Please help, Recurring Bladder Infection

I did a quick search on this site and did not find much on this topic, so please forgive me if I have overlooked something.

What can be done to prevent recurring bladder infections? Syndey (female calico/tortie cross) has now developed her fourth bladder infection despite our best efforts to prevent this. Here's the story so far,
When she went in for her spay as a kitten, the vet expelled her bladder and found a small amount of blood in the urine. He prescribed Baytil however, never did a urinalysis. The Baytril made her violently ill and at the vets advice, I discontinued the treatment after only 3 days. I assumed this was good advice as I trusted this vet at the time but in hindsight, this seems to have been a mistake which I feel really bad about. Fast forward to April of last year, when Sydney got her second bladder infection. No urinalysis as done again as we couldn't get a sample. She was given amoxcillin which cleared it up perfectly. The medication was given for the full course prescribed. September of last year, she got another bladder infection. Once again, no urinalysis was done and even after holding overnight, there was no sample. She was given Clavamox which was given for the full course and cleared up the infection. Now, she has another. As for nutrition and such, she is on Nutro Complete Care (with acidophilus and cranberry powder) dry food and Eagle Pack (mostly organic) wet food. I give her 1/8 of the wet food mixed with about 1/2-3/4 of a cup which she happily eats/drinks. She also gets half of an acidophilus capsule with her meal. Other than that, she gets no table scraps or treats. She drinks a good amount of water and has 4 water bowls throughout of very small 1 bedroom apartment. Also, we have two litter boxes, which are both cleaned nightly. They are a combination of regular clumping litter and silica crystals. The reason for the combination is to keep the dust down.

I am really frustrated and saddened by this new infection because as far as I know, we are doing as much as we can. Can anyone give me some insight into what is going on and how I can prevent this further? I am off to the vets in an hour. I plan to put her in her kennel about 1/2 before we leave so that we can hopefully get a sample this time (crossing fingers). Is it possible that this is another condition? Your help is greatly appreciated.
Thank you,
Candice

Sounds like this is the problem for your cat.

Here are some links about it:

FLUTD

Cornell page

Thank you hissy. I will look at those pages.

Has anyone tried the Hill's foods specific to crystal formation? Is there anything else I can possibly do for prevention? The articles mentioned everything that I'm already doing.

I would really talk to maybe another vet, and get her on a food for urinary or crystal problems. They really need to do a urine culture and uninalysis. There's a few things it could be, and you want to make sure it's treated properly. If you can't get a urine sample, the vet can get it in the office. Since it's been happening so often, they should look into it further.

Thank you Sandie.

The vet did get a urine sample today. He called with the results...no crystals or either kind, specific gravity was normal and pH was normal. So, it seems to be something else. He wants me to come back once the meds are finished to have an X-ray done to look for bladder stones. He said that her bladder felt slightly thickened. So for now, we wait.

I am glad they are taking the first step to help her!! Don't forget to let us know what happens with the xray and such

I definitely will Sandie. Poor thing, she does not like her meds. Right now I have been dissolving the pills in a syringe full of warm water and giving it to her that way. She refuses to eat anything with a pill in it...is there any other way?

There's 2 things you can try. One is just getting a pill shooter. This way they don't taste it at all, and it's quick. The onther, it's worth a try...try crushing the pill and putting it in about a tsp of baby food

Where can I get a pill shooter? Is it uncomfortable for them??

I tried the baby food thing already and she's having no part of it.

you can buy one at your vets office. They are relatively cheap and great to have around. As long as you don't jam it down their throat, it is not painful for them.

I think I would be tempted to go and find a new vet. Collecting a urine sample is a routine, simple task. If the vet is unable to express her bladder, the urine can be collected by cysto, which means taking it from the bladder with a needle. This looks and sounds a bit scary, but it really doesn't hurt kitty much, most cats actually react more to getting a vaccine! The fact that your vet never did a proper urinalysis after all these problems is really not proper medicine.

Thank you for the advice everyone.

Mellanie, as for the vet advice, each time she visited the vet, it was a new one. I was very disatisfied with the first one, the second one, the third one, and now feel much more comfortable with this vet. You'd think with over 10 offices in this city that I'd be able to find a good vet somewhere. I will keep you all posted on what is going on. Thank you for the help. *hugs*

Hi,

Here's some more FLUTD links which may be of help.

http://www.cat-world.com/Healtha-k.htm#FLUTD

I had problems with my cat Nick on & off. In desperation, I e-mailed our localy university. This is what I was told to do in two e-mails...
E-mail 1

My normal recommendation is a mixture of natural fresh food eg
chicken wings, lamb shanks & commercial meat flavoured cat food (NO FISH, NO DRY). I would also start with some 500mg ammonium chloride tablets. 1 tablet twice a day...although I do not always use this indefinitely.

E-mail 2 (after I'd answered some questions he asked me)

1. Get some Hills diet for dissolving stones. I think it's S/D-feed
this to him for 2-3 days...or once a day.

2. Other meals should be raw meat. Perferably on the bone. I would
suggest lamb chops (pull off the fat), lamb shanks, or chicken wings.
Use different types for variety. Fresh meat will do...if he won't eat
it off the bone. When you give him the meat-also give 500mg ammonium
chloride tablet.

3. Finish the course of Baytril.

4. After he is peeing ok for a month or so...drop out the ammonium
chloride.

5. It may be worth getting an x-ray of the abdomen or an ultrasound
to make sure stones are not present in the bladder.

I followed these instructions, and I've not had a problem with my cat in two years. He is no longer permitted any dry food (not even the Hills prescription stuff), nor fishy flavoured foods.

Interestingly, there was an interesting show on Discovery about Nanobacteria, which they are suggesting "may" be a cause of things like bladder stones.

Julia.

Thank Julia. The problem with Sydney is that all of her urine tests (pH, crystal formation, specific gravity, etc.) came back normal. So as far as I know, there isn't anything that we can do to her diet to prevent whatever is causing it. I plan to pick up some Grapefruit Seed Extract to give her as a member told me it could help her out.

I'm back again. Syd has another infection.

I don't know what to do...I don't want her going on antibiotics every few months and I am torn apart seeing her in discomfort. She's trying her best to pretend she's feeling fine but I can tell she's not. We have an appointment tomorrow afternoon because we couldn't get in today. She is still eating, peeing and playing but if that changes in the next 24 hours we will be off to the vet for an "emergency" visit. Since my last post, I have kept up with feeding the wet food and water together, acidophilus and have upgradd to Innova dry (from Nutro). She doesn't receive any scraps and about once a week she gets 3 Wellness SuperMix 5 crunchies as treats (she thinks they are treats so I figured I should run with it ). I didn't try the Grapefruit extract because I was afraid that it would alter the pH of her urine. Her pH was fine in the urinalysis done at the time of her last bout.

So now I am getting very desperate (and depressed) I am willing to try anything to make her feel better. Can anyone help??

Thanks for listening...