Question for cat parents: my vet recently told me my cat is struggling with crystals in her urine and it could ultimately lead to stones. We caught it early and got her on some meds but they want me to use the Hills Prescription Urinary Care food. Here’s the problem. That food is ridiculously expensive no matter where you buy from. I’ve asked if I could do that for a few months then go the over the counter urine care and they basically said that would likely not work. Has anyone else had similar problems?

For reference my cat just turned one. She had a major UTI in November that went away with meds. Two weeks ago I noticed her litter had changed color (health monitoring) so I scheduled an apt and brought a urine sample. Her pH was perfect but essentially she’s over producing calcium and creating struvite crystals without and actual UTI or anything else. I want to make sure we take care of this but also I can’t afford the almost $100 for one bag of food (the vet store had it for $78, chewy is $72, petco is $76). Some places will do a little cheaper if you set up auto orders for refills but that’s still insane, especially if the OTC works just as well and is half the price.