Raw Food Diet and Apple Cider Vinegar for Cats

I feed my cats a BARF diet and have since the older cat, Keeley, got a urinary tract infection at 9 months, a few days after one of his vaccine boosters. At the time, we gave him the full 10-day course of antibiotics as recommended by our vet. Two days after we used up the antibiotics, Keeley's UTI came back in full force, worse than before. He was peeing droplets every three steps.

Since the conventional method didn't work, I went the alternative route. I switched him to a raw diet, and syringe fed him vitamin C, cranberry pills, and lots of water. Three days later, Keeley's UTI symptoms were gone. I tossed all of the kibble and canned cat food and went raw with Keeley for good.

When Mango came along a few months later, I was going to wait and switch him over slowly. However, he was very lethargic when we first got him, and I attributed it to the fact that the breeder had just taken him for his first booster shot a few days before. My gut told me to start him off on raw food right away.

Keeley and Mango are both Siberians, and Siberians take up to 3 years to reach full size. They are now respectively 4 and 3 years of age and as they grew, it became apparent the benefit that starting on a raw food diet at a younger age had on Mango. Keeley is much longer and appears larger, but when you pick him up, he's not as densely built. Mango looks much more round and short, but he is just as heavy and is very solidly built. Although Keeley's UTI went away, he tends to relapse when he is stressed. When I board the cats, I usually leave ester C with the boarding facility along with a supply of individually packaged raw food per day. Mango has never been sick a day in his life.

With Keeley's tendency for UTI's, he often had accidents outside of the litter box. If he happened to not drink enough or not eat enough and get enough liquids, I'd find a present next to the litter pan. I've tried everything over the years -- litter attractant, odor removers, Feliway, etc. I also scoop litter once or twice a day, making sure the pans are absolutely clean. Getting tired of cleaning up cat pee every few days, over the last year, I've tried many herbs and natural therapies -- saw palmetto, cat probiotics, D-mannose, cranberry exract, thuja, goldenseal, crouch grass, to name a few. Well, I finally found a solution that works: apple cider vinegar. I was browsing forums and alternative recommendations online for cat UTI one night after cleaning up the cat room floor, and found the recommendation to try raw apple cider vinegar. I know it's effect well for humans -- it's a fermented food, good for balancing the bodys PH, and helps with digestion. It certainly couldn't hurt.

It took three days after starting the cats on the ACV before Keeley's pee went from a small golf ball size in the litterpan to a grapefruit size. Keeley is now peeing in the litter pan like a champ. To think, all that time, effort, frustration, and money and the answer was sitting in my pantry all along.

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