Cat UTI?!!!?

I am still new to having a pet cat and noticed tonight that my Abraham visited his litterbox several times without urinating or defecating. I would say he was in there about 5 or 6 times which seems out of character. The last time he went in there he urinated, but it was much less than usual. What should I do? He also looked up at me a few times and meowed at me - which is not typical. We have had Abe for 6 months and feed him Blue Buffalo wet and dry indoor cat formula. Abe is appx. two years old!!!

HELP!!!!

I don't want to scare you, but please contact your vet, or an emergency vet, immediately and describe the situation. He may have a UTI or may be blocked with crystal formation. Please be ready to go to the vet now. If he is blocked, this can be a fatal situation in a very short time. Even if he's not blocked, a UTI alone is very painful (for humans too!), and you'll want to get him into the vet just as soon as you can. I think it's a good thing that he was able to urinate, but I can tell you from experience you don't want to mess around with this. You need to get him to a vet, if nothing else, at least early tomorrow morning, assuming a vet tells you it's ok to wait. I hope you are in an area with easy access to vets.

Please update us, and you're both in my prayers.

I can't get in until tomorrow. Now I am freaked!!!! I live in rural Maine so there are not many places to go this time of night!

Ok, don't freak - you're doing everything possible, and you're a great pet parent since you noticed so quickly. It's probably going to be just fine, since you'll get Abraham to the vet tomorrow. I'm just so glad you didn't delay in getting a vet's opinion. You're doing everything right.


You said Abraham did pee a bit. When my Dante was doing the same thing you're describing, I ran him to the e-vet. But, I live in suburban Chicago, so I had that option. Anyway, Dante also was able to pee a bit. The e-vet said that was good, and that his bladder wasn't full or blocked. That's the thing we all get nervous about - but you called the vet right away, and that's the absolute right thing to do. Even experienced parents often miss the first signs of urinary issues - Abraham is very lucky to have you, remember that!!!

The e-vet gave Dante a pain shot (because if it's a UTI, believe me, it's uncomfortable and many cats will be reluctant to pee because it hurts) and a course of antibiotics. Dante started peeing just fine after that. But don't blame Abraham if he has some litter box accidents - he may just blame the box. You can usually solve that by just getting him a nice new box in a slightly different spot, and maybe trying Cat Attract litter if it's available near you. But most cats are delighted to use their boxes once it stops hurting to pee.

We later found that Dante did have struvite crystals (the vets will do urine samples to figure this out). This was about two years ago and thank goodness he's doing very very well now.

I know you probably won't sleep well tonight, but you absolutely are doing everything you can. I'm just hoping you're able to report back with good news tomorrow - I'm sure you will. I'll still be praying for you both, though.

I know many of the people on here are against this advice, but I do believe this may help in your situation. Since you can't get to your vet yet, try putting a bit of apple cider vinegar in his food. Once my cat had exactly what you're describing, and that's what I did. After adding apple cider vinegar in his food, a couple days later he was able to urinate again. I'm not promising it will work, though. I hope Abraham will be okay!

Darlilii

I am new to cats but did quite a bit of research prior to getting Abraham. In my research there was a suggestion to check and clean the litterbox 2X daily and keep a written or mental diary of what you see. In that research I learned about UTI and symptoms. I suspected a UTI right away and you pointed me in the right direction. The E Vet is over two hours away, but we decided to go. It turns out Abe did have a UTI as we both suspected and he was treated before he did get a crystal blockage. I just knew something was up because I pay such close attention to him. So Abe and I both thank you!!! He is almost back to his old self already and he has only had 3 doses of his medication.

Abe is one lucky boy to have you! I'm SO GLAD to hear he's doing so well so quickly! You saved him a lot of suffering, that's for sure.

Did they tell you what type of crystals they are? (Struvite? Oxalate?) Struvite can be fixed by changing the pH of the urine. Oxalate can only be fixed with a diet change.

We have five male cats. Three of them had problems with crystals when they were younger. Two had problems with struvite and one had problems with oxalate. We ended up having to put them on the prescription diet (Hill's c/d) to solve the problem, because they had repeated problems.

The main thing is to do what you can to increase moisture intake. This helps keep the urine dilute. Feeding a primarily wet food diet can sometimes be all that's needed. We have a water fountain, lots of small dishes of water out all over the place, and we mix water in with the wet food we feed them.

I do a lot of scooping!

Sending vibes that Abe won't have any further issues!

I second and third Darlili and Laurie's comments, PetGuy - your kitty is very lucky to have you as a pet parent! It's clear you love him dearly and consider his health and welfare of prime importance.

