Cranberry Pills For Your Cats: Why and Which Ones Actually Work?

cats with UTI
(Last Updated On: April 17, 2021)

Cranberry pills have been used extensively in modern times to help treat and prevent urinary tract infections. Now on the market, there is a range of cranberry supplement pills or cranberry powder for cats which are designed to combat your cat’s urinary problems, as well as working more generally to boost their immune system.

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Cranberry Supplements for Cats

PetMD Cranberry Supplement

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These cranberry pills come in the form of chewable tablets containing 100 mg cranberry extract, 150 mg D-Mannose, 56 mg Echinacea, 20 mg Oregon grape root and 20 mg Vitamin C. Also contains Dicalcium Phosphate, Magnesium Stearate, Microcrystalline Cellulose, Pork Liver, and Silicon Dioxide. Can be administered as a treat or by crumbling over your cat’s meal. Dosages vary with weight.

Why It’s So Popular:
– Easy to grind up to mix with meals.
– Boosts the immune system.
– Relatively tasty.
– Seems to work successfully.

Keep In Mind:
– High Vitamin C intake can sometimes poses risks of calcium-oxalate crystal and stone formation.


PalaTech Plus Cranberry Chewable Tablets

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Chicken liver flavour cranberry pills containing: 210 mg Cranberry extract, 105 mg Echinacea, 34 mg Oregon grape root, 34 mg Sodium Ascorbate. Recommended that you cut in half for the proper dose.

Why It’s So Popular:
– High cranberry potency seems to work very well to combat UTIs
– Boosts the immune system
– Quite cheap in comparison to others.

Keep In Mind:
– Not easy to split in half.
– Not very tasty


Cranberry Antioxidant Nutrition Support

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These cranberry pills also help to prevent flea infestation. 150 mg D-Mannose, 150 mg Cranberry Extract (Vaccinium macrocarpon), 35 mg Vitamin C.

Why It’s So Popular:
– Reasonably good price considering amount of pills in one container.
– All natural ingredients.
– Very few ingredients.
– Seems to work successfully.

Keep In Mind:
– High Vitamin C intake poses risks of calcium-oxalate crystal and stone formation.

How Cranberry Can Help With Your Cat’s Urinary Tract Infection?

We humans and our urinary tract infections (UTIs) have had quite an ambiguous relationship with cranberries used as medication. It has been thought that the consumption of cranberries can act to prevent or even treat those infections. The initial reasoning behind this is that it would make your pee more acidic, and thus would make more of an inhospitable environment for those pesky bacteria.

More light was shed on the topic in 1984 by a paper published in the Journal of Urology by a gentleman called A.E. Sobota. He found that people who regularly drank cranberry juice built up a safeguard against E. coli accumulation on the cells of their urinary system. This was later expounded upon, when it was realized that a certain property of cranberry juice, namely the inclusion of a group of compounds termed proanthocyanidins, can be acknowledged for its anti-E. coli temperament.

Unfortunately, however, a collation of previous studies by the trustworthy Cochrane organisation has placed a certain opacity on the effectiveness of cranberries for treatment and prevention of urinary tract infections. They have concluded that the amount of evidence in cranberries’ favor is insubstantial, and that they are probably less effective for combating infection that previously thought. They were certainly not statistically more effective than anti-biotics. Ideally, further study is needed by more rigorous methods to provide some more quantitatively conclusive data.

It is safe to say that cranberries will not completely eradicate the possibility of contracting UTIs. Whether or not they can be relied upon to fight them off effectually is not very certain. What you can be sure of is that it will certainly combat the adhesion of E.coli to urinary tract tissues, which could be useful for cats who are particularly disposed to contraction.

Even if they have never had a UTI prevention it is still a good idea, because when they get one they open themselves up to recurrences in the future. All this being said, E. coli is not the only type of bacteria which can cause UTI’s in cats, though it is the most common.

One major source discrepancy in previous studies is that no standardised cranberry pill for cat dosage has been established, meaning that any kind of cranberry pill product available for purchase can’t be relied upon to contain the ideal potency level.

Despite inconclusive results from testing, cranberry pill products do seem to make a big difference. For infections which can’t be treated with antibiotics, they can be miracle workers.

Take Note of Possible Risks Though

Cranberry pills could be of great benefit to your cat, and are pretty unlikely to have any side effects. However, most of the products on the market will contain other ingredients which carry the possibility of harming your pets.

In addition to those helpful proanthocyanidins, cranberries carry some potentially not so helpful compounds called oxalates. Having been digested, these compounds carry the risk of forming oxalate urinary crystals within the bladder or kidneys. This risk is especially prevalent in cats who have had them before. Oxalates also have a higher chance of creating crystals when they are thrown in with Vitamin C, which many cranberry pills contain in order to increase the acidity of urine.

Other than additional ingredients, poor judgement can be a potentially harmful side effect of these cranberry pills. They are more useful as a means of a kind of UTI deterrent rather than an actual cure. Keep in mind that they aren’t necessarily a proven medication, and that for cats with consistent or progressive urinary problems which don’t seem to be faltering on cranberry, the vet is the best port of call.

Conclusion

There is a viable alternative to antibiotics for treating your cat’s UTI. Within this market, there are a few reliable products which are popular amongst cat owners. If your cat has problems with regular UTIs, I’d say cranberry pills are well worth a try.

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