Jasper has difficulty peeing

beandip

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Originally Posted by KaraBear

Last time they found no crystal and told us they thought it might be a spasm.

The vet just called. She got the cathedar in but she really had to push. They took an x ray and found that he has several stones.

He is ok for tonight and we are going in tomorrow to discuss what to do next. The vet said we can either hope the stones will come out on their own or do an operation to open the bladder and remove them.
Well that's good that she can give him some relief now w/ the catheter.

I assume his pH is high? Did she mention that? Did she mention different food and/or other medicine, or will he still be on the RC Urinary SO food?
 

booktigger

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Fingers crossed for him - if the vet does end up suggesting the 'sex change' op, dont worry too much, I know of a few cats who have ended up having a long, healthy life after one.
 
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karabear

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We have switched him to Royal Canin SO food. They are giving him another kind of food that will help in dissolving the stones, but it is a temporary food.
They have suggested that we can do two things; watch him to see if the stones shrink and come out or sugically remove them. At this point, we are thinking we will have them surgically removed. The vet is worried that scar tissue has formed from the cathedar and it will make it more difficult for them to come out. I also find it very stressful to keep such a close eye on him constantly, knowing that when there is a blockage we only have a few hours to get him treatment. And I worry about the stress of all these vet visits and cathedars have had on Jasper.

What do you all think? Has anyone had stones surgically removed? They are going to cut open his bladder to take them out. Is that major surgery?

We have not talked about his Ph but I will ask about that tomorrow

The vet said we have not come to the point of the sex change stuff
 

beandip

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I don't have any experience with bladder surgery. We went the dissolving route with Beandip. The short answer is that it worked very well for us. However, we didn't have everything dissolved/passed on our first try. He suffered for a year with on and off problems before I got him on different food and some medicine to dissolve the crystals/stones, and to keep them from coming back.

However, I don't think Beandip ever had enough of a "mass" in there to show up on an xray. His xrays were always clear. He just kept producing crystals and passing them. He was only blocked once. It sounds like Jasper does have more going on in there, so that could be a different story.

I think the temporary 'dissolving' food is a good idea either way, for now. When you came back with the news, I was thinking he might need some "stronger" food...why I asked.


Let us know what the vet says.
 

devlyn

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I'm so sorry to hear about Jasper's problems! It's so frustrating. I'm going through a similar thing with Pippin right now.
I hope Jasper feels better soon!

Devlyn
 
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karabear

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We decided to try the food and see how that goes. We are going to watch him closely and do xrays once a week. At the first sign of blockage he will into the vet and then we'll do the surgery.
Our vet is so amazing. We went into today and she gave up her lunch hour to talk to us. They are also trying their best to keep the costs low. I am really surprised at how relatively little everything is costing. And this is not even our regular vet. It is the vet who was on call the night the whole problem started. Jasper will be going to her from now on.
 

beandip

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Originally Posted by KaraBear

We decided to try the food and see how that goes. We are going to watch him closely and do xrays once a week. At the first sign of blockage he will into the vet and then we'll do the surgery.
Our vet is so amazing. We went into today and she gave up her lunch hour to talk to us. They are also trying their best to keep the costs low. I am really surprised at how relatively little everything is costing. And this is not even our regular vet. It is the vet who was on call the night the whole problem started. Jasper will be going to her from now on.
It sounds like you have a good plan, and a great vet.
 
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karabear

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Jasper is home today and he is pretty happy about that! Thank you everyone. Your replies REALLY make me feel better
 

pat

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Tyler had calcium oxalate bladder stones that required surgical removal. He really did just fine (minus the bizarre complication that they had never seen before so it won't happen to your cat..trust me, they'd never seen it...only my cats do things like this!)

He had his surgery over two years ago and is doing fine in that regard
 

beandip

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Originally Posted by KaraBear

Jasper is home today and he is pretty happy about that! Thank you everyone. Your replies REALLY make me feel better
I'm glad to hear this!! I'm so happy to hear that you have such a great vet now, too.
That's worth quite a bit.
Keep us posted.
 
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karabear

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Jasper is not eating his special food. The vet told us to feed him Medical's Dissolution Formula. He just turns his nose up at it which is surprising because the boy likes to eat. My fiance is calling to try to find another food. I thought I would ask everyone here if they know of any other kinds of food that will dissolve those stones.
Thanks
 
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karabear

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The vet said we could give an SD formula but they are out of stock. So we are calling some different vets to try to find it. Unfortunately, most are closed as it is after 7 pm here.
 

gailuvscats

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what type of stones does Jasper have? My cat had crystals and I give hime CArpon, which dissolves the crystals by making his urine more acidic. It won'd work for the oxalate crystals.
Many years ago I had a cat who had to ahve the "sex change" surgery. He lived to be 15 without any problems.
 
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karabear

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The vet couldn't tell for sure which kind of stone he has. But considering he is a domestic shorthair, she thought it was a certain kind, but I don't remember what. The kind that does dissolve.

