Switching my cat from dry to wet food due to urinary tract problems

Question
Hello,
I took my cat to the vet today because I noticed he was drinking a lot of water, and going to the litter box more frequently than normal without any results. He then urinated in a chair, he has never done that before so I took him to the vet.

He told me the cat had a urinary tract infection and to immediately take him off of dry food and switch to wet. He gave me hills c/d and said to only give him a few kibbles of his normal dry food beginning immediately. My cat has never eaten wet food before, and when I would try to give it to him he wouldn't eat it. He also gave him two shots, an antibiotic and a muscle relaxer.

I'm really afraid of him going hungry, but I am more afraid of losing him. What can I do?

FYI Shadow is almost 12 domestic shorthair cat with no history of other health problems.

Also, will he get better and still live several more years if treated now?

Answer
He will get better and he will most likely live to be 19 on Hill's C/D. I think that after the infection has settled down you should switch him back to dry food, but it should be dry C/D. If he won't eat the canned food you need to let the vet know this and get him on some C/D dry now.
Most cats love C/D but a sudden switch from dry to canned and to any new food is hard on a cat. He should not go more than two days without eating. Give him small amounts of the wet at a time and make sure it is slightly warmed up. They like the smell of it better warmed.
You might also want to pour some tuna water over it. That is the water you normally drain off of a can of tuna packed in water. Pour it into a container like a glass jar and keep it in the fridge. Take it out about 15 mins before you feed him and then pour it over the wet food. The smell is usually enough to get the cat eating the wet food, thinking it is tuna. You can mix a SMALL amount of tuna with the food if you have to, then slowly decrease the amount day by day until he is eating all C/D.

The idea your vet has is to prevent your cat from plugging up, which is very serious, by increasing the water in his diet with the wet food.
Most cats don't drink a lot of water so we try to increase that which in turn dilutes the urine which helps the bladder flush out the bacterias and toxins that are causing the infection. So follow his directions but ask him about using some dry C/D so that your cat does eat something.

Try the above ideas with the tuna on the canned.
Let me know if this works for him.