A friend's cat died recently after a urinary blockage. The cat had three infections this year, including two bladder infections. Should their vet have seen a pattern and looked for something more?

It really depends on what the vet tried to do for the cat. It could be that the vet did all he or she could.

If the cat was a male, the vet should have been looking at the possibility of chronic cystitis -and if that was the case, there are several things that they do. Like Angela said, in order to "second-guess", one would need to know what treatment the vet had given.

Not just the vet, but the owner may have had something to do with it as well. Males cats should be fed a diet low in ash and magnesium, to help prevent UTI. Many cat owners are not aware of this, thus contributing to the problem.

spcagal, i know about the low ash for male cats, but what about female cats?
anything to lookout for in their food?

is there a difference if they are spayed or not?

Males are more prone to the problem, but females can get UTI as well. As far as being spayed - it's MUCH healthier for the cat in the long run to be spayed, for several reasons.

Spayed and neutered cats quite often gain weight, but not specifically from being altered. They gain weight just like we do - too much food and not enough exercise. Cut back on the diet or change it to a lighter formula.

We usually tell people to spend a bit more to get a premium food, not the cheapie "grocery store" type foods. Premium foods are also more digestible, so you can feed less - and it's 'used' more, so less to clean up in the litter box! (Same for dog foods.)

Otherwise, if you find a food the cat likes and stays healthy on, stick with it. Their digestive systems get used to one food, so when you switch often, they will experience loose stool, etc, so introduce a new food slowly, by mixing it with the previous one.

thanks for the info spcagal.

we are feeding our cat whatever brand of friskies is on sale, she dosent seem to have any problems as long as it comes from friskies.

we tried her with a premium food the vet offers, and she wouldnt eat it.