Like Laurie said, water intake is very important. Increase his wet food if you can or, even better, replace the kibble with wet food so that all he's eating is canned. You can also mix a teaspoon of warm water into the canned food to increase his water intake even more.

Hope he does nothing but mend quickly from here on in!

AC

Originally Posted by LDG

Abe is one lucky boy to have you! I'm SO GLAD to hear he's doing so well so quickly! You saved him a lot of suffering, that's for sure.

Did they tell you what type of crystals they are? (Struvite? Oxalate?) Struvite can be fixed by changing the pH of the urine. Oxalate can only be fixed with a diet change.

We have five male cats. Three of them had problems with crystals when they were younger. Two had problems with struvite and one had problems with oxalate. We ended up having to put them on the prescription diet (Hill's c/d) to solve the problem, because they had repeated problems.

The main thing is to do what you can to increase moisture intake.

This helps keep the urine dilute. Feeding a primarily wet food diet can sometimes be all that's needed. We have a water fountain, lots of small dishes of water out all over the place, and we mix water in with the wet food we feed them.

I do a lot of scooping!

Sending vibes that Abe won't have any further issues!

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Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

I second and third Darlili and Laurie's comments, PetGuy - your kitty is very lucky to have you as a pet parent! It's clear you love him dearly and consider his health and welfare of prime importance.

Like Laurie said, water intake is very important. Increase his wet food if you can or, even better, replace the kibble with wet food so that all he's eating is canned. You can also mix a teaspoon of warm water into the canned food to increase his water intake even more.

Hope he does nothing but mend quickly from here on in!

AC

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Glad to hear he is on the mends now!!

Good to hear that Abe is doing well and is on his way to recovery! What kind of meds did the vet give you?

So how is Abe doing?

You are truly a good cat parent. Many people don't know what to watch for, and then they put off the run to the vet.

Imagine you have to go to the bathroom. Now, imagine someone else is driving the car, and they tell you they won't stop until they're low on gas again, which may take 8 hours...

he is still not himself yet though. He is on a two week course of antibiotics at this time. He was prescribed Clavamox for the two weeks. He has urinated several times a day since we went to the emergency room. His urine is still not as much as it was prior to the infection. I just looked at the paperwork and it indicates that he had struvite crystals (3+ and cocci 2+) - not sure what that means!!!

Struvite crystals means that if you switch him to a diet for "urinary tract health" that it will help. They are all designed to lower the pH of the urine, and struvite crystals form because the pH of the urine isn't low enough. Calcium oxalate crystals have more to do with ash/magnesium content in the food than urine pH.

The problem is finding the higher quality urinary tract health foods.

But it can take a while for an inflamed bladder to calm down. He's not litter box hopping though, right? He's acting OK? Is he peeing smaller pees more frequently?

Are you addding any water to his wet food?

Also.... just keep in mind that many kitties with crystal problems actually don't do well on a grain free diet. It doesn't make logical sense, but for whatever reason, some corn in the diet seems to help. Our boys all blocked repeatedly until we ended up switching to the Hill's c/d diet. It's not the greatest food in the world... in fact, it looks pretty junky. But it worked, and broke the cycle. We kept them on that food for years, actually, then I slowly started upping the quality of their food. They were free feeding on dry, and I gave them two wet meals a day.

Now I have them on an almost-grain free all wet diet (a couple of them still get some kibble, but it's a minor part of their total calories). There is rice, oats, or barley in some of the foods - and, honestly, of the four wet meals they get a day, one of them is still the canned c/d. I'm not sure how much it's doing anymore, and this is years later now.

But I mix water into every single wet food meal they get - I keep their urine very dilute.

The other thing that helped increase their water intake while they were still free feeding on dry was setting out many little dishes of water everywhere. Yes, PIA to clean those every day, but their water intake did go up quite a bit. We also put out fountains. Our kitties could have cared less about the fountains where water ran down a slide (PetMate), but they were attracted to running water (Drinkwell).

acting himself, but kind of tired I guess. He played around with me a bit tonight. He has been eating and drinking like normal. I guess he is just not as rambunctious. He is urinating as frequently or more they are just smaller clumps that I am finding in the litter. I just purchased one of those water fountains with a stream online. He eats Blue Buffalo indoor cat food (dry) 1/4 cup in the AM and in the PM and he also gets 1/2 can of wet Blue Buffalo a day as well! Tell me all you can I love him and want to take care of him the best I can.

Well, antibiotics kind of take the wind out of my sails.

Blue Buffalo is a good quality food. Just keep an eye on him to make sure it doesn't recur once he's off the antibiotics. If it does (knock wood!)... just bear in mind you may have to adjust what he's eating.

