Update update on reggie!!

HI GIRLS!!

As you can see I am in a much better mood today after spending the entire day crying at work! :O(

The update is this. I dropped Reggie off this morning at 7AM, called all day and by 12:00 they still had no urine sample. So they hydrated him under the skin and finally was able to extract via a needle going into his little bladder. Turns out that ther was blood and tons of it. The dr. then wanted to do an xray to make sure that there was no stone.

After looking back at his records there is no history of a stone. He has had one previous xray about three years back. There was a minute something, it could not even be confirmed as a stone. Our vet where we used to live noted him having FTS, or systetis (sp??). That is why he put him on the purina perscription diet, which all five of them have been on ever since. (note that none of my other cats have had any health problems and the vet did say that it did not hurt having all of them on the diet since I could not get Reggie to eat that and the other cats to eat "normal" food.

He was also at that time put on the Buispurone for anxiety.

So get to the point right.... OK I know.

Reggie has an xray done today and they did not find any stones!! The vet said that he has systitis (sp??) (I have the pamphlet but it is downstairs right now.) THANK THE LORD. Had it been a stone and required surgery it would have been $1,500 which I have no way of paying for not even a credit card to put it on if I wanted to. So all day I spent crying thinking that he was going to have to be put down.

So he is now on a 10 day dose of antibiotics to try and clear this up, and also Cosequin going forward. The Cosequin will coat the bladder to try and prevent this problem in the future. The cosequin is $15 a month, so not terrible. Also, my moms cat has been on cosequin for 14 years now for a similar problem and it has worked wonders he has been jsut fine. I HOPE AND PRAY that this works for Reggie!

Weird thing the vet said is that this is almost like a human virus in that he sees some cats getting it at the same time every year, almost like a cold. Maybe that explains why I can go months at a time with no problems and then out of the blue the peeing is out of control.

So that is our update. I will keep you posted from here. I think that I may still seperate him from the others for the next few days. WHat do you think?

Thank you again for all of the advice. I truly appreciate it!

Very good news about having no stones. Cystitis is an inflamation of the bladder, which can trigger a number of weird things including blood in the urine and crystals. The prescription food that you've got him on will help regulate his PH so that crystals don't form. It's a good thing that he's been on it for a while.

Cystitis can be frustrating in and of itself. Antibiotics will sometimes act as an anti-inflamatory for the bladder and will bring relief. If he is truly chronic, it is most likely that he can have another flare up in about a month. Watch closely for it. If they didn't find bacteria in his urine though, they probably shouldn't have put him on it, but only because (IMO) you never want to build up a resistance to them.

My cat specialist vet and I discussed Cosequin at length one time. Muddy had been on it and I wasn't seeing any results from it. It is used for joint health. One time there was a research project that seemed to prove that cats with bladder issues had relief from taking Cosequin. The problem with that original study is that they also changed the cat's food to a prescription diet when they started giving cosequin and therefore it wasn't a controlled study - they had no idea if it was the food or the cosequin providing relief. Just last year they repeated the study in a controlled fashion and found that it didn't make any difference with bladder inflamation. The problem is that most vets have no idea that this more recent study took place and still push cosequin for bladder relief. My regular vet still tells me to give it. My cat specialist vet tells me not to waste my money. Muddy has been off of it for about 6 months. The cat specialist also reminded me that these are usually triggered by stress. I talked about that in your other thread.

I'm hoping that this isn't chronic - I know he's had problems in the past but those seem like they were a while ago. My Muddy is chronic to the point that he has daily medications to control his condition that will never go away. He has an auto-immune disease that triggers his.

I am very happy for you right now, but never assume with bladder issues that they go away after a single treatment. Keep a close eye on things.

Now when something happens with your cat, don't rush to conclusions. Always go to the vet first to get checked out.

The systitis could still be triggered by moving and having an active youngster.
Keep things calm around Reggie. You might go to feliway to help keep him
calmer and relaxed.

Good Luck with Everything !
Mrs. Kitty

I'm happy for you and Reggie that he didn't need surgery, and that he's doing better!