Apple Cider Vinegar Treatment for Cats with Cystitis

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

If your cat is having a hard time urinating DO NOT WAIT! TAKE YOUR CAT TO THE VETERINARY ASAP!

Cats can get blocked and apple cider vinegar is not going to work fast enough to save its life. A cat can die in 24 hrs after becoming blocked.

I had a cat that became blocked and had not shown any signs of it before I saw a little blood on the back side and when I did I took him to the vets and was told he would have died within 4 hrs.

Cats hide the pain.

Hi, I would like to try Apple Cider Vinegar for my poor old cat but being very fussy about what he eats, he turns his nose up at most things. After reading about the other benifits for myself and how bad it tastes how do I get him to take it since his sense of smell is so much keener than ours?

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.

I learned that the water containing ACV should only be used 3X a week so bladder infection could be avoided. Also vitamin C 250 MM crushed and put in the food 2X a week is a help to a senior cat for arthritis.

I found the answer is to put ACV in cat's water only 3 times a week to avoid bladder infections from too much. Also give water in a dropper right after the 3 day treatment I mentioned so kitty can get rid of the taste. Do away with dry catfood till kitty gets well. Crush a 250MM vitamin C pill in the catfood 3x a week.

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!!

So my little one had clear urine, and normal sized urinations for a while, after I'd been watering down her food (wet food) but as soon as I stopped this, she has blood in her urine again. She also has been urinating in the bathtub and on my leather couch this whole time even though it is clear and has been of regular size/amount. Could she still have had the infection this whole time???

Our cat Stiggy will eat only one kind of dry food and refuses all other food, fish, meat, human, food, milk products, you name it. A real finky eater if there ever was one. His partner Inspector Lynley eats everything, mice, birds. And such, a real pig. How do we get Stiggy to eat wet food?

Our 6 year old male, neutered American short hair Oscar, had started to suffer from all the typical symptoms of a UTI/Cystitis. After doing my research and finding how serious this can be for males, I was highly concerned as I really could not afford any vets bills for a week or so, and all indicators were that he would need some anti biotics and possible surgery depending on the severity. My love for my cat and my worrying nature lead me to this site, and after reading all the positive reviews I was confident in trying it. We are now in day 4 of:

No dry food. Mixing one to two table spoons of ACV in to the food. Day 1. He started to seem sprightlier and 18 hours after the first dose urinated more than he had in several days.

Day 2. Still made a few trips to the litter tray trying to urinate but unable. But passing significant amounts again.

Day 3. Seemed to be back to almost normal urination routines.

Day 4. All seems normal, happy as ever, no trips to the litter tray with no results. I can't thank everyone who posted here enough. You may well have saved my cats life and I felt compelled to tell my story. Thanks again from one inconceivably grateful cat lover.

Hi Amy,

I've read on several websites (including this one, I think) that apple cider vinegar tablets are not very effective and can cause extreme acid conditions, so I would be especially careful giving them to pets! Let us know how your kitty is doing.

I've been feeding my little one the Apple Cider Vinegar in crushed up tablet form that seems to do the trick. Especially after the first attempt led to foaming, coughing, gagging and howling. Ever since I've been feeding it to her, however, she's been making this snorting purring sound. She also has been making a snorting snoring sound when she sleeps... She did not do this before- a little trace of a snore, but nothing like this? Could I have damaged her ears/eyes/nose/throat when I gave her the liquid vinegar too quickly? These sounds began immediately after I gave her the liquid..... ? Has this happened to anyone else?

Thank you so much for posting the "foaming at the mouth and coughing" part. I was still concerned because she howled once too, but had I not read this on your blog, I would have totally freaked out!

BETTER BUT WITH SIDE EFFECTS

Cystitis fixed, other probs

I have a male short haired cat of around 3 years old who is getting over suffering from cystitis. I want to thank you guys for the advice about using the acv. It did the trick, but now he is defecating far from the box. I keep the box immaculate and he shares the box with a 2-3yo female. The feces looks the same exact color as the acv. He doesn't do it all the time though. I am confused. Anyone help?