Originally Posted by petguy78

he is still not himself yet though. He is on a two week course of antibiotics at this time. He was prescribed Clavamox for the two weeks. He has urinated several times a day since we went to the emergency room. His urine is still not as much as it was prior to the infection. I just looked at the paperwork and it indicates that he had struvite crystals (3+ and cocci 2+) - not sure what that means!!!

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A high-carb diet, such as Purina's kibbles, promotes alkaline urine which helps cause the formation of struvite crystals. And a kitty on a kibble diet typically has concentrated urine which isn't a good environment for bacteria to grow in, so I wonder why the vet proscribed antibiotics for your boy. Did they do a culture to see if bacteria were present and identifiable?

Cats naturally have some crystals in their urine, but a kitty on a dry diet produces more highly concentrated urine at a lower volume, which means a higher concentration of crystals. This increases the chance the crystals may form stones, and the highly concentrated urine may be very irritating to the bladder wall in some cats, which can be pretty painful. Maybe that's what your boy is responding to right now?

Hopefully, the extra water you're getting into him will dilute his urine and help him heal quickly. Did they give you any pain meds for him?

AC

First, so glad Abe is feeling better and good job on getting the fountain - my two started drinking more from the fountain than they did from regular bowels.

I can just share my experience with Dante. After our e-vet visit, the e-vet faxed over his findings to my regular vet. The e-vet also prescribed 7 days of Baytril, an antibiotic. I was told to contact my own vet the next day. My vet said to watch urine output and how Dante acted in general, but, absent any problems, to bring him in for another urine sample a week after the Baytril was finished. My e-vet had not been able to get a urine sample.


Ok, Dante was diagnosed with struvite crystals when my vet got the urine sample. My vet recommended Hills CD, and, as Dante has never been a fan of wet food, we got both wet and dry CD. Dry CD a huge hit. Wet chicken is ok but he's not keen on it, the fishy version gave him soft bowel movements. Follow up urine sample at the one month mark showed nice clean urine. Over the following year we went for urine samples about every three months, all of which were nice and clean. At his last senior panel, there was a little blood in the sample, but a sample a month later was clean. Sometimes a little blood in the sample is the result of the test itself (it involved a very large needle).

Did the vet suggest prescription food? Or are you supposed to check in after the Clavamox? FWIW, when my girl Dharma was on Clavamox she also was less energetic and actually didn't eat much - I think it upset her tummy a bit (it's a form of penicillen - I don't do well on that myself!).

In Dante's case, the C/D has worked exactly as it's supposed to for two years - so I don't care if it's made of up old tires and gets the worst reviews from laypeople on the internet in history - it's worked for us, and my cats seem healthy and happy (I get senior panels twice a year). There are several prescription lines, if your vet suggests going that way - the trick is finding out what your cat will eat. The Hills S/D is sometimes prescribed as an initial diet, depending on the type of crystal, followed by C/D, as C/D is a complete and balanced food for urinary health and long term maintenance. Myself, not tempted to switch foods unless sometime happens healthwise, and will work with my vet at that time, if we need to switch foods for some reason.

Based on my experience, I would suggest you work with your vet on diet, and if they request urine samples, just go with it - it's the only thing that will let you know how the treatment is working.

Oh, FWIW, the Hills C/D is very nutrient dense food - my vet worked with me to find the right portion sizes, as it's easy for cats to gain weight on it if the portions get a little too large. And, I don't find it more expensive than any mid-premium to premium brand. And, of course, finding nice big pee clumps is worth the expense!

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

A high-carb diet, such as Purina's kibbles, promotes alkaline urine which helps cause the formation of struvite crystals.

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He's eating Blue Buffalo dry and wet, not purina kibbles.

at the E vet they did get a urine sample and did a culture. The culture did show struvite crystals and a bacterial infection but no blood. He put Abe on Clavamox for 14 days and said to go to the vet at the end of the prescription or sooner if I did not notice improvement. I plan on calling tomorrow to see what they say. My vet was out on Friday so tomorrow will be my first chance to speak with him. I just checked the litterbox and found a large clump of urine which makes me happy (scary isn't it). Also I gave Abe an extra half of can of his wet food tonight and added about a 1/4 cup of water to it which he ate/drank immediately. I figured it would not hurt to get more water into him. My plan is to go to my vet as soon as I can to figure out what to do as far as a diet.

LOL, when DH and I first found ourselves chatting about kitty pee and poop, we felt the same way ("scary, isn't it?" ). But that's what comes with having pets and children! We're often doing the "pee" or "poop" dance around TCS.

YAY FOR BIG PEES!