Apple Cider Vinegar for Feline Bladder Stones

Just came from vet with my 4 yr old female cat and she was diagnosed with bladder infection and a bladder stone! I was told that if it doesn't dissolve I am facing a 1,000 or more operation for my cat that I can't afford. I just gave her special urinary food from the vet and now I am off to the store to purchase the apple cider vinegar with the "mother" to start her on this. I am hopeful after ready other posts that this will make the difference. My questions are how often do I give it to her, she always has food in her dish- should I take her food away and then feed her it all at once? I am slowly switching her food, should I what a few days so that she first adjust to the new food?

I use D Mannose for my UI cat. It is made with cranberries and latches onto the bacteria in the bladder and flushes it out. It does not change the acidity in the urine like the vinegar does. I would be leery of using your suggestion for the massaging f the bladder because if a crystal is stuck you could hurt the bladder. My male cat from a few years ago had crystals and had to have the surgery because of the stuck crystals in his penis caused scarring and he could not pee.

I have to write so anyone with a blocked cat because it is an emergency and when I called every vet from palm springs to indio to beaumont, when I told the vets I needed help but didn't have much money and my cat was dying, not one vet was available to help. Go figure?! Well it costa anywhere from 4 to 7k to hav we the vet do their thing. So instead of watching my cat die a horrible painful 24-48 hr death. I researched and researched and found out that organic apple cider vinagar with the mother 1/4 teaspoon to 3 teaspoons water mixed and forced into ur cats mouth with an eyedropper every hour as best u can and the vinager starts killing the bacteria that's killing your cat.

Then I found you can massage the cat's bladder gently and I would hold cat under arms ( called a ragdoll technique) and stand cat up. Seriously the cat was on its way out. I did this all night but guess what by morning the cat had peed allllll over the place. He is now on the road to recovery without spending thousands on a vet and having the cat die a cruel death. I read about a ton of cat owners battling this only to have their beloved cat put down thinking there was no other option. I'm telling you there is!

My cat Domino seems to be genetically predisposed to urinary crystals - his brother not. Dietary changes and 6k (which I'm still paying off) spent on the transgender operation seemed to save him (BTW my neighbor spent 10k on same op) but now crystals are back and all resources exhausted. I am definitely going to start both cats on ACV (1 part ACV to 3 filtered water) mixed into their food and also given directly to the ailing one. The brothers have been on non-gluten and no dry food diets for several years so this is a last ditch effort to save my tuxedo. Oftentimes nature's remedy is the best remedy. Also taking same dosage they are as we're all in this together. Will keep you posted...

HI I would like to know if this really works because I have a male cat who is sick right now and we don't have the money to see our vet right now. Our scares, but he got a small place. so can I just put it in his mouth, can food is too much and we already got an older cat on can food so I don't want him getting used to it. please help

If you don't trust your vet you should get another one 'coz that's what I did when I didn't trust a vet I had, the vet I'm with now is terrific, if your cat has an infection you must see your vet to get that cleared up first, my cat Tom had to have antibiotics to get rid of the infection he had I now use cranberry treats that I get from pets at home and ACV and up till now he is clear of any infection or crystals thank goodness 'coz I love him so much.

Hello there, thanks for the great post.

I have 2 cats that had urinary tract problems so I've been told I should feed them special food for the rest of their life..my concern is about any long term side effects, that could possibly get my cats. I've been feeding them the royal canin urinary tract for 2years now. I don't feel safe. My question is that would it be okay if I give them ACV and the prescribed food?

I feed my cats one meal for the canned food and the rest with medicated dry food
Thanks :)

I would've been great for me and my cats if I knew about ACV sooner.

Several folks have mentioned raw food diets. I have had Great Success ( according to my 2 cats, ages 14 & 15) by using the raw food mixes offered on www.felineinstincts.com They have loads of info on the benefits of feeding raw, also tips on how to succeed in making the transition from commercial food to homemade raw food. Also offers a Kidney raw food mix(for cats w/kidney issues).

