- is still heartbreaking after 15 years..