Please help.. Uriary tract "disease"

Hi, I am new to the site. I came here because I am desperate for any advice.. My cat is suffering with urine problems and they are growing in severity monthly. We are both absolutley exhausted..

About 7 months ago, my four year old neutered male, Ratchet, was diagnosed with lower feline urinary tract disease/syndrome. It seems to have come out of nowhere, as there has been no change in his daily routine that I notice. We've had all the tests, ultrasound, UA, x-ray, kidney function, liver function.. ect. Nothing shows stones or anything unusual. I have been to the vet many times, three times to clear severe blockages. It always yields the same thing, crystals and trace amounts of blood in the urine. You can sometimes actually see the crystals in his urine if it dries on the floor, looks like a fine powder.

The vet put him on a dry diet, Purina Veterinary DM, which is actually for diabetic cats. He says it is the best because of high protein (crude 50%) and low carbs. He has been on it for 3 months and I have seen no improvement, he just seems to get worse. I asked the vet about changing the diet again, maybe to a urinary specific food, but he said his diet is not the problem. He said his urine PH is exactly where it should be. His previous food was cat chow. (Yes, wet food would be best, but he will not touch wet food, he would rather stave. I have tried making him eat wet food, but he just will not eat it period.)

I do not feed him regular cat treats because I have read they aren't good for his condition. This month I tried some Cranberry and Glucosamine chews, but it doesn't seem to be doing anything and they are nearly gone.

Water intake does not seem to be a problem, he loves water. I have multiple dishes including a pet fountain. He is obsessed with the fountain, I catch him drinking from it many times a day. I can also get him to drink water automatically just by placing it in some tupperware, he is easily amused by it.

Right now, he is getting blocked about 2 times a week, and he is starting to pee anywhere he can go, but he prefers the tile floor or my clothes. I have put litter boxes everywhere and keep them clean.

Yesterday I took him to the vet for the billionth time, he had not urinated in about 3 days. He was able to get him unblocked by expressing his bladder. The vet game him fluids, antibiotics, and Rimadyl (which I am now reading is not recommended for cats). He appears to be blocked already AGAIN and licking and yowling! The vet basically only has two more options left, he told me to try children's asprin once every three days or more. His other option was to try regular antibiotic shots, which I don't think would do anything..


The last two weeks have been the worst. He has been in so much pain that I can't stand to watch it. He will yowl at me for hours and struggle in the litter box so much that he nearly falls over. WE NEED HELP. I can't take this anymore, Ratchet can't take this anymore. I have basically been doing all I can think of but it only gets worse. I have read a lot about this condition and there simply aren't many answers. I just keep eliminating factors to no avail. Should I try another diet change against the vets advice? I would like to try a urinary tract specific food. What else can I do?

Good God in Heaven! Get your cat to an emergency vet ASAP! A cat can
not be blocked for 3 days!

First off, what kind of crystals does he have? Struvite, oxalate? If struvite, he needs to be on a food with acidifiers in it which one of them is Hills Prescription s/d then transfer to c/d in approx 3 months.

I am keeping this short because I dont want you to spend too much time reading this. A cat can die within 48 hours of being blocked.

Call your vet and have them fax his records to another vet preferrably an ER vet due the time of day.

Then call your vet back and tell them you no longer need their services. Get a new one.

I ;have been through this and it is life threatening and extremely painful for your kitty.

Please update.

I DID take him to the ER...... as it reads. It probably wasn't that long, my guess was 2 days, 3 at most. I was at work for most of this time and it was a bad time for it to happen, I wasn't able to monitor him as closely as I normally do...

I assume they are struvite since the vet mentioned phosphates in his UA, and struvite is normally associated with this condition.. But the vet did mention that his UA's showed proper PH. He said the acidity of his urine was not the issue... and that the extra acidifiers might be bad for his kidneys, and just generally weren't good for his particular situation.

Find another vet. You are correct your cat needs to be on a special food designed for cats with FLUTD.

Hills c/d multicare is, in my opinion, the best food for controlling FLUTD and crystal formation, both struvite and oxalate.

Doesn't matter what his pH is, if he is forming crystals that are blocking him, they need to be stopped. Good grief, this poor cat. Please, please, don't go back to that vet, take him somewhere else.