I should mention that my cats have Never liked chunky-style canned food. Always wanted pate-type food, so I was hesitant about trying to make my own food, as I don't own a grinder or food processor. But I went ahead and made their cat food anyway, using a clean scissors to cut up the chicken thigh meat into as tiny, diced pieces as possible!!! Well, guess what?! They Both Loved the food!!! From the first try, they preferred it to the Wellness grain-free pate-type food they've been eating all their lives!!! ( I know, 'cause I put a spoonful of both foods on each of their plates to see which they would go to first- and they ate the raw chunky spoonful first, licked the juices Clean from that area- and then rather boringly licked up part of their Once favorite chicken/herring pate-style canned food!!! Definitely worth investigating for yourselves, even if you only give them raw food once a day and canned Grain-free food for their other meals!!

Don't fret, whichever your dropper says: 1ml = 1cc

Wanted to clarify, made a mistake on the measurement at the end of my post, it should be a 3 to 1 ratio and I checked my syringe and it's ML not CC, so its 1ml of the 3 parts water to 1 part ACV mix. Also, please do NOT give your pet straight ACV, its too strong and not necessary.

To the lady with the cat that has kidney stones, I don't see why the ACV wouldn't help, since it dissolves bladder stones, seems like it would do the same for the kidney stones. I know, the 1st couple weeks is hard, but after that, its smooth sailing! During the first couple months, I noticed occassional blood in the urine, common sense would tell me that she had passed a stone, as the ACV dissolves them to a smaller size, they can be passed, but will cause a small amount of blood in the urine. This hasn't happened in probably 18 months or longer.

My 'Shadow' has been fine ever since I got her back to normal with the ACV, its been over 2 years, she's still on the same thing and going great. But I will have to give her this for the rest of her life, it takes no time for the stones to come back, but as long as I am diligent, she's fine. Once you get it cleared up, you will have to continue it forever, but that's a small price to pay for a healthy, happy kitty. It's only 5 min of your day and I can't stress enough how well this works or thank Earth Clinic enough for the info.

Good luck with your kitty!

I should have done this long ago, since it was information I found on Earth Clinic, that saved my cat's life.

In late December 2010, my cat started having serious problems urinating, back and forth to the box, meowing, nothing happening. Occassionally a drop the size of a green pea, in the litter box. I had just moved, was completely broke and a vet bill was out of the question. I knew what was wrong with her, a bladder stone had all but closed off her urethra, tiny bit of urine tinged with blood was all she could pass. I had dealt with this many years ago with a male cat.

Having no $$ I hit the internet and found this wonderful site. I didn't have the 'organic' ACV that everyone said to get, but did have plain ACV from the grocery store. I started giving it to her in a dropper, 3 parts water to 1 part ACV. I'm lucky cause she's a feral cat, she'll eat anything. I bought some small cans of 'special diet' cat food, any brand that says Urinary Tract Formula, on it. I mix 1/4 of the food with 3 droppers of ACV and some warm water to make it soupy, she ate it all. In a couple days, her pea-sized drops became grape sized and continued to increase until back to normal. It took 2-3 weeks for her to be completely back to normal. It has been over 2 years, a couple times she has passed small stones and a very small amount of blood, but that was in the 1st 6 months. Since then, no problems what so ever. Once I missed giving her the ACV for a couple days and it started right back up, never did that again! So now she has the same food mix every morning, along with 1CC of the water-ACV mix 4to1 from a syringe slowly into her mouth before her breakfast.

She is fine and now 16 years old! I can't thank this site or all the contributors for helping me to save her, when there was nothing else I could do. Thank You to All of you!

Pat from St. Louis; I don't know as any animal ever over dosing on ACV but try small amounts like a tablespoon full in the cat food, I camouflage the strong smell of Apple Cider Vinegar by putting fish oil caps(cut tip off)apply it to cat or dog food, its also great for all the animals. Good luck

Hi, I just wanted to tell everyone that Wellness makes a canned food line called CORE that has no grains and is made with human-grade ingredients. It's expensive but worth it, in my opinion. My holistic vet told me about it and my cats have been doing much better since they've been eating it. As for raw diets, I was also told that if you're going to feed your pets raw meat you need to freeze it for a week first to kill all the possible pathogens; this is *especially* important if you are feeding non-organic meat to a sick pet.

