Cat with urinary tract blockage-- update page 3

[CheshireVal]

My four year old Siamese, Sebastian, has been in the hospital since Saturday for a blocked urinary tract.

He will probably be coming home tomorrow (or Wed.), but I am super-stressed about this. We have spent over $1,000 so far (which came out of our meager savings to buy a house). I know that he is at a risk for becoming blocked again, and we just can't keep paying this kind of money if it happens again!

I'm also worried about leaving him for our vacation next month. We're having a cat sitter come in every day, but if he gets blocked while we're gone, I wonder if she'll catch it in time? But, then again, can I live my whole life waiting on this problem to recur?


If you have had a success story with a blocked cat, I really NEED to hear it right now. Especially any tips you have to keep him healthy! I know we will be putting him on a special diet.

I love my Sebastian-- he's such a good kitty. He didn't deserve to be put through this.

 

[grinningghost]

I have a story which is similar, but not exactly the same.

Our female cat, Jasmine, developed crystals in her urine which were blocking her up, causing bloody clots in her urine (TMI maybe). She was very ill.

After being hospitalized and medicated she was feeling better. She now has to be on a special food for the rest of her kitty life - costs a bit more than regular food, but so far, no more urinary issues with her.

I hope your kitty feels better soon. Nothing worse than having a sick furbaby. Give Sebastian a nice chin rub for me.

 

[Virgo10]

Rusty

had a partial blockage several years ago. The Vet recommended Prescription Plan CD dry cat food. He's been on it ever since and had never had another problem.

It's expensive but well worth it when you consider the dollars you spent on this hospitalization and the pain the poor cats go through. A 20 pound bag goes for $41 around here.

Good luck to you and your kitty.

 

[daughter_of_amid_chaos]

Our kitten Houdini has almost died from this twice but he has been on special diet food since the second time and is now a healthy, rambunctious kitty again.
But we watch him very very carefully.

 

[DisneyBlonde]

The first time our Zack got a blockage we didn't know what the issue was, and by the time we brought him to the vet the blockage was severe. It cost about $400 (this was 15 years ago). I was told that had I brought him in sooner it would have been easier to deal with, and probably less expensive. I was told to feed him only food for urinary tract health (both canned and dry)...and to watch for signs of a blockage including squatting on the litter box but not going, laying on the floor and pulling his hind legs into his stomach, peeing around the house, and whininess. Zack got a blockage one other time in his life, and we recognized the signs, brought him in immediately. Bill was less that time.

You can't beat yourself up over the vet bill. It's a raquet, but what can you do. Zack was having some sort of problem a few months ago, the cat is very thin and has always been, but for some reason his stomach was severely bloated. Brought him in for 15 minutes...$500 dollars later they still had no clue what was wrong with him, it would take another scan and possibly surgery to know, and I was told he would likely pass anyway. My first thought was, I would have liked to have known that before I spent the $500...but ultimately what would you not do to save your pet's life?

 

[tiggersmom2]

I feel your pain! I had a persian years ago that would not stay blockage-free.....then I discovered salt pills. We would feed her one salt pill per day (this made her drink tons of water) and the blockages were a thing of the past after that.

Good luck and hoping your fur baby feels better soon.

 

[CheshireVal]

Thanks for the replies so far. I know I shouldn't worry about things that may or may not happen, but I can't stop dreading the day that he gets blocked again.

 

[suezpqt]

Hello CheshireVal -
I had a cat with the same thing. As long as my Tazzy only ate the prescription food he was good. I tried the cheaper version of the food from Petco - it didn't work. I ended up back at the vets with him blocked up again. I told the vet what I did and he laughed - said tried to save money huh. Well duh!! Needless to say - I only bought the food from the vet from that point on.

Good Luck.

 

[720L]

I have a Persian who had a blocked UT. He had to stay at the vet for 2 days! We put him on the special food (the prescription c/d you can only get at the vet) and he's never had a blockage since. (that was 6 years ago). About 6 months ago I changed his food to a urinary tract special food by Purina I think. It's much cheaper and seems to be working.

 

[Muushka]

Preparing for flames here

I would find another vet. I have had several cats that have developed the urinary blockage and not one of them was ever admitted to the animal hospital for it. We are talking 40 years worth of cats! Male and female.

I would report to them that the cat had blood in his/her urine. Some would require a specimen, some would not. All required to see the cat and do a physical. Take temp and feel kidney area and what ever else they check.

Then they would put the cat on an antibiotic, followed by change in diet. Tops, $50.

