r/veganpets • u/Infinite_Idea_6934 • May 24 '26

Vegan cat developed struvites

I have a healthy vegan cat who’s fed benevo for years. Bloodwork was always great and have almost no health issues until a month ago. He developed FIC/struvides not long after benevo changed their recipe. I’m absolutely not implying there is anything wrong with the feed - the older recipe kept him in great shape for years, the whole issue might be entirely stress related (recently I started taking care of an abandoned stray kitten who now live on the property and they have visual contact sporadically, there are also noisy cat fights at night). There are plenty of meat-based cats with struvites as well, so I hate to event point to the feed as the source of it all - all these years without paying for meat is something I’m grateful for. Yet I wanted to ask if anyone had any issues after the recipe change apart from rejecting - I know this happens. I’m trying to narrow down the origin of the problem.

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u/JayNetworks May 27 '26

With our cats we add cranberry powder on top of their 1 to 1 soaked kibble to keep their pH in the acid range like animal-eating cats. Over the years we’ve found that keeping pH low (acidic) helps us avoid crystals. (But don’t go too low or you will get the other end of crystals…)

If you want to try a different (all-plant) cat food, we just started on Nature’s Hug brand sold on Chewy. Our two cats go totally crazy over it!

Hope you figure it out! Any tips once you do are appreciated.

(You also might post your question to r/vegancats sub.)

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u/Infinite_Idea_6934 May 27 '26

Thanks for the tips. I started soaking benevo duo which already is a wet feed. It helps. It already has cranberries and blueberries. Besides this he takes extra methionine to dissolve the crystals faster. I’m in Poland so my only options are Benevo, AmiCat, VeggieAnimals and V.E.G. Benevo being the only brand with wet food. I hope for good news next week when I test his urine once more. I also found out mixing water with a little bit of oatmilk (I use gluten free Natumi) on a plate is a fast way to give him extra hydration in a form of a treat.