We are in our second week with a full house. We are dog-sitting for our son and daughter-in-law’s three dogs while they are on vacation in England. Two of their dogs are Belgian Malinois and the third is a really old girl who is part German Shepard. So with their three and our two big girls and our two cats, we have seven animals in our 1250 sqft house. A very full house. In addition, at their house, which is a 45-minute drive from here, there are six ducks, eight chickens, two cats and a Red-Eared Slider turtle the size of a football that I am caring for every other day.
The Great Hunter and I have only left home together once since we began dog-sitting. The granddogs have to be crated each time they are left alone and I swear the crates could hold a velociraptor (which pretty well describes a Belgian Malinois). We finally ventured out for lunch and a trip to Sams yesterday. What a treat. Lol
Baby Kitty has finally come out of hiding and has ventured upstairs several times. Most of the time she ignores the dogs, but we have had an occasional dust-up, luckily, with no one hurt.
I think I could have possibly found the cause of Baby Kitty’s crystals in her urine: cow’s milk. Each morning, when we are putting milk in our coffee, we give her a small dish of milk. For some reason, it just hit me the other day that her symptoms had begun after we started giving her milk.
According to AI (and we know it has to be true–it’s on the internet):
Cow’s milk contains high levels of calcium and phosphorus. Excess minerals in a cat’s system can get excreted through the kidneys and aggregate into mineral deposits in the urine.
Consuming dairy can alter a cat’s urine pH, pushing it toward a more alkaline (higher) state. Alkaline urine heavily favors the formation of struvite crystals…and
Most adult cats are lactose intolerant. Giving them regular milk often leads to digestive upset, vomiting, or diarrhea, which causes overall systemic stress and dehydration—another major risk factor for concentrated urine and crystal formation.
Guess who gets no more milk? And we’re keeping our fingers crossed that this will solve the issue instead of having to buy prescription food at $60 for a 7-pound bag.
