Cat with urinary tract infection question

[Disney Ella]

My 10-year-old cat started having trouble urinating Monday. I took him to the vet and they prescribed a steroid and Clavamox. The next morning he was urinating again, but today and yesterday, he has been straining and only passing small amounts of urine and urinating outside the box.

Can he go on like this for a few days and then just suddenly get better and not get blocked? I am calling the vet again tomorrow, but wonder if any of you have experience with this.

He's had two blockages, the last one five years ago, so I am keeping a close eye on him. I'd really like to spare him the hospital stay, so I'm hoping someone will say that it might still take a few days to resolve.

 

[sammi]

Hi Ella: My cat had been through the same thing..... the latest bout being 1 1/2 weeks ago (we had to take him to the emergency vet) and he's still just finishing up with Clamvox. He was found to have crystals 2 years ago and this was something similar. The vet has mentioned Idiopathic Cystitis which means an inflammation of the bladder with unknown causes of which we think this is. A cat who stress very easily will have recurring bouts with this (and our fur baby is a high stressed cat).
It sounds like your little guy has some inflammation and that causes the straining also you must be on the lookout for him getting totally plugged as this can be lethal in a very short time. Male cats have a smaller urethra that females and will plug more easily.Our cat Willy doesn't drink enough water and boy it's tough trying to get him to drink more.
I would call your vet tomorrow and ask him as you don't want him to have another blockage.I wouldn't wait a few days at all.
We've had 6 cats in our 32 years of marriage and this is the 3rd little boy with FLUTD that we had and it's a real misery when they take ill like this.
I hope maybe someone else (Doc Rafikki?) can share some more knowledge of this disease as we've surely had our share of it.
Good luck with your fur baby and I hope he gets well real soon.

 

[kendall]

Our male cat was only 1.5 when he had a partial blockage and needed medical treatment. Unfortunately, UTIs can get bad quickly in cats. I would call the vet if the cat is straining again today - it is a painful thing and I understand it is not uncommon to have multiple crystals to pass.

We now feed canned food with an extra .5 can of water added to the moist food to make the food have lots of extra fluid as cats don't like to drink. We offer some dry food for the crunch/teeth.

Could be your cat has another partial blockage - push the fluids as much as possible.

My mother suggested offering our cat tomato juice too - something about the acid impacting the urinary ph and the formation of crystals - unfortunately our cat never thought much about the tomato juice - but he loves the Purina 3oz can of Urinary Tract Formula chicken (with the extra half can of water to make it very gravy-like).

Good luck - hope he recovers soon!

 

[DocRafiki]

He shouldn't get worse after starting steroids if it were idiopathic. I'm betting on a partial blockage. But, what were the U/A results? Any crystals? Did you get x-rays? Did the vet give a urinary acidifier? Need more info here.

 

[sammi]

Ella how's the kitty today? I hope you found some help via the Vet.

DocRafiki is there any special ways to get more fluids into a cat?We've tried the water from canned tuna and also some chicken broth but he turns his nose up at everything and this is getting so frustrating for us as well as verrrry expensive. The bill last week will be $450.00 as we had to take him on a Sunday to the emergency vets.

I've actually thought about force feeding him with his Clamavox dropper some water( he takes his meds really well when in liquid form) but have no idea just how much and how many times a day should I give him the fluids? How much fluids should a cat be drinking when he suffers from FLUTD. Willy's urinalysis came back with a little bacteria and some but not alot of crystals. The ER vet says that crystals can be quite normal in cats? I was told a totally different story about 7 years ago when I went through a terrible time with our other cat.We had Willy retested last week (1 week after starting his meds) and the test came back with no bacteria but still some crystals.

Would love to get any info on this as it's really got us worried and I'm sure Ellas could use any help too. Thanks Doc and Ella for letting my hijack your thread!

 

[Disney Ella]

Thanks for your replies, everyone! I had done a general Internet search on UTIs and FUTD, but all I found was just the most basic information, and I knew somebody here had to have been through it. We went back to the vet this morning and they x-rayed him again. This time, they saw bladder stones and he is having surgery on Monday.

 

[sammi]

Oh Ella I'm so sorry to hear this. But at least you know what's going on and hopefully it'll be treated). The vet did an x-ray on Willy also to see if there were stones but thankfully there wasn't. I also haven't been able to find much help on the internet.

