Anyone have experience with Royal Canin for cats with urinary tract issues?

My male cat has a uti and had crystals in his urine (diagnosed from a urine analysis). He had several episodes of peeing outside the box and when he had one this weekend, I noticed his pee was brown/red. Poor guy! The vet said it's most likely his diet and recommended Royal Canin's Urinary SO food (in addition to a round of antibiotics). I give him both dry and wet, so I bought both. Obviously it's pricey, but I'll do it if it will help prevent future infections and crystals. Does anyone have experience with this food? Does it help? Will he have to be on it forever?

Message edited 5/31/2017 12:58:00 PM.

Re: Anyone have experience with Royal Canin for cats with urinary tract issues?

Yes my male had this issue too.
More than once actually
The food does help because it has low magnesium and also you will want to stick to wet as much as possible. Wet food has more water and they need the extra water to keep them peeing and flushed out.
Our vet told us to avoid dry.
Also make sure you encourage him to drink- sometimes one of those fountain water bowls are good for cats who aren't big drinkers... the running water seems to attract them.

We were on both that and the Hills prescription diet for urinary issues (different vets at the time so each one's office had a different brand) It's basically the same though.

After a while it was getting expensive and we ended up swtiching to Friskies Urinary Health. It also has the low magnesium. He did fine on it.

He hasn't had any issues since the 2nd time, but what the vet did recommend was Cosaquin for cats- it's really a supplement for joint issues, but it also has been shown to help with urinary problems and bladder issues .
Since taking that he hasn't had a problem since and he's back on regular food.
It's a common problem in male cats apparently

Re: Anyone have experience with Royal Canin for cats with urinary tract issues?

Thanks for the response! My vet never mentioned the wet food thing (though I have read that online in articles). I feed him both, but, of course, my cat seems to prefer dry to wet. I'll see if i can get to a point where he's getting more wet than dry.

He finished his antibiotic on Friday and has been on the special food for almost 2 weeks. I guess I won't know how he's doing unless he starts peeing outside his box again. Finger crossed it's not a recurring problem.

Message edited 5/24/2017 9:30:05 AM.

Re: Anyone have experience with Royal Canin for cats with urinary tract issues?

The antibiotic usually clears it up well and they get better fast.
In our case it happened about 3 times then just stopped.
Not sure if it was the Cosequin or the wet food, but so far, so good.