Hello,
My cat Oero got a urinary blockage in the middle of January. We had to take him to the emergency clinic to get him unblocked. Our current vet put him on several medications and the Eukanuba Low PH/S diet. At his followup visit his crystals were still high and his PH was at 7. He was fine for the next month, We went to the second followup visit. This time, we were told it looked as though the level of crystals in his urine had dropped. About a week and half later, he became blocked again, much to my surprise. We took him to our normal vet. Now, I should preface by saying I love my cat and will do whatever is within my means to take care of him. But, we had already spent about $1000 for the first blockage and followups. Our vet said that Oreo was going to be prone to blockages and recommended that we have surgery done to open up his urethra more. It was going to be another $1500 - $1700 when all was said and done. My wife and I are having a baby and building a house, so I really couldn't afford to spend that much more now. So, my wife's mom recommended we call her vet to get another estimate. The initial estimate was $700 for the surgery. We decided to bring Oreo to the other vet that same day. After the new doctor examined Oreo and his records, he was concerned that we had not lowered his PH enough to really get rid of the crystals. Oreo's PH was still at 7 and he said it needs to be down to 6.0 to really have any effect. They unblocked Oreo and started us on the Hills Science Diet S/D. So, we've avoided surgery for now and it was only $350 to get him unblocked this time. My question is why didn't my original vet express any concern about the PH on the second follow up visit? If Oreo had a PH of 7 on both visits and that is truly too high to get rid of the crystals, it seems we may have been able to change the food and maybe avoided the second blockage.
My cat Oero got a urinary blockage in the middle of January. We had to take him to the emergency clinic to get him unblocked. Our current vet put him on several medications and the Eukanuba Low PH/S diet. At his followup visit his crystals were still high and his PH was at 7. He was fine for the next month, We went to the second followup visit. This time, we were told it looked as though the level of crystals in his urine had dropped. About a week and half later, he became blocked again, much to my surprise. We took him to our normal vet. Now, I should preface by saying I love my cat and will do whatever is within my means to take care of him. But, we had already spent about $1000 for the first blockage and followups. Our vet said that Oreo was going to be prone to blockages and recommended that we have surgery done to open up his urethra more. It was going to be another $1500 - $1700 when all was said and done. My wife and I are having a baby and building a house, so I really couldn't afford to spend that much more now. So, my wife's mom recommended we call her vet to get another estimate. The initial estimate was $700 for the surgery. We decided to bring Oreo to the other vet that same day. After the new doctor examined Oreo and his records, he was concerned that we had not lowered his PH enough to really get rid of the crystals. Oreo's PH was still at 7 and he said it needs to be down to 6.0 to really have any effect. They unblocked Oreo and started us on the Hills Science Diet S/D. So, we've avoided surgery for now and it was only $350 to get him unblocked this time. My question is why didn't my original vet express any concern about the PH on the second follow up visit? If Oreo had a PH of 7 on both visits and that is truly too high to get rid of the crystals, it seems we may have been able to change the food and maybe avoided the second blockage.