We had a cat a few years ago that was continiually getting plugged up every week and we ended up getting a total "sex" change done in order give him "female" anatomy so that he wouldn't get the crystals plugging him up but he just was never the same after that and we lost him 2 years later at the age of 9.

This problem can be so stressful (we've had 3 cats like this).

Good luck with your little fur kid and please let us know how he gets on with the surgery?

{{{hugs}}} to your fur baby and to you too!

 

[Disney Ella]

Thanks, Sammi. We're hoping the surgery goes well and he's back to his usual self soon. Living with pets is a lot like having a perpetual two-year-old when it comes to illnesses. Wish I could make my cat understand that I'm really not trying to torture him by grabbing him and squirting that bad tasting stuff in his mouth. My baby avoids me when he sees me coming now!

 

[Aprille]

Thought I'd share the following in hopes that it might be useful to some of you out there with cats suffering chronic UTI problems. This is just my personal experience with one cat.

I have a nearly 15 year old cat who suffered with UTI's when he was younger. After the 3rd or 4th one my vet suggested switching his food to Prescription Diet R/D (low fat/high fiber). Rowdy also had a weight issue (18lbs) that the vet thought could be contributing to the frequent UTI's. Rowdy has eaten nothing but R/D for the last 10 years and he never had another UTI. (knock wood) He still weighs about 15-16lbs. The food ain't cheap ($22 for 10lb bag dry) and I can only get it at the vet's office but it's been worth it to keep my furbaby UTI-free.

Disney Ella - hope your furbaby comes through surgery with flying colors and is his old self soon.

 

[sammi]

Aprille our cat has been on Prescription Diet CD for the past 2 years but the crystals are back and were seen on the last 2 urine tests done in the past 2 weeks so it's really frustrating as to what to do next for him. We tried to give him the canned version ...actually we tried all kinds of canned food from the vets but he just refuses to eat the canned and that's what he really needs to eat as canned food contains 80% water where dry is only 10% but the little stinker will not eat the canned.........on the other hand my orange tabby Sammy will drink anything and eat anything that doesn't eat him first!

I'm so glad that your cat has been well on his special diet. That's positive news for us that have cats that suffer from this.

 

[Aprille]

sammi - sorry the Prescription Diet doesn't seem to be working for your cat. It's been a miracle for our Rowdy. Hope you find the right answer for your kitty soon.

My cat never cared for canned food either! He had always refused it until about 8 or 9 months ago when he had an upper respiratory infection (at age 14). He was off the dry a little (but still eating) so I decided to reintroduce the canned Prescription Diet R/D. He actually ate some (surprised me!) but still preferred the dry. Since then I have given him a small spoonful of canned once or twice a week and he eats it about half the time. The other half he sniffs it, looks up at me with a wrinkled nose as if to say, "What is this gruel?! Where's the dry, woman?!" You're welcome for me trying to add a little variety to your diet!! I don't worry about it too much because he drinks plenty of water and gets rid of it ALL - I would know as I have litter box duty.

 

[Virgo10]

Originally posted by Aprille
Thought I'd share the following in hopes that it might be useful to some of you out there with cats suffering chronic UTI problems. This is just my personal experience with one cat.

I have a nearly 15 year old cat who suffered with UTI's when he was younger. After the 3rd or 4th one my vet suggested switching his food to Prescription Diet R/D (low fat/high fiber). Rowdy also had a weight issue (18lbs) that the vet thought could be contributing to the frequent UTI's. Rowdy has eaten nothing but R/D for the last 10 years and he never had another UTI. (knock wood) He still weighs about 15-16lbs. The food ain't cheap ($22 for 10lb bag dry) and I can only get it at the vet's office but it's been worth it to keep my furbaby UTI-free.

Disney Ella - hope your furbaby comes through surgery with flying colors and is his old self soon.

You took the words right out of my mouth! One of our male cats has had two really bad UTI's. He went on Presciption Diet CD/S about 4 years ago and hasn't had a problem since. A 20 lb bag runs me $32. Like the above mentioned food, you can only get this at the Vets.

It's certainly something you'll want to talk over with your Vet if you have a cat with urinary track problems.

Roberta

Rusty... My CD/S Cat

 

[Aprille]

Disney Ella - how did the surgery go today?

 

[DocRafiki]

Yes, how did it go? I didn't ever come back to read the responses so just found out about the surgery.

About getting your cat to drink more water -- Have you seen the water fountains for cats? They tend to like to drink from flowing streams. You can find these at pet stores. I'm not sure how they work, mechanically. I haven't ever used one personally.

