Apple Cider Vinegar Treatment for Cats with Cystitis

THANK YOU FOR THIS SITE!!!!!!! My parents just moved country and flew their cat over for us to look after. The flight was clearly stressful and I noticed a few days after that she was straining to pee and leaving pee/blood drops in the corners of rooms. I couldn't take her to the vet and did'nt want to put her back ito the box that she is now terrified of so I began google searching what the problem is and found this site. Last night I gave her her ACV and soft food and found a big pee this morning and a happy cat! THANK YOU soooooo much!

I have 2 cats and a dog. Ezzie has been with me when she showed up at my doorstep screaming her head off, at 5 weeks old... Should have known then that any feral kitty that wasn't afraid of humans and would actually "knock" on my door because the whole outside thing just wasn't working for her I was going to have a hand full. Well, 6 years later, let me just say, no one is safe... Especially the dog. Anyways, I rescued an abused barn cat when I lived in North Carolina about 2 and a half years ago. It took 6 months for her to allow me near her but I kept putting out food and water and she crept closer and closer eventually I was able to make her a heated kitty house and pick her up.

She showed up one day with a huge gaping wound on her neck and by this time I had broken my neck, had surgery, and then was fired from my job... Long story, needless to say I had no money, let alone for the vet so I called my vet's office and they knew my situation so they only charged me $40 for the visit (she was a new patient) along with the antibotics to give her. It was an interesing game of take the pill for a week. But she healed up and that is how I found out she was a she and that she was estimated to be around 16 years old. So she went from Chairman Meow to Ingrid Birdman. Well, I now live in GA and she now lives inside... She spends most of her time in her "room", the utility room where I put her litter box, food on an elavated platform my step-dad made her, with her kitty bed underneath. Ezzie is a snot so Ingrid likes to be in her safe place. Yesterday, she started going to the cat box and back to the platform (which is white and the floor is white also), like she was doing wind sprints. She was leaving little droplets of peepee tinged with blood once in a while. I freaked, I have no money left of my own and am living off of my mom and she is retired... Vet bills aren't in the cards, and I don't have a vet here that will do me any favors like the nice vet in NC. I found this website and forum, after having read other stuff here and there about the ACV, but nothing specific enough, so I immediately put on socks and shoes and went to the grocery in my jammies (sweatpants and a long ugly t-shirt) and bought the ACV.

Ingrid stopped doing the wind sprints almost instantly after eating the soft food with the ACV in it, last night I put it in her water bowl and she drank that all up. No peepee droplets this morning, I am so thrilled! I hate stressing her out and car rides, vets, etc. Scare her... She's been abused horribly in her lifetime and now she is finally happy and comfortable and because of this forum she is already better and soon will be ALL better. Thanks so much everybody, you are lifesavers!

The apple cider vinegar remedy worked great for our cat!

We added one teaspoonful to a small can of catfood. She ate half of that the first day. Gave her the other half the second day. By the evening of Day 2, she was fine.

(Her prior symptoms were frequent attempts to urinate not just in the litter box, but also other places around the house, which is not like her. This had gone on for over a week.)

This site saved my cat's life. He was recently in for a urinary tract blockage, which cost me over $2500.00 to treat. He was home for two days and blocked up again - no urine what so ever. It was a holiday, nowhere was open, and I was contemplating having him put down. The vet agreed to see him without charging me the $500.00 emergency fee, and tried to catheterize him and couldn't. I was beyond hope.

I found this site with information about ACV for cystitis, and tried the apple cider vinegar, and I kid you not he peed within 20 minutes. I kept giving him small doses by mouth (in a 1 ml syringe) every 30 minutes for 2 hours. He was up peeing all night, and filled the litter box. I am so gratefull!! Thanks!

Holy smokes- A Christmas Miracle! We were having the terrible discussion about having to put our 5 year old cat down the week of Christmas because we could not swing another $350 vet bill like we did last week for Buddy's cystitis. I read this website, went to the store at 11:00 at night to buy a $1.19 bottle of generic apple cider vinegar. I put it in canned cat food and a touch of milk- he ate a tiny bit, I tried it with just cat food, he again, just ate a bit, so I thought I was unsuccesful, but at 1 am he followed me down to the litter box and squatted and succesfully urinated. He bound up the stairs playfully and nearly knocked down the Christmas tree in his enthusiasm!

