Sick but nothing wrong

Boo is a 7 year old neutered American shorthair black cat.

She's never been sick a day in her life until she went into a kennel about 6 months ago, then she came out very very sick. That all got treated and she was doing well.

Now the last 3-4 months she's been losing blood in her urine, she's been through 3 courses of antibiotics and they do nothing. Food and water source have been changed. 2 vets so far (but there's not many that speak English where we are)

Finally, in desperation she was dropped at a very reputable vet clinic for 2 weeks to be observed while her owner (my bf) was away and to find out the problem.

Now she's back home and they couldn't find anything. They did an ultrasound for kidney stones, checked her blood, checked her urine and aside from some blood in there they could find no cause. No crystals, no UTI, kidneys fine nothing.

We're at a complete loss. She clearly should not be losing blood like that. Has anyone got any ideas of what to do next?

What kind of antibiotics was she treated with, if you know?

Baytril is one of the best for "getting into" the bladder, but it also has been known to actually cause some issues in the bladder. There is more info about the drug here: http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Con...C=31&A=553&S=0

You mentioned an ultrasound to examine her kidneys. Have they xrayed and/or done an ultrasound of her bladder?

She had the whole shebang and it all looked good, not sure about the actual antibiotics

Well the Baytril thought is a long shot anyway...not real likely. However, we've been fighting issues like this with my Beandip since october of '05. When we got less aggressive with the antibiotics (particularly Baytril), he has improved. He is on other medication, but I'll get to that in a minute. A true bacterial cause is fairly rare, and depending on how the samples are taken, they are easily contaminated (showing bacteria when there isn't any).

I'm not an expert, just a crazy cat lady...but blood in the urine typically indicates some inflammation. These bladder issues are poorly understood, even by the experts. If she's been through all of those tests and they can't find anything, then unexplained inflammation is likely the problem. It's not all that uncommon to not be able to find the cause.

The problems often creep up after a stressful situation for the cat. That was the case with Beandip. He had chronic problems for a year. He's been stable for 4 months, but he's not out of the woods yet. I have to keep a very close eye on him for problems.

Prednisone has helped Beandip. It does have long term risks, but if it's the only thing that keeps the problem away - it may be worth it. There are other drugs that might help too...maybe talk to the vet about that.

To have blood in the urine does not necessarily mean there is an infection going on.

In humans there are certain kidney diseases where the filters of the kidneys get damaged and allow blood to pass through. My son has Alports Syndrome which is a genetic, degenerative kidney disease. This is caused by a collagen being completely missed out in the DNA structure so the filters of the kidneys deteriorate over a period of time until the kidneys fail altogether (I'm talking humans only here). My son has been on dialysis for over 5 years and should be transplanted hopefully this summer.

Interestingly, you say that your little cat got very sick after being in a cattery. I'm drawing comparisons here. What illness did your little cat have? When my son's kidneys finally failed, it was after a bout of 'flu. The 'flu completely wiped out what little natural kidney function he had.

The only way to find out if your little cat's kidneys have got compromised filter function is to have a biopsy done. Damage to the filters doesn't normally show up on standard tests and a biopsy is really the only way of finding out if this is the case. If this is what's happened, then I think there are drugs that could slow down or halt any further damage occurring.

Prednisone is one of the drugs used to help stop rejection in human transplant patients.

Although I'm comparing cats to humans in this, in both species the kidneys do the same job.

Here is a link you might find useful and interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prednisone

I hope you little cat is on the road to full recovery now. Sending healing thoughts your way