Thanks for the great site, I come here all the time and ACV is a life-saver.

You can go to http://www.catnutrition.org to find information about a raw food diet for cats. It has a recipe with bones and without bones as well as the nutritional supplements they need in a raw diet. It is a very helpful site and gives a lot of good information, even on canned foods. They do not recommend a dry kibble for cats because of the grains inherent in almost all kibble. They also give info on how to switch your cats from a kibble diet to canned food and then to a raw diet.

What type of raw meat do you feed your cat? I would love to get one of my cats on raw meat (the other hunts for himself) but she will only eat dry food. I can't even get her to eat really good stuff out of the can!

ACV is a God send. I have 3 cats Darwin, Marconi,& Hypatia, and one, Marconi, is always coming down with crystals in his bladder. After repeated trips to the vet & surgery being offered (hubby said "NO". The cat's a male and shall stay that way), I found this site. Even with his medication and draining, he still was in rough shape. Ran out and picked up organic ACV and added 1/4 teaspoon to his wet cat food. He could spot it in the water bowl plus he'll only drink from the toilet anyways. He ate the food like a champ. So far it's been 5 months and no problems. It even helped the other 2 drop some pounds. Darwin was over weight & Hypatia was obese. Now they are fit and trim. They will continue to receive the ACV from now on.

JUST GET YOUR ANIMALS ON RAW MEAT AND BONES. ALL PROBLEMS WILL GO AWAY.

My 3 yo male cat had surgery 5 days ago for a blocked bladder. He had also had 'crystals' when he was a kitten, even before he was neutered he managed to sort himself out back then with the help (or not) of some injections, tablets and a few consults.

This time was different he was in distress i rushed him to the vet on Thursday morning, they kept him there they said they sedated,unblocked him and had him on an IV drip but wanted to keep him for two nights. I paid visitsbut he became VERY distressed in there. Friday night, he looked near dead. I made them take out the IV drip and let me bring him home as there was no body at all in the surgery overnight.

He was happy to be home but by Saturday night i knew that he was blocking up again. I started to cry thinking of his options. I was physically ill. I didnt want to put him through any more surgery, nor did i want him to have to have his p---s removed. It seemed kinder to put him to sleep.

I found this site at 3 a.m Sunday morning. I got some ACV into around noon .. 50 parts ACV 50 parts water and started dripping drops onto his paw with a dropper.. the results were almost instant. He took off under the bed (not happy with me) but seemed to be sleeping soundly.

A couple of hours later he woke and went to his litter tray .. i was encouraged as this was more urine than he HAD been passing ..he kept making frequent trips to his litter trays (as they to with UTI) .. each time passing more and more urine .. i couldnt believe it!!!!!!!! I also made a capful to a cup of water and dropped a dropper full down his throat before i went to bed. He was already a different cat, almost back to his old self and this was only six or seven hours after his first doses of ACV!!

This morning i saw his sister trying to bury something on the laundry floor i thought it was a little worm/bug thing, it had two bits of kittylitter stuck to it. I picked it up it was actually a peice of conjealed* blood! It looked exactly like it has come out of his little p---s !! Did the vinegar help him to pass this!!? There were also larger and larger clumps of litter in the trays. I was so happy ..then! i saw him go in the tray himself ..the relief was written all over his face ..he did this huge wee!!

He has only been on raw beef/lamb/chicken since the surgery as he loves to eat this and won't eat the s/d science diet they sold me. he likes to drink water so im lucky .. im cutting out dry food as i think this is what caused it ..there was always some down for them to eat.

24 hours ago this was a different cat .. i thank the acv and testimonials from this site they've saved my little cats life! He is almost his old happy self ..im sure of it!

Not sure whether to keep him on the antibiotics the vet prescribed or not though. I was meant to give him 3 yesterday and only gave him one. I'm worried about them mucking up his ph levels and possibly constipating him. And i don't altogether trust the vet.