I think that the veternary business has gone totally out of whack. And I refuse to go to a vet that would perform unecessary tests and procedures on a pet for the purpose of making money.

 

[Carl]

I had a cat that had that problem, and besides feeding him CD, we also made a habit of locking him into the bathroom where his litter box was several times a day. This encouraged him to go more often. He seemed to not be aware when he had to go, otherwise.

 

[CheshireVal]

Preparing for flames here

I would find another vet. I have had several cats that have developed the urinary blockage and not one of them was ever admitted to the animal hospital for it. We are talking 40 years worth of cats! Male and female.

I would report to them that the cat had blood in his/her urine. Some would require a specimen, some would not. All required to see the cat and do a physical. Take temp and feel kidney area and what ever else they check.

Then they would put the cat on an antibiotic, followed by change in diet. Tops, $50.

I think that the veternary business has gone totally out of whack. And I refuse to go to a vet that would perform unecessary tests and procedures on a pet for the purpose of making money.

Well, we took him to our regular vet on Saturday morning because he kept trying to use the litter box, but couldn't, and then he'd wander around the house crying in pain and licking himself a lot. The vet inserted a catheter and flushed him out, and sent him home with us with special food and three kinds of medicines.

By midnight Saturday, he was completely blocked up again, and bleeding a LOT. We had to take him to the emergency clinic and they said standard procedure is a catheter that stays in for a day or two so that the passage can be completely cleared.

He got transferred back to our regular vet this morning (just got the update from my husband). The catheter is out, and the vet is going to monitor him to make sure he's urinating freely on his own. If they have to catheterize him again, she said they wouldn't charge us since we went to so much trouble over the weekend.

 

[Muushka]

Well, we took him to our regular vet on Saturday morning because he kept trying to use the litter box, but couldn't, and then he'd wander around the house crying in pain and licking himself a lot. The vet inserted a catheter and flushed him out, and sent him home with us with special food and three kinds of medicines.

By midnight Saturday, he was completely blocked up again, and bleeding a LOT. We had to take him to the emergency clinic and they said standard procedure is a catheter that stayes in for a day or two so that the passage can be completely cleared.

He got transferred back to our regular vet this morning (just got the update from my husband). The catheter is out, adn the vet is going to monitor him to make sure he's urinating freely on his own. If they have to catheterize him again, she said they wouldn't charge us since we went to so much trouble over the weekend.

Interesting. I never had that happen, where they did not get better. Just wondering, was one of the meds an antibiotic?

For the record, in case anyone thinks I am a heartless cat-owner, I would have done the same as you, bring the cat to an ER. It can be fatal, and I could not allow a pet to die over something as simple as a blocked ureter!

 

[mrsltg]

Success story here! My Scratchy had a severe blockage with similar vet bills five years ago. The poor cat was so sick. The vet told us another few hours and he would have died . At that point I would have paid one million dollars to make him better. At any rate...

He came home a few days later. We changed his food to the urinary tract care formula that Purina One (I believe) makes (shiny silver bag). We also now have filtered water for our pets because of the magnesium level in tap water - yes, my pets drink better water than we do... We were going on vacation a few days after Scratchy came home. We brought him (5 hours) to my parents house so they could watch him. My Dad took the job seriously and counted the times he went to the litter box - poor cat didn't have a moments peace!

The bottom line is five years later he is fine. He is the most wonderful cat I have ever known and we would do anything for him. I know it's sticker shock now but you will recover. Give your furbaby a big kiss and hug and look forward to a great future!!!

 

[Jennasis]

My old Siamese, Charlie, had chronic urinary tract infections/blockages. We finally had him in for surgery where, in essence, a sex change operation was performed. It was supposed to make it easier for him to pass urine and keep blockages from forming. We also kept him on the special food. It worked. He died years later from kidney failure unrelated to the UTI problems.

This was YEARS ago (I was 13 when he got them, he died when I was 17) and I'm 30 now.

 

[alliecats]

I am sorry to hear you are all going through this. Please check out this website on cat nutrition, written by a vet. It thoroughly covers why cats who eat dry exclusively may not be getting enough water in/with their diet if they are prone to these problems. I hope it will help! Our cat Sabrina used to have terrible bladder problems & once even had a huge bladder stone that had to be removed. She only gets wet food now, has never had trouble again. I am not saying it's a 100% cure-all but I do think it's best to know everything you can to make the best decision.
Good luck to you!!

