The most common symptoms of cat struvite stones or calcium oxalate stones in cats is when they you cat has blood in the urine, struggles in the litter box or cries out during urination. You may mistake this for your cat being constipated. What really is occurring is that your cat has a stone blocking his ureter or urethra and his toxic urine is backing up in his body. Read this to get some pointers on how to prevent this painful cat disorder.

Cat bladder stones, sometimes referred to as uroliths, are caused by an overload of salt and minerals like magnesium, calcium, phosphorous and ammonia that concentrate in his urine. Your cat’s urine normally has this stuff in it, but when it becomes over saturated with them then crystals form.

Cat struvite crystals normally start and grow slowly over time. However, when conditions are right, they start to grow faster becoming larger. The main condition that causes these crystals to start to grow is when your cat doesn’t get enough water. You cat may not have a good fresh source of water, needs more sources of fresh water or doesn’t get wet canned food to add water to his diet.

There are different types of bladder stones with the two most common being: struvite and calcium oxalate. Struvite stones occur more frequently than calcium oxalate stones. The difference being in what they are composed.

The shape of struvite stones are fairly large and round. Struvite stones in cats have a different chemical composition than calcium oxalate stones. They develop because of high concentrations of minerals in your cat’s urine usually because he’s not drinking enough water. He may not be urinating regularly to because of a feline bladder infection. A feline urinary tract infection can cause him to stop urinating too.

Calcium oxalate stones are typically smaller than struvite stones. Their destructive characteristic is that they have jagged edges. They can get lodged in your cats’ bladder, his kidneys or in the ureters. The ureter is the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder. When it is blocked by a calcium oxalate stone the urine can’t pass.

This is an emergency. Don’t wait around waiting for the stone to pass, because this is a lethal situation for your cat. If a cat is obstructed for even one day, he will be very sick, in excruciating pain and his kidneys will be damaged.

What You Can Do To Prevent Struvite Stones In Cats

You may have heard about dog’s getting struvite stones and they can. The difference is that struvite stones in dogs is caused by a canine urinary tract infection, not by a concentration of minerals in the dog’s urine.

Once your cat is cured of struvite stones, there is a good chance they will recur, so you need to put into action a prevention program.

Anything you can do to get more water into his system will help prevent another expensive round of cat struvite stones. Get a running water fountain, add a little water to his canned food - and if your not feeding a good quality canned cat food, start.