FLUTD help

I came here seeking some insight and ideas.

mid to late january, my cat Madison, the baby of my fur family, was diagnosed as having both struvite and oxilate crystals in his urine, at the time he also had a large count of white blood cells in the urine as well. He was given amoxicillin, and prescribed the Royal cannin Urinary SO dry diet (they only had wet cans and he prefers pouches, which are now on order, so he can get some wet food too)

This past wednesday, I brought him to a vet, to be sent home with metacam, only to have to return at a faster more urgent speed thursday morning, because as I explained to the vet the previous night, my cat had a blockage, but the vet wanted to wait and see any ways.

After insisting they remove the block (2 different vets with different opinions), three days in the office, and $300 later, Madison came home and was his normal enegertic self, its been a week now.

He was prescribed Phenoxybenzamine, he has one tablet left, the vet said it was to ease his bladder to make it easier for him to pee.

My concern is that he's grooming himself again, constantly, in his little area, and he is peeing, frequently (I've assumed due to the bladder relaxer) but its not in an overly small amount, and was very ammonious, but as of 20 minutes ago, had very little odor and a light color.

I just need ideas, advice, tips, what to do now, I'm watching him, he's got 3 different dishes of water throughout the house (which is a grand total of one in every room minus the bathroom and bedroom that are shut off) and I cleaned out his litter box, and changed his litter type thinking perhaps the tiny granuals it consisted of could be causing irritation (it was the mimi litter, now its yesterdays news, we don't use clay/clumping litter)

I gave him his Phenox, already today, and plan to give him a dosage of the metacam to try and ease any discomfort he's having, I'm terrified of another plug, I've been hawking him since he got home, and I'm not sure if I'm over reacting or not, but other than switching to distilled water, what else can I do besides wait for problems to arrise again?

any help is appreciated, I have emergency numbers on hand incase anything happens while my husband is home and I am at work, but everything I've read essentially tells me to just feed him his diet, and wait for something to go wrong then rush to the vet, there has to be some sort of help I can give.

First of all, no more Metacam for him! Many posters here, including myself, have had very experiences with it. I am convinced that it's what lead to my cat's kidney problem. Since he already has bladder/urinary problems, there's no need to add to the potential problems associated with Metacam. Do a search here for threads on Metacam and you'll get more info than you wanted. There are other medications out there that are just as effective for your boy.

I'll be back with more info in a minute, but wanted to urge you to discontinue the Metacam.

Okay, here are the search results for FLUTD. You'll probably find more than you ever wanted to know by reading them.

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sea...archid=2736577

Since he's licking, I have a feeling he may still have an infection and a urinalysis is in order.

It sounds like the phenox is a muscle relaxer? Some cats with crystals have inflamation in their bladder and/or urethra and they are given muscle relaxers to relax the spasms that occur as a result of that inflamation. Some vets will prescribe anti-inflamatories and others pain relievers. Metacam is both an anti-inflamatory and a pain reliever and many vets swear by it. But there is great controversy over the use of that drug - people claim that it has caused their cats to go into renal failure. Personally, I refuse it from my vet and ask for pred along with a pain reliever such as torbitrol. If you challenge your vet about it, be prepared for an argument from them.

Licking his behind is a sign that he still has discomfort. My chronic FLUTD boy always tells me when he's flaring up when he does that.

It can take a while for the PH in their bladder to adjust after they go on prescription food. His system may still be producing crystals until his system settles back down. Stay on the prescription food, keep encouraging water, and do your best to keep him stress free. Pain causes stress, so if he appears to be in pain, call your vet.

It took me a couple of months to settle into a routine with my FLUTD boy. I had to change foods a couple of times to get to something that he liked and worked for him. FLUTD is maddening until you find the right combination of things to keep it under control.

I have read a lot of bad stuff about that Metcam. Google it and read for yourself. I don't know of any real examples, but I know I have read not to give it to your cat. Many of the articles I read said it causes kidney problems and renal failure. Maybe someone on this board has had some real life issues with it and they will write about it here.

You mention that Madison is eating Royal canin SO. As explained to me by my vet who prescribed SO for my boy Sasha, SO deters crystal formation by diluting urine. My two cats are both eating it. It has caused both to urinate more. They also drink more. I assume this is the effect the SO has.

He says this makes SO a better choice since it deters both struvite AND oxilate crystals from clumping into uroliths.

I would also like to mention that Sasha is still doing well. It's four weeks since his surgery.

Okay, I didn't quote anyone so let me try to respond to everything here..


Madison has (thankfully now) only ever had one doseage of metacam, I had no idea, and it wasn't his normal vet that prescribed it, at the time of his blockage his vet was closed, and I rushed him to the next available vet I felt okay with. So at least I've not made it worse now, the vet that gave it to me was an idiot, he's also the one that wanted to "wait and see" if madisons blockage was going to clear up on its own, I was beyond furious.

He is on the Royal Cannin Urinary SO dry for now, has plenty of water, I believe the food actually has an increased amount of sodium in it to make him drink more, being that oxilates disolve with water really, and there isnt much else to be done with them. I'm not so sure about the struvites, but I imagine it also is low in magnesium and phosphorus which contribute to struvites. I have yet to actually read the bag, I started reading the ingredients and was so upset about the amounts of bad food ingredients vs the holistic I was feeding and set it down.

He has gravy pouches of this food on order that will be here next week so he'll be getting even more moisture, he doesn't like canned food, so I had to go the pouch route.(lets not even talk about those "food" ingredients)

while he was at the vet, they looked at his urine, and stated he didn't really have many crystals, maybe one here or there, so the food is working, he did have red blood cells in his urine, but they assumed that was related to being blocked and the catheter. they weren't good with answering me, and that office just talked to me like I was an idiot from the word go, so we will return to our current vet, we just need a week or so to work up the funding again. (the past month + has been spent there with my animals, I could go have a beer with my vet like she's my old buddy by now)

He is grooming himself, but its lessened, and he's still peeing, and using his litter box fine, Madisons favorite way to tell me something is wrong is to pee on his sisters (the dog) stuff, and if I don't notice that fast enough he takes to my clothes, coats, shoes, whatever he feels I'm going to touch next, (and he's usually right)

It is frustrating, everything he does I panic like "ITS HAPPENING AGAIN!!" and my husband has to remind me its normal for the cat to take a nap, or eat, or something equally as simple.

I'm also going to switch my animals to distilled water. It seems funny to me that (even though its a breed problem for schnauzers) My dog, and cat, both have the same issue the only thing in common they have is water, and me.

I'm going to re read through everything and see if I missed something as well as check out the link posted.

thanks guys

Originally Posted by stephanietx

Okay, here are the search results for FLUTD. You'll probably find more than you ever wanted to know by reading them.

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sea...archid=2736577

Since he's licking, I have a feeling he may still have an infection and a urinalysis is in order.

Click to expand...

the link came back with nothing

That's strange! Sorry about that! Let me try again.

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sea...archid=2737933

Hi there, just weighing in here.

My cat Beeba had struvite crystals in November. He has just switched onto the Hills c/d after being on s/d till now.

I don't recall if you said this but try an automatic water fountain. It makes them want to drink so much more!

I can understand your stress. Beeba vomited last night. He never does that, and I was on pins and needles for the rest of the night. OMG, I thought. Are the dreaded crystals back? I rushed up and found a nice urine clump in the box, so I felt better. He is his old self today. But it's like every little thing. Maybe he slept too long, he looks "different". It never ends!

I hope all works out well for you. With this thing, you never really know for sure as they can come back. But with the right treatment and constant vigilence, things should be ok.

Good luck!