I am hugely thankful for this site, and all the postings for helping me figure out how to help my cat! Had noticed some weight loss, more isolative behavior, alot of licking his "pee-pee" and very recently, some distressed meows in my 5yo male. It finally dawned on me, what the problem was. I hate to go to the vet because they push vacs, and I know they are more toxic than effective. So yesterday I started the ACV, mixed in fish juice, syringed orally, a small bit at a time, using guidance from other's experiences. About noon today, he had a bitty urine, tinged with blood, then not long after, he released a large amount of tinged urine in the box. I had set up a temporary litter box with white paper to better inspect it, and segregated him from another cat and the dog.

I began the ACV in soft food/water a little more than 24 hours ago, and he is back to behaving his usual self, purring, plopping on his side, expecting to be petted, looking for food. I know I need to continue the ACV at some level, feed soft food and improve his hydration in order to prevent a recurrence. I am so grateful to have found a site of such natural wisdom!

ACV REALLY WORKS!! I have a 2 year old taby... Dewey. A few weeks ago my husband and I started finding slight traces of blood in our bathroom sink, we had no idea where it came from until my husband saw Dewey squat and pee in the sink. We immediately took him to the Vet to find out that he had Cystitis. I looked on this site the next day and read about ACV for cats so Dewey immediatley went on an ACV mix, 6cc x 3 times a day. Roughly one cap in a 1/4 cup water. I'm using an oral syringe and he really doesn't fight back while I'm squirting it slowly into his mouth. It's been 3 days and he is peeing normal again!! I plan on keeping him on half that dose for a few weeks, just to be sure his ph is balanced. Then maybe once per week as a precaution.

***We also have an older cat who needs 100mm of fluids eveyother day... the vet said it would be a good idea to give Dewey 100mm everyday to see if it would help flush his baldder, which I did along with the ACV.

FYI...I called the Vet to let them know and she mentioned that Cosequin is good for their bladder lining.

Thank you Earth Clinic for allowing all of us to share our stories and help one another!

Thanks to all posts here.... What with these events (she's a rescue kitten first time in heat; recently moved into the house with 2 longtime female cats not happy to greet her; 2 young children playing, ETC. ) along with clothes, furniture, and beds all taken apart being washed/deodorized... we've been upset lately. What happened was - the usual cat-in-heat-synptoms (crouching, yowling, scratching, getting underfoot, rushing the door, pacing, urinating, etc. ) masked the simultaneous cystitis. It was probably from not drinking enough water, and stress. Reading this thread was what brought the problem and solution into focus - Thank You!

So..... This, our time-tested remedy as was recommended by a kind holistic vet many years ago.... Voila! Now, Skippy is acting like her good self again, and so are we! Here it is....

1) Break a 500 mg chewable of Vitamin C into 4 parts for a 2-day supply

2)Give the cat distilled or spring water to drink

3)Twice a day, Crush a 1/4 pill (125mg. ) to powder in a small dish, mix in well with a drizzle of olive oil over a heaping teaspoon of good canned fishy cat food or tuna; or into peanut butter and olive oil, whatever the cat's favorite soft treat food is. Spoon-feeding this to kitty and talking about getting better should do it, if the medicine food isn't eaten up fast at first: pets are smart and understand our speech. Probably hopefully we'll give more canned and less dry food in future - and will try not to give tap water in the bowls, too. Best to All, Joan

I'm very happy to say that my cat is doing much better after 2 1/2 days of Apple Cider Vinegar and wet food only. We found a very large puddle this morning on our bathroom floor. He goes in the litter box sometimes but this is definitely progress. I'm so grateful that I found this site.

