Feline cystitis Please Help

Hi Everyone, My 3 year old male cat was taken to emergency vets last Sunday as he could not urinate. It turned out that he had an uretha blockage and he was quite poorly. He was allowed to come home on the Tuesday and has to have daily trips to the vets for checkups. On the Friday his full bladder showed no signs of improvement and so he was taken back in the vets for xrays and test. The results showed that he has struvite stones. He was kept in the vets until Monday and put on Royal Canin S/O and seemed to be doing well. However, When I took him for his checkup this morning his bladder was full, so they have decided to keep him in and insert a catheter yet again. The poor thing is extremely nervous and refuses to eat when staying at the vets, so obviously I am quite worried that he won't be getting what he needs to dissolve his stones. This is the first time iv'e come across UTD and am interested in hearing other people stories and any advice on dealing with it.

Wellington had a blockage due to stones last year. It is important to adjust the diet so that whatever is causing the stones can be eliminated if possible. In his case it was calcium, so now I have switched to a low calcium bottled water, especially since we live in a hard-water area. Fortunately Wellington only had to have one procedure, then was on dilating tablets and antibiotics for a week or so. I keep the dilators in case of a recurrence, and monitor him carefully for any signs of distress, but so far he is OK. I do hope your guy improves soon.

Just had a call back from the vet saying that there is no blockage or crystals so the diet he is on must be working, but his urine is very bloody so he will have to stay in there for a few days. Poor Archie ,he's spent more time in the vets than at home recently.

Hi - My male cat has chronic cystitis. Talk to your vet about putting him on Cosequin for Cats. It is 1 pill each day for life. My cat has been on this for a year and it has made a drastic difference. It helps to maintain a healthy bladder. It has definitely worked for him... worth a try.

My Cat had Stuvite Stones in Aug 2006 and was put on S/D which worked. She had a Ecoli Infection too and it took 2.5 months to get rid of the infection. Last Nov she got a infection again and was on Meds from Nov to Jan. She still has slight blood put her urine was neg for Bood and her test is now neg. I hope your Cat feels better. My Sisters Cat Midnight has had what your Cat has to times so far. He was staying at my Brothers in the Bay area when he got the last one. We went there late at night to take him to Er and then brought him to my place for 2 weeks. It will be 2 years in May since his last prob. My Sister could not have Cats at the time because she lived in Dorms. We took him to my Vet 2 days after the Er and he changed all the Meds.

My vet phoned this morning and said that now that the crystals have cleared the problem is probably pyscological. Does anyone have any tips on how to help my cat overcome this. He is quite a nervous cat and often sits and stares at the catflap cause sometimes we get unwelcome visitors who come in to eat all my cats food. I think this might be contributing to his stress and was wondering if it would be a good idea to block the flap off completely. Also, does anyone know of any natural remedies to relieve stress in cats?

unwelcome visitors ??? Do you have cats that come and go from the outside thru a cat door? Not sure what you're referring to... if so, could you put some food and water in a different location for just him; maybe kind of secluded and show him where it is, so that only he knows it's there.

The unwelcome visitors are other cats and whats really annoying is that some of them fight my cats too.

I'd keep kitty indoors and permanently close the cat flaps.

However, did your vet discuss with you the administration of any meds? I find it strange, because Struvite crystals can be dissolved with an acidifier - our vet always prescribes Albeta. Of course, this doesn't help with a blockage - kitty under these circumstances does have to be catheterized.

But the diet is VERY important for keeping the crystals gone. Our kitties were put on a Science Diet C/D diet, which is working for them. However, a diet that is low on grains should work too - and adding a cranberry supplement will also help.

To help relieve stress, you can try purchasing Feliway and Calm & Serene (or Rescue Remedy) Flower Essences. These help some kitties - some kitties they don't. But Feliway is a synthetic hormone that mimics the "friendly" markers in cats' cheeks, and usually helps. I don't know where to obtain those in England. Here our vet sells the Feliway, though it's available in most pet stores now.

I don't know if you can order from this site, but this is where we get them: http://www.catfaeries.com

Also, just extra attention and play time can also help diffuse stress.

Helping him drink extra liquids is also good - keeping the bladder flushed. Put out more bowls of water. Strangely, we found that our kitties are drinking more out of black water dishes than white or metal ones. ?????????? Don't know why, but there it is. We also have a drinking fountain for them, one on each floor of the house. We bought one that pours out a spout rather than running down a ramp. They LOVE it. Here the brand we bought is Drinkwell, though I don't know what's available to you there.

And while this is controversial, we only give our kitties distilled water to drink. Maybe a filter attached to the sink would work - or look for a spring water that is low in magnesium and calcium. Distilled water supposedly leaches minerals out of your bones - but our vet says that this would be offset by the nutrition from the food, and because we've had three male cats catheterized, two of them twice, we're not taking any chances. So we give them distilled water, because we know we have very hard water coming through the tap.

Laurie

Thanks for all your great advice, it is really helpful. I will definitely be trying out a few of your suggestions.

It has been over 2 weeks now since my cat first had the uretha blockage and he has spent most of the time in the veterinary hospital since then, he is still in there now and he still won't or can't pee. My vet says she has never had a cat in with this problem for so long after a blockage. He has been on a cocktail of drugs and they have just ordered a new drug for him to try, I guess they are running out of ideas and i'm wondering if this thing will ever be resolved, cause right now I can see no end in sight. I am worried sick and working up a rather large bill, already over £1500. Has anybody ever experienced something similar?

My vet has just phoned me to say that she performed an ultrasound in his bladder and she noticed something white in there, she flushed his bladder but it was still there, so she is going to have to look inside and find out what is going on in there. She's ringing me back in about an hour, now i'm really worried in case it is a tumour.

I hope he will be ok. How come he didnt have th Ultrasound sooner? My Coco had that first and they found Stones in her Bladder. She was put on S/D and they went away. That was in Aug 2006. She had another bladder infection that just went away in Jan aftter 1.5 Months again. I hope your Cat dosent have a tumor and will be ok.

I don't know why they didn't do ultrasound sooner though they did do xrays. Anyway my vet recently rang me and said that she removed quite a large free floating piece of tissue, don't know how it got there. Hopefully that was the cause of all his problems and he will finally start to recover. Thankfully there are no signs of a tumour or anything else sinister, so thats good news.

Hi - I hope everything turns out ok... keep us posted.

Hi, Great news, my vet just phoned and told me Archie has finally had a pee all on his own. It was still alittle bloody, but if all goes well overnight I can bring him home tomorrow. I'm so excited, I haven't seen him for over a week and iv'e missed him sooooooooooo much. Thankyou to all who have wished him well

YAY I'm glad Archie is doing better!

Great news. Enjoy Archie tonight.

Hopefully you won't have anymore problems. My FAng is ssusceptible to struvite crystals, so I manage it with Carpon, and I periodically check his PH. He is doing great. the following link has info
http://www.belfield.com/carpon.php

Glad to hear that Archie gets to come home!
*happy dance*