Yea! and Yay! I too had a similar vet experience. My Angora Male (young) started the UTI concerns at two mnonth intervals. By the end of the second round of anti-biotics I decided to search the Internet. Thus, I found Earth Clinic. Each time the vet prescribed the high priced food and my cat would not go near it. The vet kept at me to bring him back in "in two weeks to check" him. I started putting a couple of drops of ACV in both my male cats food, each time a bit more. And!! I add water to make the food soupy. No problems in well over a year. They get ACV in every meal and love it. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences here and for guiding me in the natural way to go. Plus, saving me big bucks is nice. :o)

My cats get a teensy bit (like a 1/2 teaspoon) of ____Raw ACV in their wet food, and I put some extra water in their food. They are healthy, bright-eyed and have no problem with crystals or other pee problems.

It's important to get the RAW ACV. Don't get the clear kind, because it does not have all the vitamins/minerals.

Clear ACV has all the beneficial vitamins/minerals pasteurized (heated) out! So, be sure to use only the raw kind. It has a slimy film at the bottom that they call "Mother of vinegar" because it's the highly beneficial bacteria. It's cloudy and brown, which most people look at and think, oh that looks gross, but this kind of vinegar is natural and great for you and your cat. So you want the kind with that.

I use it on a flea comb and comb through their fur to help control fleas. Also, when they get an itchy patch or a scab, put a Q-tip or cotton ball dipped in vinegar and rub it on the spot. My kitty loves this because she knows it will feel better and takes the itch out!

Cats know when you're doing something to help them.

Oh, just wanted to mention to the girl who feeds tuna fish-- I know we've been taught that they love it, and it's true, because it's so smelly of fish, but tuna fish is not good for cats-- something about the taurine gets depleted from their body when they eat it. Check www.holisticat.com and www.catnutrition.org for natural cat food recipes. The RAW CHICKEN LIVERS is good, though, once or twice a week, though.

I feed my babies raw chicken everyday. They even eat the raw chicken bone! (BUT NEVER FEED CATS COOKED BONES-- THE BONES SPLINTER AND CAN CHOKE OR POKE HOLES THROUGH THEIR INTESTINES.) Again, see the previously mentioned sites for more info on balancing your cat's diet. I know I need to be providing more balance.

So, I use ACV for my cats and for me (has cured me of tendonitis from typing too much! to helping me lose weight to keeping my skin really nice to curing my stomach problems to giving me good energy.

I think you all will be really pleased when you start using ACV inside and out. It's truly a miracle natural medicinal that has been used since the time of Hippocrates ("the father of medicine").

Be well and happy.

You're right about the vet being interested in your money and not about the health of your cat. I have a 17 year old Maine Coon mix that was diagnosed with crystals in his urine and was advised by the vet to put him on the Science Diet C/D or to operate. I told the vet I didn't have a lot of money (plus, it's $85.00 to walk in the vet's door!) and could she advise other treatments. NO, the only treatment was an expensive cat food or surgery. I am not about to put a 17 year old cat under the knife, that's crazy! And to pay excessive prices for a special cat food diet wasn't an option.

That's how I found this site and the wonderful effects of ACV. Apple Cider Vinegar cured my cat of his crystals in 1 month and made his coat shiny and healthy. He also had digestive problems, which also disappeared using the ACV. When I took him back to the vet (for a different problem), they insisted on doing a urinalysis based on their previous diagnosis. Imagine their surprise when his test came back negative for crystals! I told the vet that I had been treating him with ACV and the vet acknowledged that it was an effective treatment. He could have told me this $500.00+ ago, but their practice is dependant on people spending money on drugs and procedures to keep their pets healthy, not to actually keep pets healthy.

On a side note, my boyfriend and I also started taking ACV, his digestion problems are nearly gone and it has done wonders for my skin. Yea for ACV!