First let me say that I am so happy that I found this site and this thread. About 2 weeks ago our 2 yr old male cat started peeing outside of the litter box. He's never done this before so we became concerned. We watched him for a day or two and noticed that he was straining to go but not much was coming out. I suspected UTI. We took him to the vet and they gave him an antibiotic shot that was equivalent to 14 days of antibiotics, some anti inflammatory meds and some prescription food that would make him want to drink more water to help with the UTI.

He finished the meds that we were sent home with 3 days later. After 8 days we noticed that there was no improvement at all and he was still straining to go but couldn't. I'm unable to afford another visit to the vet which is how I found this site yesterday. After reading all the posts about how ACV really helped I had to try it.

Last night I gave him about 7 cc of ACV mixed with water. I also put about 1 tsp in his wet food last night & about a cap full of acv/water in his water bowl. I've competely removed all dry food from his diet. I never realized how bad dry food is for them and he really loves eating dry food.

This morning I saw him squatting in the kitchen and I thought hmm is this Apple Cider Vinegar going to work? I was so happy to see that he left a good size puddle on the floor. He hasn't peed that much in over a week so this has to be working. I'm going to continue giving him the Apple Cider Vinegar twice a day with syringe in his mouth as well as in his wet food. I'll update with is progress in a few days! Fingers crossed that he is on his way to recovering from this UTI!

Hi, it is shoegrl. Sorry I took so long to respond. The rememdy worked like a charm. He had a little set back because I fed him dry salmon treats. I put him back on the dosage for three days and he was fine.

Warning... Do not give them daily ACV in their drinking water because you need to avoid bladder infection from too much. 3x a week is enough I'm told. My cat was cured in 3 days from cystitis with ACV. Good luck!

Just wanted to give some feedback on the use of apple cider vinegar in cystitis for cats. My cat was ill with cystitis (so badly that she was going to the litter box every 3 minutes and she even sprayed out couch, she had never ever done this before) we brought her to the vet and he gave her antibiotics which improved it for a while but it came back. Reluctant to get into a cycle of antibiotics, as I am with myself, I searched and found this site.

I started giving her a third of a teaspoon of ACV mixed in with tinned cat food and a teaspoon of water (she ate it as was delighted to get tinned food, normally I only give her dry) I continued this twice a day on the third day upping to half a teaspoon each time. I put a couple of drops in her water also. By day 2 she was substantially better, still trying to pee with little result, but not as often, and managing to pee slightly more in volume, by day three she appeared to be completely better, and doing big pees in the litter box, she now seems completely back to normal.

Thank you very much for all the advice here, very helpful. Just one question, how long should I continue giving the ACV to her? S

Thanks everybody for the UTI info. Our male kitty was trying to urinate frequently and was spending at least 15 minutes at a time in the litter box producing little results... Just a couple of spots.. Not bloody though. So we're assuming he had a UTI. Anyway... We read about the vinegar here and started giving him 1/2 t. Of vinegar diluted with 2 t. Water morning and evening... Squirting it in his mouth with a syringe. Also we sprinkled a half capsule of Echinacea (400mg) and half a capsule of Uva Ursi (500mg) on his food morning and evening along with 500 mg of powdered vitamin C morning and evening and changed his food to a good canned food without the fillers and watered it down making it soupy.

After 4 days his new name is I. P. Freely!!! We absolutely do not want to take him to a veterinarian for this since they killed one of our other darlings with their antibiotics that didn't work!!! Between 5 different vets... All they could do was to give her antibiotics... This went on for 5 YEARS!!! The end result was bladder cancer which took her life. Since then (learn from our mistakes! ) we've used the echinacea and uva ursi and vitamin C on our other cats with success. This is the first time we used the vinegar. This is our first male cat so we were afraid it may have been the crystals??? So whatever it was he's better now!!! Thanks again EC!!!!!!

Hi Amy! When my cat had UTI I looked up for a natural cure and that is how I found EC. I followed somebodys advise in here to dilute ACV 50/50 with water and I would give it to him with a dropper. He didn't like it. But it worked!!! I also changed him from dry food to wet food. It has been approx 2 years since and haven't had UTI since. Good luck to you and your kitty!!