We just found Hill's SD and tried that but he is not interested in eating. I don't think he has eaten anything since Saturday night. This is really odd, because he is always whinning for food.
 

beandip

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I think after that much time I would let him have some different wet food. Poor Jasper, and poor you...I'm sorry you're going through this. Mixing the S/D with anything is generally a no-no but if you can think of anything harmless to make it enticing, then I would try that.

If all else fails, maybe ask your vet about Methigel, a urine acidifier. It is a gooey sticky medicine in a tube...looks and smells like hairball goo. It's no fun to force it on a cat...but some of them like it and lick it up. It's fairly inexpensive, maybe $5-$6 a tube I think.

The food would be much easier and better, if only he would eat it.
 
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karabear

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Jasper wasn't eating very much for a few days. He just didn't seem to be himself. He wanted to be by himself and wasn't even purring.

Thursday morning, he went in the litter box about 10 times as I was getting ready to go to work. So we took him back into the vet and he had the surgery.
The vet took out about 12 stones. They seemed quite large considering he is just a small guy! Jasper came home today with his anti-biotics, anti-inflammatories, and valium. The valium made him eat but I think it also made him excited. He was running around and playing all day. We are moving in a few weeks and Jasper had some fun playing in our boxes.

Tonight we noticed that his incision was bleeding and was REALLY swelled up. So we made another emergency vet trip at 1 am. It was a different vet on call but luckily it was the vet that Jasper usually goes to for his check ups. She thought that one of the inside incisions became loose and said his "guts were falling out". Well, thats when I almost threw up.

Just as I was typing this, the vet called to let us know that Jasper is ok. She did another pattern to close him up. She also said his red blood count is a bit low but its ok. She talked lots but she talked to my husband who didn't absorb most of what she said. We will go in in the morning to see whats going on. But for now, I will be able to sleep, knowing that he is going to be ok. I was scared the other times, but this time i was REALLY REALLY scared.

I feel so stupid. How could we not realize that jumping around was not the best thing for him to be doing.

My poor guy has been under so much stress the past few weeks. But even today with stiches, a shaved belly, two shaved paws from IVS, 3 trips to the vet, many car trips; even after all that stress, he was purring and happy to be with us. I just want him to be all better and never have to go through all this again! And I am worried because we are moving in 3 weeks. This is the only home he has ever known and we are taking him to a new one and adding more stress to his life.
 
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karabear

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Jasper is home now. We are keeping in the bedroom to minimize his jumping around.

I was appalled when we received the vet bill for last night. It was twice as much as the actual surgery where he stayed at the vets for days. We looked at the breakdown of costs on our bills and the vet last night charges twice as much for some things as the other vet. It doesn't make sense to me. Now I understand that there is a chage for our middle of the night visit, but 650 dollars! Its crazy - he was there for 12 hours. The actual surgery was under $300 including a 2 day stay. Our cats will be going to the new vet (the lower cost and more friendly people) from now on!

Jasper is one expensive little cat but I am glad he is home now and hopefully he will get better and not haveto go to the vet again for awhile!
 

beandip

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Originally Posted by KaraBear

Jasper is home now. We are keeping in the bedroom to minimize his jumping around.

I was appalled when we received the vet bill for last night. It was twice as much as the actual surgery where he stayed at the vets for days. We looked at the breakdown of costs on our bills and the vet last night charges twice as much for some things as the other vet. It doesn't make sense to me. Now I understand that there is a chage for our middle of the night visit, but 650 dollars! Its crazy - he was there for 12 hours. The actual surgery was under $300 including a 2 day stay. Our cats will be going to the new vet (the lower cost and more friendly people) from now on!

Jasper is one expensive little cat but I am glad he is home now and hopefully he will get better and not haveto go to the vet again for awhile!
I'm glad he's home and feeling a bit better. You're probably right about the valium...although some of that running and jumping may just be because he feels so much better now. When we finally found the right treatment for Beandip, he turned back into the old Beandip we knew...but had forgotten about. It was amazing. I hope Jasper continues to feel good and stay healthy.

I know what you mean about the costs, too. It is amazing what the differences can be from one vet to another...and what costs more isn't necessarily better. I jokingly call Beandip my "most valuable cat".


Good luck with the move.
 

booktigger

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Fingers crossed for him - sadly, out of hours vets charge a fortune - it cost more for PEbbles to have a leg amputated at my normal vet than it did just to have a pin removed from that leg at the out of hours vets!! And when she was hospitalised for diarrhea, I ended up cancelling one of the tests, it was £60 more than at my vets!!
 
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karabear

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Jasper is back at the vet's and it looks like he'll be there for a few days. He is VERY swelled up. The vet thinks he might be having an allergic reaction to the thread used to sew him up. She didn't think it was a fluid build up. He also has not peed since late Saturday. He goes in the box, scratches around, squats, and nothing comes out. She is going to do an xray to have a look at his bladder because she cannot feel it because of the swelling. She is also going to monitor him for a couple of days. If the swelling is still large in 48 hours, he might have to be sewn up with different thread.
 
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