Cat UTI?!!!?

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.

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!

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

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...

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).

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.

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!

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

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!

P.S. DH's only rule is no discussion of these things at meal time.

Oh, no, there's a happy pee-pee dance many of us practice! Believe me, two years in I'm still thrilled to see nice big pees! You're doing everything right, and my own vet didn't tell me to switch to a prescription food immediately until we had the sample post-antibiotics. In fact, the e-vet said I might be jumping the gun when I asked HIM about prescription food - I was ready to buy it there and then if suggested!

My guess is that your vet will ask you to come in for an exam post-antibiotics and you'll both go from there re what treatments, dietary and otherwise, may be needed - assuming Abe keeps peeing ok and you don't notice any odd symptoms.

Abe is probably going to feel a little better every day, urine wise - hey, I had a UTI last year and I can't tell you how much relief antibiotics brought, even if my tummy was upset and I didn't feel like eating much. It's amazing how stoic cats are - I definitely was far more of a baby than my Dante was.

You are definitely a great pet parent - I've heard stories where people didn't notice urinary issues until the poor cat was almost dead - and these are nice people, not uncaring meanies.

I have seen any number of cats (especially very young ones and very old ones) who can't eat dry food and even have trouble with wet food, and I've had to make a "slurry" of the wet food to get them to eat it. As long as it doesn't sit around very long, that won't hurt them at all.

So he is. Thanks!

That's great, PetGuy! (It's funny what we find ourselves celebrating, eh?!) And you're right, of course, the more water the better.

Hopefully, this will be resolved in short order and Abe never goes through another case.

AC