Patrick is one of our two rescue cats. We've had him for two years. He has skin allergies that cause him to scratch his head till he looks like a raw meatball. He also gets urinary tract infections. Because he has such a sweet personality, I suspect these two medical problems are the reasons he was tossed into an alley to fend for himself. After several vet visits, and many tests, and antibiotics and food changes his allergies would not go away. I finally asked the vet if there was an allergy pill made for cats and he gave me Chlorpheniramine 4mg-1/2 tab. He gets it once a day, disolved in 1/4 tsp of cider vinegar, 1 tbsp water, 2 tbsp Duck and Pea cat food. The cider vinegar I've been giving him every day for the past 18 months since his first attack.

This week my husband was home on vacation and I got to sleep in each morning (he fed the critters dry food instead of my vinegar wet/canned mix). By the third day I found the large wet spot, like spilled tea, on my bedroom end table. I didn't remember leaving a water glass there, and could only think it had to have been one of our three cats. All of them always use the litter boxes (we have three boxes) so this was a warning. While I was using the bathroom I noticed Patrick used the litter box in there three times in ten minutes. I then knew that missing the wet vinegar mix food in the morning had allowed his UTI infection to get out of hand. I immediatedly started him back on the vinegar, upping his dosing to three times a day. It's day four and he's playing with his 'brother' and out hiding atop the hamper in the bathroom. I've been monitoring his reststops, and his wet spots have gotten much bigger, and farther apart. All three cats are going to stay on natural vinegar in their morning wet food as maintenance for the rest of their lives. The balance of their food is high quality dry food with probiotics, cranberry, and no grains. We lost our dear cat, Chan, two years ago to liver failure caused by the cat food additive mess. A little caution saves a lot of useless vet treatments. Nature cider vinegar works wonders with cats. I'd recommend mixing it with a high quality wet cat food, plas added water, so easy you're certain they are getting that extra water they need without a daily fight.

Apple Cider Vinegar seems to be working for our 10 year old neutered male cat. Two days ago, we noticed that he was very lethargic and spending a great amount of time licking his bottom. He appeared to "waddle" as he walked and was clearly uncomfortable. Suspecting it might be cystitis, we called the vet, but as it was late afternoon Saturday, we had to take him to an after-hours vet service in town. They did suspect cystitis, though the bladder seemed normal in size and not rock hard, and held him overnight for observation. On Sunday they reported that he had not defecated nor urinated and asked us to come pick him up (he has a cat door at home and won't use the kitty litter provided in the house) to see if he would perform at home. They suggested reducing dry food, increasing wet food and encouraging him to drink more. They recommended taking him to our Vet on Monday. Later Sunday, it became clear that he was totally blocked. He could defecate, but there was no urine passage. Sunday afternoon I found this site, and at 5 PM we added 3/4tsp ACV (in addition to some water) to canned food, and 1/2tsp per cup of drinking water. We also used a syringe to get about another 1/4t of ACV, diluted with 1tsp water into him. There was no progress on urination, with the possible exception of a few drops on the linoleum floors around the house. By 10 PM, however, he did seem to be at bit more comfortable. On Monday, we continued the 3/4 t ACV with wet food, 1/2t per cup of drinking water, and 1/2t per 2t water in the syringe. In all, we probably got 1 t of ACV into him this morning. By noon he had urinated a small amount (1"D wet spot) twice, that we were able to witness. He is not yet back to normal, but it is clear that he is on the mend. It is surprising and disturbing that vets seem to be unaware of this solution to what appears to be a very common, debilitating, and sometimes lethal, problem. Caution: In our first attempt to put the syringe in his mouth, he bit through my wife's finger and finger nail. This cat doesn't even expose his claws when fighting with us, normally, but the syringe was more than he could tolerate. Now, as suggested elsewhere on this site, we lay him on his back, between our legs, and just put the syringe inside his lips, and slowly dribble the ACV in. He doesn't like it, but there is no more biting.

