So 2 days after Christmas one of my cats was diagnosed with having cystitis. She kept dashing in and out of a litter tray that is usually hardly used (always there and available) and was licking her nether regions.

The vet gave her an antibiotic which was to last 2 weeks, and told me to give her 3 days of metacam, which I did.

They said it was likely to be stress related and they think down to either all the Christmas goings on, or more likely the bad weather affecting her usual routine.

3 days later, she was no better, and was now peeing pink, so I took her back to the vets, where they asked me to try and get a wee sample, and gave me 3 weeks worth of cystaid to help with the discomfort. They also said to keep giving her the metacam til the 5ml bottle ran out.

Got the wee sample to check it was nothing more sinister, which was all clear, so again it was confirmed as stress related cystitis.

She's seemed better, and I thought it had all cleared up, until today, she has just done another pink wee after complaining and asking to go out for ages (the cat flap was open until 10:30, and she was out til then)

I've bought a feliway plug in to try and help with the stress, I can do nothing about the weather, nothing in her life has changed recently.

Are there natural things I can try and give her to help get rid of this? Any tips or advice. I'm not sure what taking her back to the vets would do, given that she got the all clear from the wee sample.

Any help would be appreciated.

Hi. Poor cat . Have suffered cystitis (human form obviously) and it's horrendously depressing.
What food is she on? Wet or dry?

I'd be getting a urinary specialist diet from the vets, at least until things have settled, make sure you give wet food too. Chamomile and lavender scents have some calming effects but probably no more than the Feliway.

They get half a sachet of wet food twice a day, (I only feed them the expensive stuff, natures menu etc) and a handful of James wellbeloved dry late evening. I had been watering that down for her, will do that again.

She's not off her food at all, if I'm here I have to stop her stealing her brothers food as well as eating hers (he likes to graze)

Will keep watering it down.

No experience of cats with this but one of our dogs used to get it, we used to feed a little live yogurt 3 times a day and a teaspoon of bicarb of soda in water. That used to be what vets recommended but haven't consulted them recently about it so may be very old fashioned by now. Used to work though !

I'd leave out the dry for now and top up with wet.

I keep thinking about trying that, but she's such a fussy mare when it comes to eating, but loves the JWB, and always wolfs it down. I feel mean taking that bit of enjoyment from her is all.

But if it's possibly aggravating her condition, isn't it worth it?
Another option could be to invest in a water fountain, this may encourage the cat to drink more water.

I phoned the vets. They've prescribed me 12 sachets of special food to try and see if it makes her feel better.

Royal canin something or other. Wet food, chicken flavour.

The royal canin urinary is great, they do dry too- it helps prevent the development of crystals so is worth the money for a bit until she's settled. Poor mite.

She won't chuffing eat it! Aaarrgh! Keeps trying to nick her brothers natures menu.

Gonna have to mix it in with her usual stuff I think, cos she's such a fussy mare!

I think I'm gonna rename her "expensive"

I take it back, I've just mashed it to the texture of natures menu, added some of that, and she has duly eaten it.

Phew!

My cat Pebbles has had bouts of really bad cystitis. She constantly will be on the litter tray and there will be blood in her urine. After many visits with her to the vets with urine tests and even an ultrasound scan it was deduced that she was suffering this due to stress. She has always been a nervous cat and appears to get very stressed out. This seems to be mainly caused by visitors and particularly visitors who are cat lovers. (maybe she can smell their cats?).

The first thing we did was put her on wet food only. She just has the Gourmet Solitaire, we initially tried her on the specialist Royal Canin urinary diet which is highly recommended but she wouldn't even look at it. We also tried the Feliway plug ins but this does nothing.

One of the vets at out practice was a specialist in feline cystitis and recommended a product called Nutracyst. This is a natural product and we find it is the only thing that works with her. Her is a link to the website http://www.nutravet.co.uk/nutracys When she has a bout of cystitis we sprinkle the contents of a tablet into her food and mix it in. Because its natural it's not a problem if Henry our other cat dines on it as well. Only thing is that it is rather expensive.

I know the antibiotics do work and the vet said they don't know why as in her case it is not bacterial. If she gets very bad we do take her in and she has amoxicillin which I think is the same thing they use on humans with UTIs.

I hope you sort this problem out as it is a very upsetting thing for both your cat and yourself.