Cat health info site

 

[VioltePrincess]

Mr. Kitty has hads this twice.

the first time, the vet sent us home with medications and antibiotics, and told us he'd be fine. he wasn't, and had to go back to the vet for further treatment and an overnight stay($1000). the second time around,t he vet didn't bother sending us home.

now all our kitties eat low ash cat food -- we couldn't figure out how to keep Mr. Kitty out of the Deli Cat that we were feeding the others.

 

[jacksonsmom]

I feel your worries and concerns.

Almost exactly one year ago I was in your shoes. My then 5 month old kitten starting having problems. I took him to the vet right away and he was blocked but they had a very hard time unblocking him. In fact they could not do it.
My local vet (who I love and trust dearly) was so confused as to why she could not unblock Herbie.

I knew deep in my heart that something was really wrong so we decided to take him into the emergency hospital in the cities.
They could not unblock him either, the surgeon was called in, he told me the ONLY way at this point to save him was surgery.
We are not rich by any means, but we decided to charge the surgery and just work on paying it back. The surgery itself costed $1200. That does not include all other treatments, medicines, IVs, etc. All total we probably paid between $2000-$2500 to try and save our kitten from dying!

The surgeon performed a Perineal Urethrostomy with modifications. The surgeon told me it was a 50/50 shot. He could go either way but we knew we needed to try.

I am pleased to say the surgery happen on November 10th, 2005 and Herbie is happy as can be today!!!!! He does have to go in to the vet's 2x a year for a urine culture probably for the rest of his life but so far they have all come back wonderful.
We know Herbie could have some urinatary problems as he gets older, but I am SO happy we decided to go with the surgery.
He is on a special can food diet for the rest of his life. Reason being is can/wet food makes them urinate more & we always want Herbie to keep "flushing" out.

Now Herbie did not have stones which causes most blockages.
We had just adopted him 2 months before all this happened from a shelter. When we had adopted him he was healing from a broken back leg. Some lady had found him on the side of the road. limping, took him to the shelter where they fixed his leg.
Well, we thought all was fine when the leg healed but come to find out when he broke his leg, he also received some pelvic trauma which went undetected until he started having noticeable problems using the litterbox.

Is this your cat's 1st problem with blockage? Maybe just putting him on a diet will help. I pray it does because that is the easiest why to solve the problem but if it is a reoccuring problem you may want to talk to the vets about surgery. I know it is a big decision (cost and risk) but I am so glad we took the risk to give Herbie surgery. If we didn't he would not be here today.

Keep us updated on Sebastian!

 

[CheshireVal]

Interesting. I never had that happen, where they did not get better. Just wondering, was one of the meds an antibiotic?

Yes, it was, but he only got one dose in before he got blocked up again.

Thanks again for all the great replies and support, everyone! I wouldn't be sweating the money at all (he is worth it! ) if I just *knew* that he was going to be fine from here on out.

We are going to switch him to the prescription food and try to feed mostly canned from now on (or at least for one meal a day.) The vet said that his blockage was most likely caused by diet, but we only feed our cats premium food (Eukanuba, Iam's, Science Diet, etc.) so that was discouraging to hear. Hopefully the urinary tract prescription stuff will be much better. Guess our other kitty will be stuck with eating it too!

That's also a great tip about purified water. Thanks!

 

[OK!]

My four year old Siamese, Sebastian, has been in the hospital since Saturday for a blocked urinary tract.

He will probably be coming home tomorrow (or Wed.), but I am super-stressed about this. We have spent over $1,000 so far (which came out of our meager savings to buy a house). I know that he is at a risk for becoming blocked again, and we just can't keep paying this kind of money if it happens again!

I'm also worried about leaving him for our vacation next month. We're having a cat sitter come in every day, but if he gets blocked while we're gone, I wonder if she'll catch it in time? But, then again, can I live my whole life waiting on this problem to recur?


If you have had a success story with a blocked cat, I really NEED to hear it right now. Especially any tips you have to keep him healthy! I know we will be putting him on a special diet.

I love my Sebastian-- he's such a good kitty. He didn't deserve to be put through this.

My cat, Rowan, had a blockage several years ago. I don't know exactly what he went through at the vet, but I know catheterization was part of it, and the vet warned me that this was a problem I'd have to be on the lookout for for the rest of his life. He went on a special diet of prescription food and has been fine ever since. I can mix in a little bit of weight-control food with the prescription food ('cause he's a little, er, hefty ), but the overwhelming majority has to be the special food or he'll start exhibiting the symptoms again. I'd just make sure your petsitter knows that Sebastian absolutely has to follow his new diet and must have all the water he can drink, and he should be fine. Good luck to you and Sebastian!!