Apple Cider Vinegar - Feline Urinary Syndrome

Crossing my fingers here - but so far so good.

My cat Ripper (7 year old, neutered male domestic short hair cat) had just had a 400.00 vet bill for a blockage about two weeks ago.

With that bill, I don't have the money for another go around (not to mention 400.00 gelding for two horses and a 1000.00 bill for other problems in my rescue horses earlier in the year).

So I came looking for another solution. I found your site. My mom and I are both big believers in natural remedies for problems. Ripper isn't in huge distress but was wandering around crying occasionally and I saw him straining and only producing a drop or two of urine. I gave him the ACV (organic from Health Food Store - mixed 1/2 tsp to 2 tbsp spring water) from a plastic syringe. He didn't like it and I have a couple of big scratches *but* I got it all down him.

I've got some more diluted in his water bowl and some added to some nummy wet cat food. Right now I can hear him scratching in his litter box and there's no crying going on.

Cross your fingers for me - but I think you may have saved me another 400.00 bill.

--------------------------

04/08/2010 Update

It's been 12 hours give or take later since Ripper's first dose and in that time he's had two more. (Once in wet food and once in another syringe of water). First off he's stopped crying, he's sleeping comfortably on my bed (not lethargic - just his normal lazy kitty self), and lastly and most importantly - he's used his litter box to pee.

The only thing I'm not sure of is how much he pee'd. That is because I use a silica crystal cat litter and the moisture is pretty much immediately sucked up (especially when the crystals are brand new - which they are since I changed it last night when all this started). However there is a good amount of the crystals that are discolored to a bright-ish yellow with no trace of blood. And he's not going in and out of the box continuously and he's not hiding under my bed - so it looks like *tentatively* that the ACV has done the trick.

Thank you so much... I am going to continue to update. Cross your fingers for me and Ripper.

--------------------------------------

04/28/2010 Update

Ripper is completely normal now.

I am astounded at how *fast* he was given relief by the ACV (organic complete with mother). He's right now sleeping comfortably beside his 'girlfriend' Hecate after Elishiva gave him a bath.

He's been eating, dreaming and doing all sorts of good stuff quite happily since his his last dose in his wet food. I am going to be switching him and his companions to a wet food/raw food diet complete with ACV to keep the urinary issues away. Also going to keep a little ACV in the water they drink (Ripper's not sold on that, but Hecate and Elishiva are. Not sure on Indy's verdict. Gus the pug and Flea and Gwin the ferrets are good with it.)

Vet bill - 460.00 dollars
Apple Cider Vinegar - 10.00 for the big jug
Ripper's health - Priceless.

Thanks Earth Clinic! I'll be back for more info when I need it again.

Cystitis and UTI Remedies for Cats

Apple cider vinegar saved the day for my 3 year old neutered male kitty. He was going to the litter box every 5 minutes and producing only a few drops of urine. I called my vet who said to take away his dry food, and just give him wet food to increase the amount of water he is talking in. Later that evening, kitty was producing NO urine.

I used the suggestions on this site - 1/4 tsp. of ACV added to 2 tsp.of canned food - he ate it right up ! Then I gave him a few syringes of 1/4 tsp. ACV and 1 tsp. water. He took it without much fuss. And then I added ACV to the cats' drinking bowls ( I have two cats.) - 1/2 tsp ACV added to 2 cups of water. I was pleasantly surprised that he ate the food and drank the water that contained ACV. Actually BOTH cats liked it ! This morning - THREE normal pee-pees ! Tomorrow, a vet visit to make sure he is OK. Thanks for the advice - it is much appreciated. It got us safely through the weekend.

I promised to write back and let everybody know how Spillo is doing after a year since his last blockage. Everyday he has been taking raw apple cider vinegar and hasn't had an episode of cystitis, no bloackages, no urinary track infections. He only takes 1cc of ACV daily with distilled water and he also has 2cc's of liquid glucosamine. It really does work.

