Monday, February 8, 2010

Cat Cystitis and How to Treat it Successfully in Two Steps

Cat cystitis is common. Cystitis is an inflammation of the bladder and causes frequent and painful urination. Sometimes, but not always, the cat will cry out during urination.

Animals rarely show pain vocally. They normally show pain by licking the painful part, crouching, rather than resting comfortably and retreating to a quiet place.

There are several reasons why cat cystitis is common.

Firstly, cats are loan hunters, so have evolved to live by their wits. Their hunts must be successful, as there is no support structure to fall back on. Living in a state of alert calls on the extensive use of adrenalin. Adrenalin is manufactured in the kidneys.

So the kidneys are the weak organ in cats and can be easily overloaded, with a knock on effect on the whole urinary tract system.

If you are feeding your cat a processed cat food, then this is the likely cause of the cystitis. Processed cat food is very harmful to the health of your cat for several reasons. The majority of commercial cat food

  •  starts off with low grade meat, more likely meat by products, from dubious sources (road kill and worse)
  •  is packed out with cheap filler (such as melamine or sugar)
  •  is cooked for long periods, destroying what little nutrients were present
  •  is topped up with indigestible synthetic minerals and vitamins
  •  contains chemicals to preserve, to colour, to improve the taste

Once cats are put on a quality raw meat and bones diet, their healthy returns (normally after a short initial de-tox period). Often the cystitis needs no further treatment.

However, as cystitis can be quite serious, as well as painful, while you are making the dietary changeover, it is a good idea to support your cat.

Homeopathy works by stimulating the immune system to work as it should. Professional homeopathic help may be the best approach, but if this is not immediately available, you may be able to support your cat yourself.

Aconite is the most appropriate homeopathic medicine for ailments which come on quickly. Over a few hours. It is generally not useful for ailments which start slowly, over days. However, if it has come out of the blue, a few doses is likely to totally resolve it.

For the moment.

If you keep up with the processed diet, it will return.

Cantharis is another useful homeopathic medicine for cat cystitis. Here, the symptoms are severe straining to pass urine, great distress during the process and the urine is heavily blood stained. Several doses will be needed over several days.