Could the pet recall be causing this??

ckcsaber

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I have a cat that has been in and out of the vet's for the last 3 months. He has been having bladder blockage due to crystals forming in his urine. He has been blocked 4 times already, and is currently in the Vet's once again to drain his bladder. He went about a month without any problems at all and all of a sudden his bladder was blocked again.

It really seems as if the vets are at a loss, although they are not admitting it.

Since he had this problem the Vet's have put him on Hil's prescription S/D, and Royal Canin Dissolution Formula. The last month or so, the vet's allowed us to put our cat on Purina's Urinary Tract Infection diet, which he has been eating up until 2 days ago when we brought him back to the vet.

THis morning the Vet's had to put a catheter back into our cat because his bladder blocked up again overnight.

I have no idea what to do, can any of you offer advice?
 

phenomsmom

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I have no idea if the food could be causing this. i have only heard of it causing kidney failure not crystals. Some else should be along to give you some better advice.
 

ping

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Does your cat normally eat a diet mainly of dry food? Does he eat any wet food? How is the water intake?

If he eats mainly dry I would try to do some wet food to his diet. Also I would encourage more water intake.
 
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ckcsaber

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He eats almost only dry food, but he drinks a TON of water. We have a water filtering dish that he loves, which we specifically got to help him drink more.

Before he had his first block, we were feeding him Dad's Cat Food (dry) and occasionally he would get a pouch of WHiska's Moist food. Oh, and he would get 1 or 2 Pounces (dry cat treats) every once in a while
 

beandip

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I'm sorry to hear that your cat has been having trouble. I hope he feels better soon.

Crystals in the urine are unfortunately a common problem in cats, and the problem gets more complicated in males, as they can easily get "blocked" like your cat has.

I would highly recommend trying to get him on one of the wet versions of the prescription urinary diets you mentioned. It helps a lot. Regardless of how well/how much they drink, they actually get more moisture in them by eating wet food. I have a cat with similar problems and a wet diet has made a HUGE difference.
 

sharky

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What test s have been done and what were the results... i doubt it is recall related but...
 

ladycat

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I wouldn't think so, one of my cats has the same thing and I recently found out she had a history of crystals/bladder infections. She use to be on regular SD when I got her and then I switcher her to something that hadn't been on the recall list before all that happen, but now they put her on prescription SD. So hopefully not for many kitties sake but also my vet said for some reason this especially is a common time of year for bladder/crystal and all that wonderful stuff
 

ladycat

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Originally Posted by ladycat

I wouldn't think so, one of my cats has the same thing and I recently found out she had a history of crystals/bladder infections. She use to be on regular SD when I got her and then I switcher her to something that hadn't been on the recall list before all that happen, but now they put her on prescription SD. So hopefully not for many kitties sake but also my vet said for some reason this especially is a common time of year for bladder/crystal and all that wonderful stuff
but then again look at my other thread ....
 
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ckcsaber

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Originally Posted by beandip

I'm sorry to hear that your cat has been having trouble. I hope he feels better soon.

Crystals in the urine are unfortunately a common problem in cats, and the problem gets more complicated in males, as they can easily get "blocked" like your cat has.

I would highly recommend trying to get him on one of the wet versions of the prescription urinary diets you mentioned. It helps a lot. Regardless of how well/how much they drink, they actually get more moisture in them by eating wet food. I have a cat with similar problems and a wet diet has made a HUGE difference.
Thanks for the advice.

Would you happen to have any special tricks to getting your cat to eat wet food? We had him on S/D (wet) for about 3 or 4 days, but he soon refused to eat the wet version. He's a strange, picky cat, I know.

Oh, and how much trouble did you have with your cats crystals? Was it a one time deal, or did it happen more than once?

Thank you very much, again.
 

ladycat

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I think I may attempt that too, my girl doesn't eat much wet but...I am glad I saw your post! Hope your kit kat gets better
 

2furbabies

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Hmm... I wonder why this is a common time of year for bladder stuff. I'm going thru this right now with my kitty, although no crystals were found. He was diagnosed with sterile cystitis. Hang in there... I know it can be frustrating. I hope she gave you something for his discomfort. There are several different medications out there and I have found that they do give my baby some relief.
 
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ckcsaber

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He was only prescribed Baytril and Clavomax. Now he is on Baytril and amoxicillin in addition to his S/D diet.

Thanks for your responses.
 

beandip

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Originally Posted by ckcsaber

Thanks for the advice.

Would you happen to have any special tricks to getting your cat to eat wet food? We had him on S/D (wet) for about 3 or 4 days, but he soon refused to eat the wet version. He's a strange, picky cat, I know.

Oh, and how much trouble did you have with your cats crystals? Was it a one time deal, or did it happen more than once?

Thank you very much, again.
There is some good info here...

www.catinfo.org

If you want to skip to the tips and tricks she has there...

http://catinfo.org/#Transitioning_Dr...o_Canned_Food_

...but all the info is worth reading.


In addition to what she says...a few things I would mention..

The simplest, silliest thing - If you're using a bowl for the food, try a saucer or small plate. They usually like that better.

I had a hard time getting all of mine to eat canned food reliably until I just eliminated the dry (well, just as 'treats' now). It may not be practical for everyone, but that got everyone over the hump here. When they still knew there would be dry food available, some of mine were very stubborn.

Talk to your vet about other brands of Rx diets, some are more palatable than others. The Science Diet S/D is not particularly tasty. Some of the prescription foods come in more than one flavor/texture, so that's worth asking about too. It's worth trying more than one so you can find the one that kitty will eat.

The Science Diet "maintenance" food for struvite crystals is C/D. It's a lot more palatable than the dissolution food (S/D). In our case, the vet prescribed Methigel (for dissolving) for a short time, along with the C/D food...my vet feels that the 2 together should be equally effective as S/D. Just ask the vet about that....see if they're willing to do anything like that. After all, a food that kitty won't eat won't help.
...but you already know that.

To answer your question about my Beandip....his problems recurred pretty often over a span of about 18 months. During that time he relapsed every other month on average. He was blocked once, early on. We narrowly escaped a couple more blockages. After almost 2 years of observing his behavior, I can tell pretty early on when somethng's not right. His frequent relapses motivated me to try the wet diet. I'm very happy with the results. I know it's frustrating. I still worry about Beandip every day...but he's doing so much better now. Good luck with your cat...let us know how he's doing.
 
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ckcsaber

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Originally Posted by sharky

What test s have been done and what were the results... i doubt it is recall related but...
The first time he was at the vets in Jan, they ran blood work. They originally thought it was renal disease, but when the test was ran again in a couple of days, it came back regular. They have also been continually testing his urine - the 8 strip test? It has the Ph, glucose, and 5 other things it test on the urine. They also have had ultrasounds done a few times.

I just got off the phone with the vets again and now they fear a blockage may be forming which might require surgery. Last month during his emergency visit we had stated if the surgery would help, please do it. They felt it would not help. Now I fear my poor kitty has been going through all this to end with a surgery which they only hope will help.
 
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ckcsaber

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We will definately take a peak at that site. Thanks for the link beandip. Bunky is very picky. We tried taking all solid food away, only to have him not touch the moist food for over 24 hrs no matter how we presented it to him. With his meds, he needs to have food in him otherwise his stomach gets upset and he brings it back up. They even had him try to eat Gerber 2 meat selection. Can you believe he wouldn't even eat straight ground meat? He would prefer to eat solid dry food when he wants it, rather than enjoy the moist food when we offer it to him.

Again, thanks for the responses and suggestions, all worth a shot.
 
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