Hi all.Our 3 yr.old cat Tum was lethargic when we came home on thanksgiving night,after seeming to have problems peeing for a few hours earlier. I took him to a 24 hour emergency hospital at 11pm, being the only place open at that time, especially on a holiday.I was told upon entering there was a $120 "cover charge" just for walking in. Fine .I just want my cat to live,I thought.Well when the vet called me in to discuss the problem,I found out he had a urinary blockage and they wanted to unblock him and do testing to find out exactly why,due to the tune of $1200,also while telling me he may need surgery on top of that.Being pretty strapped for money ,like anyone else nowadays, I couldn't afford their testing.I started crying hysterically, not wanting to have to watch my cat suffer in front of us helplessly,and watch him die.The vet told me she'd unblock him,thankfully, but then we were sent on our way.He seemed ok for a few hours afterwards,but then started going in and out of the litte box every 2 minutes or so.We knew we couldn't afford to take a trip to the vet or hospital,just because we already knew what it was and what it would cost.That's when I started frantically searching the net for a home remedy type solution,and the apple cider vinegar treatment was the 1st I came across.I was EXTREMELY weary and hopeless,but thought, hey I have nothing to lose. My husband immediately ran to the food store and bought a bottle.

I gave Tum some WET food mixed with about 1.5 tsp of acv immediately,and the same amount at every feeding. I am so happy to report that out baby is almost completely better.

He is not only making less than half the trips the the litter box than before,but it active again after only 3 days now.Sure he didn't like it at 1st,but mix it with food and if they're hungry,they'll eat it!We didn't force it down his throat(we've tried before with other meds and it was just us getting scratched and bit by him)but administer it by any means if you have a fussy cat!It is SO worth it. I just want to speak on behalf of all the loving animal owners who can't afford expensive treatment...please give it a try! There's NOTHING to lose.It has kept one of our family's best friends around!

Thanks a MILLION ten fold for those who have made testimonials and who have informed us on the use of avc for urinary problems for our cat,as it has saved his life and gave us such great hope,as well as returning our Tum to his lively,crazy young self!Please,please try it-if not now,as a last option.We did and we are so thankful.Thank you all so much.

I used apple cider vinegar to cure my cat's urinary blockage after a 1500 dollar visit to the vet the first time this occured. A neighbor suggested trying a home remedy. I found this web site and learned about apple cider vinegar to cure cat's of urinary blockage.I had a syringe from the vet for giving my cat water to help him swallow his medicine I used this 6 militer syringe to give my cat ACV BY MIXING IT WITH ONE CUP OF WATER AND GIVING HIM 1FULL syringe in the morning and 1 at night the 1st 3 days then 1/2 a teespoon of ACV to his water dish which holds 2 cups.

I am pleased to report that MAX my male cat is doing fine and is urinating normally now will keep him on this for the rest of his life. my thanks to Earth clinic

re: Crystals in Cat's Bladder: My cat has the same problems. It was so bad I had to lock her in the bathroom. I ordered Carpon (which are cranberry pills). I melt them (two pills) in about an inch of water and I mix it with her wet food. She hasn't had a bloody urine since. The carpon saved my cat's life. Several rounds of antibiotics and vet visits never cured her. The Carpon did. One thing is you have to be careful. Get your cat x rays to see if the crystals in her bladder are struvite or calcium. I know it makes a difference. Please read Dr. Belfied's site to find out more information. My vet told me there were no crystals on her x rays... I gave her the Carpon anyway. She is no longer having problems. I give it to her every other day.

Apple cider vinegar is great for crystals and UTIs in cats.

The vets would be out of business if they recommended ACV, because it heals almost everything. In addition to all the skin disorders that cause scratching and hair loss, I have cured my male cats crystals which almost killed him 4 yrs ago. I had great success clearing another cats urinary tract infection. Wish I had known about this remedy last year when I had a house full of foster cats with upper respiratory infections. It cost a bundle having them all on antibiotics. People and their pets should have Apple Cider Vinegar everyday for many many reasons as reflected in this outstanding site. Thank goodness for the Internet, because this is information the doctors sure won't tell us. They have an expensive office visit and a toxic pill for everything..

Outstanding information on this site.

Why isn't Apple Cider Vinegar a staple in every household? Truly a life changing remedy the doctors sure don't tell you about. Thanks a million to everyone who took the time to provide VALUABLE information on this site. I'm using it now for my cat who almost died from crystals...a urinary blockage. The vet wanted to perform a painful $1,500 surgery, but the ACV is doing the trick to regulate his PH levels. Unbelievable...