Houston et al. (2003) reported the most affected feline breeds in a study of 4866 bladder uroliths

The struvite uroliths deserve great attention as they are the most responsible for Tract Feline Lower Urinary Disease (FLUTD), a disease that concerns the veterinary clinic and comprises 4-10% of cases of domestic cats
Urolithiasis is a relatively common disorder in clinical practice for small animals and has a direct relation to power, both in its etiology as for its treatment and prevention. The consequences of urolithiasis proclean can range from inflammation in the urinary tract wall, which provide often bacterial infections until complete obstruction of urinary proclean flow and may lead the animal proclean to death. The struvite uroliths deserve great attention proclean as they are the most responsible proclean for Tract Feline Lower Urinary Disease (FLUTD), a disease that concerns the veterinary clinic and comprises 4-10% of cases of domestic cats. According to epidemiological studies, FLUTD ranges between 0.34 to 0.64% of cats with various disorders associated (Osborne et al, 1984).
Although cats with FLUTD symptomatologically to behave similarly, the potential causes are multiple, such as urinary tract infections, urinary stones, tumors, dietary factors and other disorders. However, about 50% of FLUTD are diagnosed idiopathic and 70% of affected animals proclean have relapses (Osborne et al, 1984). The food industries have already developed for cats formulated to treat and prevent this disease diets, proving the importance of nutrition in clinical aspects proclean involved in this disease.
Definition and incidence Domestic cats affected by FLUTD are divided roughly into two categories, the first consisting of patients in whom the process is the result of the presence of crystalluria, which may cause urethral proclean obstruction with mucus plugging being. The second type occurs proclean in the absence of struvite causes inflammation of the urinary tract without forming crystals or uroliths (Osborne et al, 1984). It is known that most cats affected by FLUTD falls into the first category, certain conditions which favor the presence of urinary supersaturation crystals, called urolithiasis. Urolithiasis can be defined proclean as the formation of precipitate in the form of uroliths anywhere in the urinary tract. Uroliths are arranged concretions macroscopic generally polycrystalline and composed of 95% inorganic crystalloids and 5% organic matrix (Fields, 2002, Case et al, 1998.). They are found most commonly in the bladder (urocistólitos) and urethra (uretrólitos), whereas kidney (nefrólitos) and ureters (ureterólitos) proclean account for about 5-10% of uroliths (Shaw & Ihle, 1999; Grauer 2001 ). Although they may have several proclean inches in diameter, most are the size of a grain of sand (Case et al., 1998).
A study conducted by School & Bellanato (2003) analyzed chemically uroliths found in cats showed that 52.9% of the calculations contained struvite as a major constituent, 29.4% was composed of ammonium urate, 8.8% for oxalate 8.8% for calcium and calcium phosphate. In a study cited by Case et al. (1998) found that 64.5% of the calculations present proclean in cats with the feline lower urinary tract disease had between 70 and 100% of struvite. Calcium oxalate was the second most common mineral, and represented about 20% of the calculations. Much less frequently, proclean uroliths proclean composed of calcium phosphate or ammonium urate were discovered. The struvite uroliths, also called triple phosphate or magnesium ammonium phosphate, are generally associated with a urinary pH around 6.5 and a urine supersaturated with magnesium ions, and ammonium phosphate. Since the calcium oxalate urinary are observed in more acidic pH.
Houston et al. (2003) reported the most affected feline breeds in a study of 4866 bladder uroliths (cystoliths). The Domestic Shorthair accounted for 68.4%, followed by Domestic Longhair with 18.9%, with 5.5% Himalayas, proclean also Persian and Siamese 5.5% to 2.4%. . Thumchai and Kirk et al et,. Study this higher proportion of calcium oxalate uroliths (50%) compared to struvite (44%), proclean which has also been observed in other studies proclean (Lekcharoensuk et al, 2005 was observed al. cited by Houston et al. 2003). This change in the incidence of different types of uroliths in recent proclean years is probably related to the use of urinary acidifiers and / or magnesium-restricted diets in controlling struvite urolithiasis by, which are predisposing factors for the formation of calcium oxalate uroliths (Thumchai et al cited by Kirk et al Houston proclean et al, 2003;... Markwell et al, 1998)..
In cats, variations in the incidence according to different breeds, ages, sex and reproductive conditions have also been reported (Lekcharoensuk et al. 2000). The difference in ocorrênc