That is interesting about R/D. I hadn't heard that.

If the Hill's diets (s/d, c/d, c/d-s or whatever they're calling them these days) aren't working for your cat, you might ask about getting Waltham Low pH, aka S/O. The last I read, it was the only one that worked for oxalate stones (most cats have struvites; it works for those as well), and it's the only one proven to decrease the incidence of idiopathic FLUTD. They don't even know why it tends to work for that. Most vets use Hill's and Eukanuba rather than Waltham, so it might be hard to find. It is sold in PETsMART stores, but it requires a Rx from a Banfield vet (the clinics inside PETsMART). If your vet agrees that you should try it and doesn't have access to it, all they'd have to do is fax the records to a Banfield and have an initial office visit & exam with them. (That is required by law in FL; might not be necessary in all states.) You can usually get a $15 off 1st office visit coupon if you ask for it.

A few crystals may be normal, but if I find them in a cat that is having problems, I'm going to try to get rid of them with the diet.

 

[Disney Ella]

Mario came home at 7:30 tonight and is a little wobbly, but otherwise seems fine. He's already used the litter box! Stones and a sludge of crystals were removed from his bladder and everything was flushed out. DH and I both feel bad about this because it is our fault. Mario has been eating urinary tract food since his last blockage five years ago, but a few months ago, DH started buying weight management food instead because Mario has been gaining weight. I told DH I didn't think it was a good idea, but I really should have protested more because the vet thinks this is what caused the stones to form. Obviously we will never change his food again.

Thank you for asking about him. We were very worried about him and are all glad to have him home again!

 

[sammi]

Hi Ella! I've been wondering how you little guy made out today too? Hope he's on the mend and will be home in your arms real soon.

Thanks so much for responding to my problem Jen.We've actually thought about this new water fountain but when you see what Willy does to his HEAVY ceramic water dish...ughhhh! He loves to play in his dish and turns my kitchen floor into a river. His favourite pastime is sitting on the bathroom counter and hoping for a drip to start up.

Willy was diagnosed with struvite stones but I'll write the Waltham food down and ask the vet if he gets a recurrence.The only problem is I live in Canada so that might be a problem with the vet getting this food. He really needs to start eating canned but not a chance! He turns his nose up and walks away.

This has really upset me as he's been on the Perscription Diet CD dry for the past 2 years and was fine up unitil recently. I've got my fingers crossed that he's be ok.

Thanks so much Jen for helping me with ideas. I really appreciate your expertise and all your helpful answers!

Roberta your Rusty is the spitting image of my other cat Sammy! If I can figure out how to post a pic I'll let you compare the two!

 

[sammi]

Oops Ella I just missed you update.

Glad to hear everything went well and Mario is on the mend. Cats seem to bounce back very quick (like children) so it won't be long before he's racing around.

Will this help him now to avoid any more problems with crystals? I guess keeping him on the special diet will be helpful too.

Glad to hear he's home and be sure and give us an update on him.

 

[DocRafiki]

Ella -- I'm glad he made it through the surgery ok and you've got a pretty clear answer as to the cause. At least you still have that diet to fall back on.

Sammi -- I just checked the Waltham site to look for retailers in Canada. I couldn't find any info on retailers on there. I had forgotten how useless their site is. Anyway, it's made in England, so I would think you'll be able to find it up there.

 

[Aprille]

Ella - That's great news about Mario! So glad to hear he is already home recuperating. Try not to feel too guilty about changing his diet. Sometimes we just don't realize how important it is until a problem crops up. As Doc pointed out, it's good you have the diet to fall back on. Wishing Mario a speedy recovery!

sammi - Good luck to you in finding a solution for Willy. Keep us posted.

 

[DVCindy]

Just wanted to add I'm happy to hear your cat is back home with you and OK !

I've been following your thread because we have a 3 year old male cat who had a blockage about 18 mos. ago. I can sympathize with you ... I know it's not fun at all !

I wanted to also ask those of you that deal with cats who are prone to this ... do you ever use the Friskies Special Diet foods or Iams ... or do you tend to stick with the prescription food available only from the vet ? Is there a dramatic difference in the
food formulas ? Is wet better than dry ... or does it not matter ? Our cat will eat both ... but really, really loves the Iams dry food. I don't want to continue to give it to him if the other type is really much better for him .

Thanks for any info you can share !