Apple Cider Vinegar for Cat UTIs: Safe, Natural Relief

My 9 yr. Old Calico started displaying symptoms of a UTI on Thursday. In and out of the litter box every 10 minutes, straining to urinate, only able to squeeze a few drops at a time and later trying to wee in the bathtub without much luck. I found this site that night while looking for a natural remedy as it was the middle of the night and I had to work the next day and would not be able to schedule a vet visit until at least Monday.

Purchased the ACV "with the mother" from the grocery store and a few cans of wet food, (which my cats think are a real treat) and added 1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon water and mixed with a small amount of food. The small amount of ACV was a bit overwealming smell wise and at first she was not about it, so I added a touch more food until I couldnt detect the smell anymore. She ate it, cautiously, but got it down none the less. Followed Friday with three more ACV mixes in a 24 hour period. Little change in her behavior, but she didnt seem in pain and a little less nervous. Two more treatments on Saturday and then just now I heard her in her litter box and she was finally able to release and she seemed just as relived as I was. I pray that this is the cure she needed but will continue with this routine for a few more days just to make sure.

Thank you all so much for your feedback on this matter and I am now a believer in the wonderful benefits of ACV! Thanks to all the cat lovers who saved my cat from a lot of pain but also so much stress for myself!

Of importance, I saw a post regarding ACV being dangerous to kitties with renal disease -- which was critical for my household of 4 cats, (Maggie has early kidney disease -- which subQ fluids are maintaining). I was going to put ACV in the water bowl (as Isabella has UTI and is a somewhat wild rescue getting used to housemates and being inside - and she would NEVER let me give her a ACV by mouth as catching her to get to vet took an hour... With much disarray and a few wounds (me) :) She was given an antibiotic shot 10 days ago. She is better but still not peeing as much as she should.

I have given her 1/4 tsp ACV in wet food 3 times now, and also Vitamin C powder and will continue to do so. Thanks to all fellow kitty lovers for posting (and check out "Simon's Cat" on You Tube if you want a laugh)! He has really nailed kitty behavior in his animation. And one last tidbit -- anyone who has outside cats they also take care of in cold weather, check out Snuggle Safe discs that go in microwave and stay warm for 8-10 hours. Heat according to your microwave wattage and tuck in their bed/blankets. They will LOVE you even more. God speed --

I usually don't pay any attention to home remedies, but after reading some of the posts about how effective ACV is for a number of digestion problems in cats, I decided to give ACV a try. I have a himalayan male who has small kidneys and has had a UTI before which was treated with antbibiotics. This time my cat was showing acute symptoms of a UTI and was howling when trying to urinate. It was the weekend. First, I filled a small bottle with a small eye dropper with mostly water and a few drops of ACV. I fed my cat a couple of syringes full of the solution directly into his mouth and then added a few drops in his food. While he did not like the eye dropper method, he swallowed it. When added to the food, he didn't seem to mind and ate it all.

After two days now of using this technique twice a day, he is perkier, playful, his eyes are brighter and he is drinking more water and going less. I am grateful for this site and all you who have share your experiences with ACV. I plan to start adding to hot tea for myself!

Cosmo, my neutered 8 month old cat, had his first case of UTI (frequent urination with little urine) sometime in November 2008. The vet prescribed Cystone which is a herb that encourages drinking. I did not really believe in this but I gave it to him anyway. It didn't work. His UTI became worst and he started to have blood in his urine and he licked his privates with a vengeance.

I took him to another vet and he was given a course of antibiotics which cleared the infection.

However, I noticed there was again blood in his urine 3 days ago. As I felt that the UTI will become pretty constant in his life (and he's still so young!), I figured that I would need to consider a holistic approach to this. And that brought me to this site.

I bought a bottle of ACV last night and gave it to him (1/4 tsp ACV to 1 tsp water). I repeated that this morning and by this evening, his pee is a healthy flow with no sign of blood! PLUS! He's not going in and out of his litter box. :)

I intend to continue giving him the ACV for at least 5 days and to monitor his progress after that.

I am really grateful for this website. It's relieved Cosmo's discomfort, and saved me tonnes on vet bills! Keep up the good work!

