Spooky may have UTI

...or a bladder infection?

Last night she was straining in the box and peeing only little bits, and then back in the box.

I gave her about 6 oz of water mixed in with a little wet food, and she went for it. This morning there were no pee dribbles, and a giant pee - so if she was starting to plug (????????? I don't know if this happens to females?) she apparently passed that problem. But I fed her another large bowl of slightly flavored water, and we're off to the vet in about an hour. Hopefully they'll be able to just express her bladder so we can find out what's up.

Poor girl! Glad you're taking her to the vet to have it checked out.

Poor little Spooky! Sometimes getting their bladder full of fluids while they are on the edge will help flush things out (but obviously doesn't replace a vet visit).

Sending mega vibes for Spooky girl!!

We got the good vet! We use three different vet facilities for different things. This one is the closest - just 15 minutes away, but we don't like a lot of the vets that practice there. Our favorite vet - the best vet in the world IMO (given he's saved the lives of two of our cats) is 45 min away. For "just" a UTI, we didn't want to put Spook through it....

But Doc says the pee sample looks very much like an infection - cloudy and definitely tinged red. We went ahead and did full blood work - she's about due for her physical anyway. We're starting on antibiotics, and I'm to keep up the flavored water to keep flushing her.

I didn't know whether or not female kitties could get blocked or not. She said she's never seen one, ever - but that if there's a good size kidney stone, that could cause a block. But with females, it's just usually an issue of antibiotics and flushing if a UTI, and blockage isn't really a risk.

Good to know.

Poor Spook!

Thanks for the vibes and good thoughts.

Spooky

Get better .

for all

Get better soon, Spooky!!!

Sending for Spooky.

for a speedy recovery

Lots of for Spooky.

More for Spooky

Thanks all! I couldn't tell from her behavior (other than seeing her in the litter box) that she wasn't feeling well (though she was talking a little more than normal). ..But she's started the antibiotics (once a day for 10 days - I got one in pill form, I'm good at pilling), so in a day or two she really should be feeling better.

Thanks again!

Spooky does not seem to be doing much better! She's still taking real small pees. I can't tell if they're tinged with blood or not - it was too dilute to see it in the litter Gonna have to call the vet in the a.m. Not sure if we need to switch up antibiotics or get x-rays. I'm getting worried about our baby girl!

oh Spooky

Did you get the bloodwork results? Was it indeed an infection?

Sending more vibes to Spooky! Let us know what the vet says!!

Poor little Spooky girl! Lots and lots of to my favorite little tabby girl!

OK. Turns out there wasn't any bacteria in her culture. I obviously heard the message wrong that the vet left when they called with her results (though they did want us to continue with the antibiotics).

Here are next steps.

1) Finish the round of antibiotics (finishes Friday) - see if there's any improvement through weekend.
2) Bring her in for needle biopsy of urine (sterile sample) to culture - five days after antiobiotics are finished.
3) Take x-ray to see bladder wall. Depending on how it looks,
4) Take ultrasound of bladder. There are no signs of cyrstals in her urine, but that doesn't mean there isn't a problem.

Depending upon all of the above, either treat infection, or treat for idiopathic interstitial cystitis, which first steps would be:

Potentially anti-spasmodics;
Elavil, which apparently has anti-inflammatory properties as well (we've used it on Spook before when she was stress peeing outside the box, and it helped her a lot then, so it might be something to consider, especially since this is a stress-based disease);
Try cosequin. Some cats do very well with it, others don't respond to it, but it's worth the try.

Poor baby. I remember when the vet thought Tuxedo had interstitial cystitis - they pursued imaging (at a different vet practice), went so far as to have mobile MRI visit to get high resolution image - and a little "knot" of crystals was embedded in his bladder wall, even though his urine at the time was clear of crystals - and they couldn't see this in the x-ray or their normal resolution MRI. He had surgery to remove it, and the problem was solved. It was expensive but worth it. I can only hope Spooky's will be so "easy" to solve.

Oh no Laurie! I'm not sure how I missed this before

Sending tons of vibes for Spooky I hope they are able to resolve this with just the meds.

My gosh, Laurie, I didn't realize you were dealing with this. Many thoughts and vibes for you and Spooky that the meds totally eliminate the problem!!!!

Thank you for the vibes for Spooky!

She's definitely not litter box hopping, but she's taking a lot of small pees. Not teeney like before, but small.

I think we'll just finish the antibiotics, and take her in next week to get her pee tested again.