Didn't he even prescribe pain meds? My gosh. I can't say it enough. Please take Ratchet to another vet.

Run away from that vet very fast and take your poor beloved boy to a vet who understands cat health.

I am sorry you have to deal with this. He may end up needing PU surgery,perineal urethrostomy.

The info on PU is half way down the page:

http://www.marvistavet.com/html/urinary_blockage.html

Welcome to TCS. Please keep us updated on Ratchet.

I called the vet to write me a prescription for Hills c/d, or at least send off Ratchet's UA to some place that would.. The doctor I have been dealing with wasn't there yet so I talked to his tech. I will by stopping by there later to grab a bag.

Turns out they have it at the clinic. Now I am wondering why in the hell they didn't mention it to me before, or think that he didn't needed it. If any cat needs it, mine does.... He is a class example of who they make that food for, now to see if it helps..

You still need to change vets. His initial advice to you is very suspect.

Is the cat peeing freely now? Is there no more discomfort? There were recent postings of urinary issues here. I suggest you look those up. Much information there.

If the vet in the past has not treated this correctly, what makes you think he will in the future? You and he need to work together on this. There needs to be follow up visits etc. It sounds like you are just out there in the wilderness l....

My advice stands. Find another vet and get your cat someplace where they know what they are doing.. Unfortunately, urinary issues in a male cat cannot be a "wait and see thing".

You sound like you have realized this vet is not the one for you I hope your cat starts getting relief asap. Poor baby.

My Muddy has had chronic problems for a couple of years now. I'm reposting this advice from another thread.

Muddy has been to about 6 different vets, included 2 GP's, 2 specialists and 2 ER doctors. He's had an x-ray, ultrasound and finally a surgical biopsy to identify what is triggering his condition. Until you get to the root cause, the way you treat it will be trial and error. In Muddy's case, he has idiopathic cystitus in his bladder (idiopathic means "of unknown origin"). Basically its an inflamation in his bladder, which can cause bacterial imbalance, which in turn can cause crystals, which in turn can cause spasms in his urethra, which in all causes him pain.

What is working for Muddy is a 4 phase approach: reduction of stress, prescription diet, plenty of water, and anti-inflamatory medication. It took a very long time to settle him in on this approach, and he had many flare ups until we got him regulated.

Vets do not all approach this the same way. One specialist suggested pain medication to reduce his stress by allowing him to feel better (it sounds like your boy could use these). Another suggested Metacam (pain relief and anti-inflamatory - refuse it as it is suspected fatal ARF cases). Another suggested anti-anxiety medications. Another suggested sub-q fluids. Most suggested a prescription diet to control the PH in his bladder (which doesn't sound like the case with yours) and that diet should exclude all fish based foods. All suggested plenty of fluids (water fountains and a mostly if not entirely wet diet), and a reduction of stress.

What is basically comes down to is this: encourage all fluid intake. Switch to quality or prescription wet foods. If his issue is inflamatory based, don't be afraid of medications like prednisone - cats tolerate it far better than any other species and I've had a cat on it for 3 years now with no ill effect. Set up your house to reduce their stress (more territorial space such as the vertical space you get with cat condos, plenty of toys, lots of play and love). And learn to recognize their signals when they are flaring up and take extra measures when it does. In Muddy's case, a day or 2 on a muscle relaxant or pain medication usually puts him back on track and if that doesn't work, he's put on antibiotics (not only do they kill infections, they also serve as an anti-inflamatory for the bladder).

Since FLUTD based diseases can be so difficult to manage, don't be afraid of a second (or third, fourth or fifth) opinion on how to deal with it. Since vets don't agree on a solution, you need to keep trying different things to see what works with your boy.

If you have a dry food addict, take a look at this article by Lisa Pierson. There is a section in there that talks about transitioning a dry food addict to wet food.
http://www.homevet.com/petcare/feedingyourcat.html

You can do it. It's just frustrating until you find the right solution.

I can't get your poor Ratchet off my mind. As I said, I urge you to see a new vet, today, now. But where ever you take him...

Please demand that they give you pain medicine for him. He needs it desperately. Pain medicine will give him relief, which will reduce stress. Stress and pain are only making his condition worse. It will also stop the constant running to the litter box.