Thank you so much for the apple cider vinegar remedy! I had a male cat who recently developed a severe bladder infection. I came on this site and read about the apple cider vinegar cure. He would not eat or drink so I put one capful of organic apple cider in a bowl (cat bowl)then filled the bowl with water. I then took a dropper and filled it, wrapped him in a towel tightly, and gave him the dropper slowly by mouth. I waited several hours and did this again.There did not seem to be much improvement first night, but by next day he was perky and he could urinate without crying. I continued ths same treatment the next day, making sure he was able to pee even a little(as I did not want to keep giving water if the urine flow was completely blocked)Slowly but surely each day he was better and better. Today it is like it never happened.The strangest thing though is yesterday he went into the kitchen, and started trying to get oil out of the olive oil bottle....so I poured him some and he lapped it up.

I am going to be adding both apple cider vinegar and olive oil to his diet from now on. I think the apple cider vinegar was a life saver when my kitty needed it. Thank you!

My Cat Binx had been suffering from a Urinary Tract infection 1 month ago. Of course at that time I had no idea what to do and It was 1am on a Saturday, so I made an Emergency call to my Vet. Within 2 days he was good as new! To the tune of $429. Then 2 weeks later the same occured again, so back to the Vet. This time it cost $189 plus he had to be put on Expensive canned food. I thought all would be fine after that.

The next week he was sick once again, and my hubby and I could not afford to spend another dime on vet bills, so I searched high and low on the internet and came across this site...A TRUE GOD SEND!!! As soon as I read all the testimonials I knew it had to work. I rushed out and bought a jug of ACV.

I gave him 1/4 of a tsp, mixed with 1 tsp of water, and put in syringe. I pinned him down and made him swallow it. He hated it and gagged, so i filled up the syringe with water to help with the bitterness. Within 4 hours I noticed a difference already. After 24 hours he was able to urinate normally, and looked great. Now Two times a day I make the same mixture and put into his wet food, he takes it like a trooper! LOL It has been 3 Weeks, and I have my old cat back. His fur is shinnier, his eyes are brighter, he is spunky once again. This is something I will keep him on for a long time. IF YOUR SCEPTICAL, IM TELLING U IT DEFINITLY WORKS, AND IT SAVED MY 6 YR OLD CAT'S LIFE!!!!

I've been reading these posts on the UTI for my 6 year old female cat I adopted from the shelter 3 weeks ago. Apparently she had this for awhile and she still is on medicine from the vet. The first week, she was given an antibiotic shot, pain meds in her mouth which did not go well at all and then they injected fluid in her back to get it to absorb and flush out her kidneys etc. Saw improvement but within a week, same thing again. Back to the vet.... now they gave her 21 days of pills that I break open and add to her food. So, we have about 7 left. Well, fine for awhile and back to this constant litter box, litter flying all over even with a dome top and staying in the box sometimes 20 minutes. Started to see an improvement yesterday and actually bought the ACV with mother last night. Issue.... the smell is something she won't tolerate. Tried missing with food, putting her paw in the water mixture so she would lick, wetted her mouth and paws on the top .......trying anything and something licked is better than nothing. But anyone have a suggestion on this smell to disguise it????

Posted by Theresa

×

Theresa

The wonderful Theresa from Minneapolis, MN has been helping pet owners and their beloved pets around the world on Earth Clinic since 2013.

About Theresa

Theresa from Minneapolis was born and raised in the inner city, always wishing she had been raised on a farm.

Her love for creatures great and small began at an early age, starting with caterpillars - which continues to this day, along with an interest in all insects and 'creepy crawlies'.

Theresa's interest in pet health started with a bird keeping hobby at age 14, where she learned from another hobbyist that the simple addition of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) in a bird's drinking water kept fungal infections away; she was able to share this with her avian vet who in turn prescribed it to her own clients; Theresa was surprised to learn that she could teach her vet a thing or two. This important lesson - that each of us can be a teacher - was a turning point for Theresa, and  fueled  her quest for the knowledge held in lore,  and remedies passed by word of mouth. That quest for knowledge continues to this day, as new and old remedies alike are explored. She may not have experience with a particular issue, but she will research it to the best of her ability and share what she finds freely, in the hopes that you can heal or improve your pet's health.

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

How To Show Theresa Your Appreciation

If you would like to thank Theresa for her helpful posts, she asks if you would please consider making a donation to one of her favorite local rescue organizations, or by making a donation to help the genius contributor, Ted from Bangkok, recover from his stroke.  

http://www.piperslegacy.org/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Get-Bobo-home/1409993732632080?sk=timeline&ref=page_internal

http://ted.earthclinic.com

Close

(Mpls., Mn) on 02/06/2015

Hey Wendy!

