worried about my girl

hello, i'm relatively new here. i come here all the time when i think something is wrong with my baby (that makes it a lot because i'm a hypochondriac on her behalf!).

anyway, before i say anything, i do have an appointment with the vet this afternoon.

so, a few months ago (november) katie (14) had a UTI. she went in for lethargy and not eating. they ran tests, bloodwork, and everything came back normal. forward to january and she starts showing signs of UTI again. i bring her in, they can't get enough urine, so they just send me home with baytril and dasuquin. they gave me an option of bringing her back and leaving her for a few days to get a urine sample, but going to the vet is her worst nightmare.

ever since she's been off the baytril, she's had loose stool sometimes with blood. i read on here that i could give her some bene-bac, which seemed to do the trick. i took her off thinking it was ok, and now she is back to having loose stool...with no blood. she has also been vomiting for the past few days every day. she is otherwise normal - eating, drinking, playing. anyone experience this after a round of antibiotics? i feel like i'm all up in her business checking her poo every time she goes . i can tell it's frustrating her.

sorry this is so long! just looking for some advice and to vent.

I can offer no advice, I am glad you have an appt with the vet though! And you and your cat are in my thoughts. I know how stressful and worrisome things like that can be.

I know just how you feel - I am going through similar problems, tests are normal but I know something is wrong. It is so frustrating and the poor cats can't tell us how they feel or where it hurts. I can only send you good vibes and hope the vet visit brings some results.

thanks, guys. i am incredibly worried right now. i just want my little one to be healthy!

i've had her on duck and pea before, and she seemed fine on it; however, the vet suggested i switch to science diet hairball formula wet for her constipation issues. now she is having the opposite problem....the vomiting also worries me.

i will ask about the miralax. she was on natural balance before, and she never really had any problems on it. she was ok on the SD for a while until these last few weeks. i also forgot to mention that her tummy rumbles a lot, and she has some gas on occasion.

If she's having chronic kidney issues, then that might be contributing to the constipation. Has the vet done a urinalysis and checked her BUN and creatinine for kidney problems? If not, I'd request one just to make sure you're not dealing with a kidney/urinary tract issue, especially since she's 14.

Is she eating wet food, dry food, or a combination of the two? What kind of constipation problems has she had in the past? I give canned pumpkin to my girl to help with her constipation problems as well as giving her wet food to supplement her dry food. (She's a dry food addict. )

When my kitties have loose stools, I sprinkle some acidophilus (1/2 capsule 2x day) in their wet food to help them firm up their stools.

they have not done a urinalysis because they couldn't get enough urine, and i didn't want to leave her there for days on end so they could. they did do blood work a few months ago, and everything checked out ok.

she is eating dry and wet. her dry food is a urinary tract food that i took her off of for a while because i didn't think it was healthy (friskies). it seems like when i did that, she started having problems with UTIs again, so i put her back on it.

i tried the pumpkin, and, initially, she loved it. now she won't go near the stuff and gets miffed if i put it on top of her wet food. she is also on bene-bac right now.

just wanted to give a quick update. i just got back from the vet, and, upon physical examination, he said her bowels feel "ropy and thick." everything else felt fine, and, since her recent bloodwork came out ok, he didn't see a need to do another test. he did say that he thinks it can either be IBD or pancreatitis. she needs to go back in for a special blood test tomorrow to see if it's pancreatitis. as for the IBD, he said we could do a biopsy to be really sure (rule out more serious illnesses), but he doesn't recommend it because of her age. he mentioned something about having a 16 yr old cat just like her with the same problems, and he is doing great on medicine. that kind of made me feel good because he understands what she is going through.

i kind of had an inkling it was IBD. anyone with IBD cats? what questions should i ask? should i ask about a change in diet? he didn't mention anything about that. i will do an IBD search on the forum.

No offense but your Vet clinic sounds very clueless. There is no reason for them to claim they can't get a urine sample, that is a cop-out. No good Vet would prescribe potent antibiotics based on a "guess" and not on a confirmation from a urinalysis.

All you have to do is feed your cat canned food.........put kitty into a room with NO litterbox for a couple of hours, then take cat into the Clinic and they should be able to easily get a urine sample. They can do what's called a "cystocentesis" which is done all the time; they insert a very very tiny needle through the underside of the abdomen into the bladder and withdraw a sterile sample of urine directly. It can be done in minutes. Once they run the urinalysis and determine if there's an infection going on (presence of white blood cells in the urine, presence of blood, positive for nitrite), they should then be sending urine sample off for a 'culture and sensitivity' as this is the only way to determine the specific TYPE of bacteria present along with the appropriate antibiotic to treat with. There are a few dozen different types of bacteria that can be found in a cat's urinary tract if they have a UTI and not all antibiotics work for all types.

I've never ever had a clinic agree to dispense antibiotics despite the fact they claim they couldn't get a sample, nor have I had a clinic lead me to believe that the only way for them to get a sample is to leave my cat there for "days." Scary. I'd be finding a much more competent clinic.