I worried about him so much this morning I was in tears on my way home, wanting to get back to here and see if there was any update.

I hope you now have him being taken care of with a vet who knows what s/he is doing, my gosh. I think I'd report this vet for incompetence. think? I know I would.

Heartfelt prayers for your beloved boy.

My cat Tory had struvite crystals for months, but she was a female so it got a lot worse before it showed up. The vet's prescription diet failed to stop the recurring infections so I tried a number of foods and finally settled on Purina urinary health dry. It cleared it up entirely. I recommend it, but it may or may not help, every cat is different.

...Being unable to urinate for 3 days can kill a cat. Your kitty is lucky to be alive.

You did the right thing to get the new cat food. Now get a new vet. If you keep on playing around with that one, your cat may die. It is extremely dangerous for him to put your cat through this misery.

Poor boy! I was also going to suggest prednisone as an anti-inflammatory - Wellington takes it every other day (for four years now) against asthma to start with but it also helps avoid urinary problems that he is prone to. The other thing is - are you in a hard water area? If so switch your cat to a low calcium bottled water - I did this with Wellington and his blockages stopped. It is much cheaper than the vets' bills.

Regarding the hard water...

Ya know, I had just thought of that yesterday. I haven't read it anywhere but it makes a lot of sense. The water around here is questionable, especially this time of year, I see a lot of floaties and smell lots of chlorine in the winter months. I have to clean his fountain out all the time because it gets nasty so fast, it has a filter but It doesn't do much good. My toilet gets a minerally ring in just a few days, I have to clean it soo often. My shower-head also develops a mineral build up very quickly.

I will start giving him my brita filtered water. I actually got it last month for myself because the tap water was getting too bad... I am sure this is a factor..... He drinks so much water it probably just adds to his problem.. This is making more sense now.

Can we please have an update on Rathcet? Did you get pain medicine for him? Prescription food? Vet intervention if he had indeed formed another blockage?

We care! (and worry )

I am not sure if a Brita filter removes dissolved calcium, which is what was causing gravel and also a stone in Wellington. I checked all the supermarket water brands and opted for the one with least calcium. All the cats drink it and I have had no urinary problems since, though I do feed them all Sanabelle urinary tract health dry food as well as their wet.

Originally Posted by turbomeow

Regarding the hard water...

Ya know, I had just thought of that yesterday. I haven't read it anywhere but it makes a lot of sense. The water around here is questionable, especially this time of year, I see a lot of floaties and smell lots of chlorine in the winter months. I have to clean his fountain out all the time because it gets nasty so fast, it has a filter but It doesn't do much good. My toilet gets a minerally ring in just a few days, I have to clean it soo often. My shower-head also develops a mineral build up very quickly.

I will start giving him my brita filtered water. I actually got it last month for myself because the tap water was getting too bad... I am sure this is a factor..... He drinks so much water it probably just adds to his problem.. This is making more sense now.

Click to expand...

I only give my cats filtered water from the kitchen sink. We have the PUR water filter there. Since we started it, no problems with blockages, etc.

Brita filters do soften water. They don't remove all of the calcium but they remove a lot of it. The also remove heavy metals and lime. Its pretty amazing because I can look at the tap water and see tons of debris, and it smells funky. When I run it through the brita is it totally clear and has no odor.. I may buy him a couple of jugs of water anyway.

Do you think distilled would be a good choice? I know it is not good for humans to drink on a regular basis but is it okay for cats? I have been doing some browsing around and it seems fine.

His fountain requires so much water and maintenance that its not very cost or time effective to keep it filled with special water.. He may have to just drink out of bowls..

He is on Hill's science diet c/d right now. I am mixing it half and half for a few days. Right now he appears fine and he has been urinating. So hopefully the new water and food situation will so some results, I will know of the next couple weeks.

Okay, now I have a new problem.. He does not like Hill's c/d. Somehow he manages to eat around it when I mix it with his old food. Hes got a bowl full of it but just stares at it and begs for more food.. All day he has been pacing around his food and meowing.

canned or kibble?

(Hills is best for urinary prescription food, in my opinion, but there are other brands of prescription, if needed.)