So the greybies are part of a research study so I need to get a 💩 sample from each. So each cat is in their own room with a litterbox. And the First #RuleOfCats applies.
Gonna be a long night. 🤪
The research study is investigating metabolome plus microbiome of cats and urinary crystal formation. The thing that caused life threatening blockage in Arthur. #peewatch
@yogapaddlerun I don't know about the cat versions, but in humans, kidney stones (crystals) are primarily caused by poor hydration.
Crystals form when supersaturation is reached.
Adding water to the mix lowers SS.
I used the mod the r/kidneystones sub over on Reddit. Some good resources there (on humans).
@f_gundersen Somewhat applicable because cats are constantly dehydrated due to being desert creatures. But there is more to it. We are just starting to investigate the effect of microbiome in health. It will be cool to see if there is a difference in the healthy vs affected cats.
@yogapaddlerun are you familiar with the current state of human biome research? From my initial investigation about 5 years ago, it was still in the gathering baseline data stage.
@f_gundersen I’ve been to a few talks recently. It’s coming along with whole genome sequencing becoming fast and cheap.