Cat's Urinary Infection - Gone in a Day

One of our two cats (Cricket) developed a urinary infection. She was peeing in inappropriate places (which she had never done before), including the dogs' beds.  Apart from the fact that Cricket would've been very uncomfortable, the first thing that needed to be stopped was the peeing in wrong places.  When a cat has a urinary or bladder infection, the pee is even more odourous than usual.  

Cricket was subdued and straining to pee, and there was a small amount of blood in the urine. When I phoned the vet, they told me it would take about a week for antibiotics to kick in properly, and I couldn't wait that long for a) the peeing to stop and b) Cricket to feel better.  Plus, antibiotics can have side-effects in cats just as they do for humans.

I have a colloidal silver generator and I gave Cricket a 2ml oral dose via a plastic syringe straight into the mouth in the morning, early evening and again around midnight. By the next day, the blood had disappeared from her urine, and she'd stopped peeing in inappropriate places. Still a little subdued, so I continued dosing her for about a week, decreasing the dosage to two times a day, same amount.

Why did she get the infection in the first place? Both cats get the 'best' cat food money can buy. They are strong and glossy-coated, and ready to play, eat and sleep as healthy cats should. Their environment is clean and they get plenty of exercise.  Turns out that bladder or urinary infections are more often caused by dehydration than anything else.  And dehydration can be caused by feeding cats/dogs dry food. Our cats were getting a mixture of both wet and dry, and sometimes just dry food.  Cats get most of their water requirement from their food, NOT from drinking water from a bowl.  

I stopped giving our cats any type of dry (kibble) food.  A few months later, however, I gave both cats a little dry food just for a change, and immediately Cricket started peeing in the wrong places again. No blood this time, as I think I gave her the silver again before it developed too far.  Lesson learned - wet food only, at all times.  Cricket hasn't had a problem since.