If soft canned food won't disguise the smell you may need to dilute it with additional water and then keep applying to the fur for her to lick it off.

Apple cider vinegar is a good remedy but is slow acting as all it does is make the urinary tract more acidic to which bacteria have less of a chance surviving but it does not kill bacteria so this will be a good maintainer of a healthy tract but will just lessen a full blown u.t.i. A better choice is to totally keep the cat off dry food for 10-14 days and feed them a low ash premium grain free wet food with 250 mg of cranberry supplement mixed into it (human grade is cheaper and just fine); it is also advisable to add a little extra water to the food so kitty will get more fluids which helps flush the tract. After 2 weeks, you can give the cranberry once or twice a week as a maintainer. It is vital to keep them off the kibble though, as it absorbs fluid in the gut and exits via the poop and not the pee... hope this helps :-]

I usually buy fish oil capsules for all my pets, but when it comes to my cats they are very picky, I have to snip off the tip of a fish oil capsule and squeeze the oil on or into the cats food, generally that covers the strong smell of the vinegar .Good luck.

I have a male kitty, noticed he couldn't pee for about a day, searched the reasons why and panicked when I found out what could be causing it and called my vet.

Explained he was trying to pee only a bit came out.. the first thing he said was *Ok, this can cost 4 to 5 hundred dollars* the very first thing, didn't ask any questions at all! Said he was blocked and had to be drained.

Did a search and found you guys!!! :D It was a Saturday later in the evening everything was closed. Luckily my sis had some ACV she uses for heartburn.. Gave him some in his food and wiped some on his scruff and paws.. Ta-da.. Peeing kitty :)

Thank you, thank you, thank you,
In the same situation as most, not able to afford a large vet bill, I found your website after my newly adopted cat showed signs of UTI. Only having her since September I was not sure if her symptoms were physical or behavioral but she had not peed for 24 hours at all so I started adding 1/4 teas. Apple cider vinegar along with a teas. of water to her canned food. This morning she had gone in the litter box and peed about twice her normal amount. I will continue this and thank you again for a natural way to help my otherwise beautiful cat.

About two weeks ago my 2 year old tabby, Crookshanks started behaving oddly. He had a loss of energy and he kept turning over his water dishes. I noticed he hadn't been drinking water either. Then he started peeing in the oddest places. His water bowl, one of my dresser drawers ( thank goodness nothing was in it). And then I began to notice blood in his urine. As I started really watching I noticed he would strain to pee and get nothing. I'm no vet, but my research suggests he was blocked. I was so upset because blockage can be fatal and I just didn't have the money to take him to a vet. Then I found this site and read all about ACV. I immediately went to my library and did some more research on ACV and decided to give it a try. I mixed a can of wet cat food with a cranberry pill, 2 teaspoons of ACV and 2/3 cup of water. He ate/drank it all. That night, within a hour of eating he peed... Alot! I continued this everyday, twice a day. Two weeks later he is back to normal. Except I now use about a capful of ACV which is about a teaspoon. No blood in his urine or stool. No peeing in strange places. No knocking over his water bowl. He's attacking the dog again and running around like his crazy self again. I'm not a vet or a doctor but I know what works. The ACV worked for him. Give it a shot. I could really help your cat!

My cat was obviously in pain, walking around the house meowing and continually licking her "privates". Every 5 minutes she would visit the litter box, straining to pee and only a drop would come out, if any at all. She would not tolerate a syringe, nor would she drink water with vinegar in it, so for three days I was mixing 3/4 teaspoon of grocery store apple cider vinegar in 2 tablespoons canned food, twice per day but it did not eleviate the problem.

I went to GNC store and purchased Apple Cider Vinegar with the Mother and it cured my cat's problem within 2 days. I could not afford the vet bill that I would have undoubtedly incurred as I am sure they would have insisted on blood tests, x-rays, etc. , so this remedy saved her from a certain death. And, the cost of the _____'s was under 4 dollars. Crucial to purchase the brand vinegar with the Mother's - it visibly contains more Mother's than the organic store bought brands. I continue to give maintenance dose to ward off any reoccurance.

