By eating a diet that is high in plant based food kibble commercial cat food.
Struvite crystals in cats ph.
It mainly occurs due to lack of or inadequate moisture in cat food or lack of drinking water.
The main dietary factors that appear to affect the development of cat crystals are urine ph and water consumption.
This has been the major reason that special dry diets have such variable results with preventing urinary crystals and stones in cats.
Cats fed the dry pelleted diet had urine of higher ph 7 55 and 78 per cent of the samples contained struvite crystals.
Two dietary factors urine ph level and the amount of water consumed daily have the greatest impact on whether or not a cat will develop struvite stones.
This is the main reason they are so susceptible to urinary crystals and stones.
Struvite crystals develop in concentrated urine once the urine becomes supersaturated crystals aggregate to form stones.
These diets only contain 10 water.
However according to veterinarians at the marva vista animal clinic in los angeles struvite crystals require an alkaline ph in order to form.
Once the stone is formed it increases in size over weeks or months.
The three standard crystals in cats are struvite oxalate and urate.
So how do cats get urine that is too alkaline.
Cats fed this diet supplemented with ammonium chloride had a urine ph of 5 97 and only 9 per cent contained struvite crystals but when the ph was adjusted to 7 0 all the samples showed struvite crystals.
They cannot form in acidic urine.
The more concentrated the urine the more likely minerals can become crystals and eventually stones.
Less common stones include ammonium biurate cystine and uric acid.
They are most likely to develop when a cat s urine is alkaline more than 7 0 ph.
Struvite stones are composed of magnesium ammonium and phosphate.
How struvite crystals form.
Struvite stones are one of the most common bladder stones in dogs and cats.
However your cat s diet still does play a factor.
A cat affected with struvite crystals calcium oxalate crystals or any other type of crystal will suffer from the same array of symptoms and are affected in the same way.
Struvite crystals in cats are formed when the urine ph is too high ie too alkaline.
Cats should naturally have a very low acidic urinary ph and a ph over seven.
Urinary crystals is a common problem in dehydrated cats.
Struvite specifically is a material that is composed of magnesium ammonium and phosphate.
Calcium oxalate crystals on the other hand are usually present when urine is too acidic.
Cats are not natural water drinkers as they evolved over millions of years and derived most of their moisture from their prey.
The crystals themselves can be perfectly normal but become problematic when they combine to form grit or stones of varying shapes and sizes.
Healthy cats have low ph urine ie acidic.