I found this site when I posted to facebook to a friend that my cat was sick. She immediately recommended earthclinic. Of course, it was the weekend and the vets were closed. My boy cat has not been peeing much and that day I noticed that he was only peeing a few drops at a time. Once or twice he got out of the littler box without peeing at all. I knew what it was immediately, he had urinary crystals. Last year I spent over $2500 taking my cats to the vets for this problem! I read here that everyone gave their cats AVC with the mothers in it .. so I mixed 1/2 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons of water. I gave it to him in a syringe for medication for pets. I gave him 3 syringes over the course of the first day. He peed the very same night, the size of a quarter. The next day I gave it to him 3 times again and he peed the size of a golfball! He is no longer crying all day. He is feeling much better.

I recommend if you give this to your pets, not to give them a strong mix or too much at once. A few drops at a time only. Otherwise they cough and foam at the mouth. I dont know why this happens but it can be very scary for you and your pet. That happened once when I tried to give him a whole syringe at once. Be patient and administer it a little at a time. It may take 20 minutes to get them to take the while syringe but its well worth it. Also if its too strong they will have the same reaction.

Thank you everyone for posting how you used it.. I couldnt find a precription on the site on how to administer it.. it only said AVC. It didnt even mention it was the natural kind (I used organic raw Apple cider vinegar.)

Almost two weeks ago one of my two female Ragdoll cats stopped being able to urinate. Sashi visited the litter box frequently, never having any results, and appeared to be in distress. She also stopped drinking her usual amount of water (which, however, is not that much). The other cat was fine (and drinks a good amount of water).

I must pause here to say that we do not bring our cats to the vet other than when they were young to have them spayed. (We do not believe in vaccinating -- and medicating, if at all possible -- and we do not have money in our budget for vets.) At the time of their spaying, we brought Sasha and Sophie to a vet who was a cat specialist. He strongly instructed us to always feed the cats ONLY dry food, never any wet at all. He felt that wet food would rot their teeth. And so we never had fed our two cats (ages 3 1/2 and 4 1/2) wet food [except for a brief spell when we were treating them for chronic diarrhea and needing to get fresh squeezed garlic into them, but that is another (successful!) story....!]

At any rate, when Sashi was not able to urinate, I consulted a friend of mine who has owned many cats. She immediately suspected "cystitis", and explained the causes (only a dry food diet, the cat did not drink enough water, etc.). She recommended apple cider vinegar and adding wet food to the cat's diet. After getting off the phone with her, I googled for more info., and came across your most excellent site -- in particular, information about this condition.

We immediately began the cat on a "wet food only" diet for the first 2-3 days, mixing in apple cider vinegar. The cat loved being able to have wet food (an inexpensive brand, by the way, with only a generic brand of acv). Sashi could handle pretty good sized portions of vinegar without any objections at all. I am not sure how much I used, but certainly she was getting AT LEAST 2 tsp. per day those first few days in a few feedings of wet food per day. For perhaps 3 or 4 days, however, she still would not drink her usual amount of water, including drinking from the tap, which normally she loves.

The long and the short of this story is, like many others have noted on this site, that her cure was almost immediate. She urinated a little shortly after the first treatment(s), and the next day began frisking about in high spirits -- and urinating small amounts regularly. As stated by others, the coats of both cats shine now and they have much more energy. On the third day her urinating was totally normal.

I would say the maintenance dose we have recently been administering is almost 1 tsp. per day for Sasha, and perhaps 1/2 tsp. for Sophie (who drinks a lot of water already, and who gets less wet food because of a weight problem). We now give wet food for both breakfast and supper, as well as dry food at noon and to supplement. I do not let Sasha "free feed" on dry food anymore. She happily drinks out of the tap once again, and also her water bowl (but not as much as she probably should).

