[Chris]

Hi Thompson, this depends on what your specific goals are. If the concern is more about water intake, there are a few ways to increase water intake in general. Providing wet food of any kind will do that, as most wet foods are about 70-80% water content. Separate from food, providing 2-3 water bowls throughout the house (and not just one) is helpful. Cats are water seekers, and providing multiple sources can increase their interest. Cats also like moving water, so water fountains have become more popular in recent years as well.

If the concern is about stones or sediment in the urinary tract, then diet is the main approach. Basic, non-prescription urinary tract health diets may look to lower pH and reduce the content of certain minerals, like magnesium, that are components in bladder stones. However, only prescription diets (like c/d, UR, or SO) are proven to prevent bladder stones (or dissolve struvite stones). These must be formulated specifically to meet prescription guidelines. There can be more variability with how generic urinary tract health diets are formulated. If a cat has bladder stones or a history of them, there would not be an expectation that an OTC urinary health formula would guarantee success for management.

Stress can be a significant contribution to urinary health in cats and there are diets that are designed to address stress. I’m not extremely clear how well some of these work. Usually they include ingredients like tryptophan, casein, or L-theanine that are proposed to have calming properties. Casein (Zylkene) and theanine (Solliquin) also exist as calming supplements, and they have modest effects at best, so it depends on how bad the stress-induced behavior is. If stress is part of the equation, calming supplements could also be added separately without needing to get a diet that includes them. It’s also important to incorporate MEMO (multimodal environmental modification) that involves adapting the environment to make it less stressful and more positively stimulating (increasing number of litterboxes, more perches/places to view the outdoors/places to hide, making food/water resources more available in multi cat homes, etc.) as this method can help to get to the root of stress and not just try to put a band-aid on it, so to speak. Cats with severe stress-induced behavior, especially where environmental conditions can’t be altered, may really need a prescription medication if we’re worried about the medical health impact their stress may have.