I have had my cat for about two years, for one year now he has been as inside cat, and about 2 months ago, we noticed him trying to pee on the tiles around the house. And licking his penis. Upon lifting him up to take him outside to finish his business, I felt he was really full, and he gave me an unhappy meow and tried to go to the toilet again. I massaged his belly and comforted him while my boyfriend jumped on the computer and typed in his symptoms, and they sounded like he had a UTI. Upon reading through pages of info, we found "apple cider vinegar" which we happened to have.. And it was organic. We put some with a can of tuna and some spring water and he ate it all up straight away. His water bowl also had apple cider in it as well.

To see why he was licking we turned him over and saw a silica gel crystal stuck to his penis. So we bathed him and sorry to be gross, but pulled back his forskin and unblocked him.... We googled silica gel and found that the blue specks in kitty crystals were colbalt 60 or something and extremely radioactive and if they get stuck to his penis he is only going to lick them and ingest them. So we changed brands to volcanic ash which he seemed to like anyway, and much cheaper and safer than the kitty gel, and he was back to his happy self...

But yesterday... Sad face and peeing on the tiles again.. So back to the apple cider diet.. Some tuna with apple cider and fresh water with apple cider. I left him alone for half an hour and he did a really big wee... And looked happy.. So no more dry food, only wet food with apple cider vinegar and he is cured overnight.......

To all cat lovers, go get some cat grass, get a natural brand of kitty litter, slow down on the dry food , and get a dry food with urinary tract support and continually give him half a teaspoon of apple cider to two cups of water, which cats dont mind the taste of anyway... Make sure you give them pure water.... Non fluoridated or chlorinated... You can always get a syringe and dilute apple cider with water and hand squirt it into his mouth.. Take twenty minutes if you have too... Note I have read, make sure you dont make it too potent or your cat may foam at the mouth.

I just have to tell everyone that is using Apple Cider Vinegar for the cats that first of all it does have to be the organic, raw apple cider vinegar with the mother and diluted; (not really expensive) I use B brand and my cats all love the vinegar if I put it on some plain yogurt which I believe is o. K. For them in small amounts. They think it is a treat. Hope this helps.

My beloved Bobby has been suffering for several months now on and off with UTI. His tract keeps blocking and he has been in a lot of pain, squatting all over the house and trying desperately to pee. This weeks episode was the worst as he was sick and had the runs with it too. Rushed him to the local RSPCA where they emptied his bladder which was full of blood, took him back today but his bladder was not full so they left him. Told me his outlook is not looking good and I am devistated as he is my baby and only 9 years old. He is a fat cat and I have been told to put him on a diet which is impossible as I have three other cats. He is having to take Cystease tablet at the moment but the vet basically has told me that his outlook is not good as it is a problem which will keep re-occuring. I found this site and have bought some acv. Put some in a syringe with water but it went everywhere except in his mouth! Have added some to his food and water but as all the cats share and he never eats a full bowl at once I cannot guarantee that he will eat any of the hidden acv. I shall keep trying though. Seems too good to be true that this can cure cats of this problem. I am scared to death that the next time I take him to the vets will be the last time. Will keep on trying and pray to God that it will work.

I wanted to respond to Janet from Manchester; you might want to try switching to a different food. I had a Male cat that had this problem and the only thing that helped him was to put him on very high quality food that does not have animal-by-products in it. If that still does not work try switching to a grain free food. This is an easy thing you can do that would benefit all of your cats. Our cat that had this problem went on to live until he was 17. I hope this helps.

Thank you to all of you for taking time to share your experiences and writing down the dosage used. My cat was suffering from a UTI this afternoon and I quickly conducted an internet search for natural remedies to alleviate her discomfort and cure her infection. I was thrilled to find this site and all of the feedback from other cat owners. I was also thrilled to find a bottle of ACV in my pantry. This remedy seems to have worked! I had a syringe and used it to administer 1/4 teaspoon ACV with 1 teaspoon water. She did not like this at all (who can blame her for the taste?), but she took it like a champ and within 3-4 hours was taking a nap, able to relax at last. I went to the pet store and found some feline urinary tract cranberry tablets and also purchased canned cat food (she normally eats a dried food diet). I mixed one tablet in with a small can of cat food - she ate this happily. And, once 5 hours had elapsed, I mixed a second dose of 1/4 tsp ACV: 1 tsp water in with some canned/soft cat food and was happy to see her devour it as she normally would do ( I was worried the smell of vinegar would offend her, but it did not appear to). I am happy to report that as I type this, she is napping comfortably! Thanks to all of you once again for sharing your experiences; I hope this continues to assist other cat owners facing this crisis.