Wysong Uretic - Dry Natural Food for Cats, Chicken, 5 pounds

I have 11 cats - seven originally and four acquired last year when I got married. (All are fixed and stay indoors except a few that like to explore our electric netting-fenced in yard. The others have no interest in going outside, but do love a window seat.)Of my original seven, five of them are over 10 years old. (The other two are about six years old, so well into "middle age". And the other four cats that my husband brought are 3-4 years old.)One of my original seven had been having issues with blood in her urine for a few years. The first day I noticed it, we took her to the vet right away who said there were no stones, crystals, or infections, but that her bladder was inflamed from stress. She's an F3 Savannah and very high energy and territorial. So, we already had lots of cat shelves and scratchers. We added more litter boxes and started to keep her separate from the one cat she fought with the most. The blood in the urine never stopped...Fast forward a few years and I noticed that another one of my cats was also peeing blood (the one the first one fights with) and another was straining in the litter box (one who is super chill and doesn't fight with anyone.) I considered stress a possibility because we had moved and acquired four additional cats, so there were some squabbles despite giving them rescue remedy, calm collars, keeping them in separate parts of the house, loving on them extra, even more litter boxes, etc.I happened to see a "My Cat From H*ll" episode (or rather, a clip of an episode) despite having not seen the show in years. The episode was about a cat who fought with another cat in the home and also peed blood. The family's vet had originally told the owners it was an inflamed bladder and stress related. Jaxon Galaxy wasn't accepting that as an answer, so back to a different vet they went. Sure enough, it was bladder stones. The owners declined a multi-thousand dollar surgery (against the advice of Jaxon Galaxy) and went with adjusting her diet. I'm not sure how that turned out for them, but since several of my cats seemed to be having issues (and I didn't have thousands upon thousands of dollars lying around nor did I want to put them through a surgery if it was their food causing issues), it gave me the idea to switch their food.I was previously feeding them Instinct with Raw Boost. So, I wanted something of equal or better quality with a comparable cost. I had read about Wysong before and knew they had a good reputation for being a high quality food as far as dry foods are concerned. I figured I'd give it a try.All 11 cats have been on this food for about two months. They took to it immediately (though I did mix the food for a week or so, gradually.)The amount of spraying has decreased significantly (we're not 100% free of spraying, but it isn't a constant daily thing anymore). I have definitely seen much less blood in their urine. In fact, I can't recall the last time I saw bloody urine (it used to occur almost daily), and the cats no longer cry when using the litter box.I also noticed that the chronic bloating some of my cats were having is gone too. Bloating can be a symptom of bladder stones, so it is possible that these other cats who happened to not pee outside the litter box also had blood in their urine I hadn't noticed. Their urine also doesn't have such a strong smell as it did before.Overall, this seems to be doing my cats good so far. It's a great food for a home with cats of multiple ages. It seems to have brought my slightly under weight cats up to the appropriate weight and my overweight cats down to a healthier size. No one is bloated anymore, and bladder issues seem to be significantly improving. My cats also seem calmer (which makes sense if they were having bladder pain and aren't anymore.)

Our neutered male cat developed crystals and had to be hospitalized. The stupid hospital wouldn't work with us on payment and was going to let him die if we didn't come up with the $2000 to help him. (still angry about that) We dug into savings and kid's savings to pay them. Got him home afterward and was advised by our family vet to switch to the expensive Hills prescription food. We did, he hasn't had a relapse but I did research and this particular brand was listed in the top 5 cat food for this issue. We bought a bag and watched him night and day. We made sure there were water bowls all over the house. It's been 3 years and he hasn't had another issue. Now, we've discovered he's an alpha male and despite being neutered, he feels the need to mark his territory and tries to kill his siblings. We've had to put him on prescription meds for that because none of the natural suggestions worked.

Cats do well on it, I think their coats look great, their bellies seem great but they really do not like the size of the kibble or the taste.

Spent a total of $9,400 on a urinary blockage emergency, that in the end was due to a single stuck bladder stone.First things first: Prescription diets are a sham, dyor there please.Methionine: In most cases it is needed to lower your cats PH into a more acidic range. Yes, lower is more acidic and higher is more alkaline.If your kitty's bladder is alkaline it can lead to struvite stones. If too acidic it can lead to oxylate stones. The optimal pH is around 6.0.I feed wet food in the morning and evening of another good brand that starts with a W. And then I put out some wysong uretic at night so our boy doesn't wake us up asking for food at random hours.I also bought a cheap pack of saliva and/or urine test strips as well (50 for about $10) and leave them in the container they came in on a shelf next to the litter box. Every once in a while, maybe every couple weeks I swab one in his urine stream or if there is a little urine on the plastic of the box right after he goes I sometimes resort to dipping in that. Since switching to the feeding routine I previously mentioned, his pH stays right at 6.0 and have had no issues since hospitalized a few months ago.Last thing I'll mention is this, stay away from cat foods that add magnesium. Previous to gathering all the information I've shared here, and previous to the full blockage, I thought I had his issues beat by having him on wet food. Turns out this pet store brand wet food I was using at the time had added magnesium pretty high up in the ingredient list. I don't know what they are thinking, since magnesium literally makes pH higher (more alkaline), which is basically an open invitation for struvite stones.Only exception to all this advice woikd be if your cat is prone to oxylate stones (pretty rare), in this case, you actually need to get their urine a bit more alkaline. So talk to someone knowledgeable about achieving your cat's balance. In an already acidic environment I would think the methionine in this product could complicate things further for you.There is no one size fits all urinary solution for cars, but there does seem to be a one size fits most.

I'm in to our second bag and my cat came down with a UTI. It appears to be of good quality and he likes it but it might not work as expected for urinary issues.

Bought it for when my youngest cat was a tinny kitten and developed Chrystals in his urine. Worked great and both cats loved it. It was the only cat food uric that said safe for all ages, been using it for nearly 3yrs until the price went up and we can't afford it anymore.