FELIWAY Cystease

The ingredients within Cystease should be safe to use even if your cat has kidney disease. However I would run this past your vet, any dietary changes should always be checked past your vet to ensure they do not interfere with your treatment plan.

Yes Feliway Cystease and Thyronorm are perfectly safe to use together.

Yes this product is safe to use alongside steroid medication.

These tablets are indeed intended for cats exactly like yours. "Idiopathic cystitis" is one of the names used to describe the condition and it certainly seems to help using a product like this. It has to be given for a few weeks before it is fully effective, then has to be given long-term.

My guess is that your cat is predominantly on dried food. It is not always the case, but most cats with this problem are on dried food. If this is the case, you have the option of stopping almost all the dried food and giving wet only (tins, pouches etc). Cats virtually never get this type of cystitis if they are producing dilute urine and many cats on dried food just produce concentrated urine instead of drinking more water. A very moist food will largely eliminate this effect. It also encourages cats to drink if you leave 1 or 2 drinking bowls (glass or ceramic ideally) on windowsills or other places where your cat tends to go (away from the feeding area). This will help and might be enough to stop him from getting the problem again.

This product is safe to use in the presence of reduced kidney function. I would say though that it is intended for "Idiopathic cystitis" which is the commonest cause of cystitis in younger cats, but tends not to happen as much in older cats. (Cats with reduced kidney function tend to produce larger volumes of dilute urine and this seems to protect against the usual type of idiopathic cystitis.) If cystitis does occur in a cat such as yours now, it is more likely to be a bacterial cystitis which Cystease is not intended for.

You can certainly use Cystease but if you see the symptoms of cystitis, it would certainly be worth having your vet check her over.

These should be available in the next 2-3 weeks, and the expiry date should be close to 2 years.

Feline asthma is diagnosed sometimes. It varies enormously in how badly it affects any particular individual, from a mild, intermittent cough to serious and sudden difficulty breathing. Treatments are similar in many ways to those given to people with asthma and often involve steroids. On occasions antibiotics are given too if it is felt that secondary infection of the airways is involved, though this is not usual. Your vet is the best person to advise you what to do.

Increased thirst is not normally noticed with this product, but this is a symptom which should be checked by your vet. The condition of idiopathic cystitis which Cystease is normally used for, is not common in 17 year old cats (they more commonly get septic cystitis which might need antibiotics). I would suggest that you see your vet.

The pH of urine can change significantly after it has been collected, especially if it goes into a litter tray. Some test strips are not very accurate on feline urine too I suspect. Therefore firstly I am unsure if your cat is genuinely producing such alkaline urine. If this is a genuine result and the diet is as you say, then I would suspect a urinary infection or metabolic disturbance. Ideally these things should be investigated before starting treatment.

The treatments you have mentioned would be safe to use as you intend and can be helpful for idiopathic, aseptic cystitis. They might not be effective depending partly on the nature of any underlying problem. If your vete is sure this is idiopathic cystitis then the products should be OK to use together. Otherwise, you should try to get a good diagnosis and understanding of what is going on in your cat. It might be time to see the vet! I hope your cat gets better soon, cystitis can be quite distressing for cats.

Yes this is a food supplement and should be safe. (There is always a potential risk/benefit assessment to be made with giving any type of medication at any time. You are quite right that this is even more important in a pregnant animal. However Cystease is very unlikely to be able to cause any trouble. If there is a good reason to give this to your cat, such as cystitis, then it is sensible and justified to do so.)