My husband also rigged up a pump and filter (from the fish tank dept. at the dept. store) and a tub of water for the cats to drink from. We had hoped this would encourage them to drink more, but this trick has not been hugely successful in its goal.

When we first began administering the acv and feeding Sashi only wet food, she did begin to be a little constipated. Some dry food is necessary to move the bowels, apparently. Once the initial crisis of not being able to urinate had passed, we began to phase limited amounts of dry food back into Sashi's diet. Around the end of Day #3 we began to reintroduce some into her diet. FYI.

I give prayer and a big YEA on acv as having been a huge success for us re: cystitis in cats! Unlike my husband, I hate the taste and smell of all vinegars. Nevertheless, I'm beginning to think everyone in our household should go on acv! I'll have to hold my nose, though! :)

i have been using acv 6 months. the vet couldn't find anything wrong with mystic short hair black 7 years old. she was spraying urine in the litter box and the only thing that is working is acv.

she also has feline herpes in remmission. so please use l lysine for upper respiratory infections. anyone who is having problems please let me know what you use.

My 5-year-old female cat was suffering from what I believed to be a urinary tract infection on the 19th. We noticed since midnight, she visited the litter box frequently. Earlier at night, she wasn't as playful as she normally would be with running around the house in our game. As time went on, she was practically homesteading in the litter box. And she would just squat there, with her body quivering a bit. One time, her nose was dripping. When she wasn't in the box, she squatted over newspapers laid down in other spots.

Later in morning, I decided to take her in to the vet as a precaution. I was worried about the potential of blockage being fatal, not knowing blockage was a problem mainly for the male cats. The vet wanted me to leave her to get a urine sample. I was okay with that, as long as I could pick her up before the end of the day. Well, the urinalysis didn't come in, so the vet wanted me to keep her overnight so they could administer the medication after the test results. They told me, otherwise, I would have to bring her in.

I don't like to keep my cat away from home, so I picked her up. Plus, the clinic would be unattended during off hours. At home, I could monitor her constantly.

I knew about cranberry juice as a home remedy for people with urinary tract infection. But I didn't have any cranberry juice around. Then I had this idea of apple cider vinegar as a possible remedy since it was acidic and many people attested to its curative powers.

After deciding I would try out apple cider vinegar (cause if it didn't work, I would have taken my cat in the next day for her medication), I researched online for personal testimonies. I was more convinced after reading the personal anecdotes on this site. And I learned the exact dosage used. (Initially, I just poured less than a capful into the cat's water bowl.)

I did decide already upon noticing the urinary problems to switch from the dry food to canned food. So, with the first dosage of ACV, I added 1/2 teaspoon to little bit of tuna, along with some water from her water bowl. Because she had a bit of diarrhea, I sprinkled some oat bran to the mix.

I wasn't supposed to feed her so soon after coming home, as she was sedated for the urine sample. But she was hungry and sat in protest by her food bowl. I caved in and served her just a bit.

Over the next 12 hours, the improvements were subtle. She didn't frequent the litter box as much. But she was still hanging out underneath the dining table (which my previous cat did when her health was deteriorating in her last days). And she was sensitive to being touched or held up. Several hours later, she was still squatting in the litter box longer than usual. But her urine output was slightly more. That was a good sign.

Other improvement was her sleeping more the next morning rather than trying to pee. By the next day, she became more playful (though still not running around). I continued to feed her the same food mix with the 1/4 teaspoon of ACV and additional water. And I also included sardines packed in water to blend with the canned tuna for cats. I wanted a source of omega 3 acids as an anti-inflammatory to help reduce any internal inflammation.

Long story short, she got progressively better, becoming more playful and frisky with normal bathroom habits. By Thursday night, she started running around and moving about with a bounce in her step. Meanwhile, she was spared of any antibiotics (which they had predicted she might need) or urine acidifier.

Also, I've noticed there have been discussions of using organic, unprocessed ACV. I bought regular ACV sold under the store label.

This is a great forum!!