UTI is back.

  Claire is showing signs of another UTI. I guess we will have to extract urine this time to make sure we get enough to test for crystals. Poor girl.

I'll get an appointment first thing Monday. Poor baby. 

She has ANOTHER UTI. We checked for crystals and did x-rays last time and nothing. This time we are sending for a culture and sensitivity. This is her third this year. 

I am reading everything I can find on recurrent UTI 's however, everyone has a different "worked for me" story. Some say no dry, some sayHills C/D works, some say it doesn't. Some say that feeding not raw is the only thing that will help, some say it doesn't. Some say all wet with glucosamine, others give another tablet suggestion. Everyone has a counter argument for each style of feeding. So much to sort through, I guess we'll start with one and go from there. 

I sincerely hope she isn't one of those rare kitties that has to deal with this her entire life.

Glucosomine doesn't work. I've discussed this topic with a couple of vets that have confirmed the study done on the topic was flawed. When they ran the test in the original study, they changed the cats diets as well as gave them glucosomine and the cats appeared to get better. In a subsequent test, they gave one set of cats glucosomine and other cats a diet change. Only the cats with a change in diet showed improvement. Glucosomine cats showed no improvement. There was another study using adequin, which is a drug to also treat joint health, and the active ingredient in that did also work on bladder, therefore does help. Adequin is given thru injections, and I'm about to look into that for my Muddy.

Something to know about antibiotics and crystals: a lot of cats with crystals appear to have UTI's. Crystals cause inflamation of the bladder, and antibiotics that are given to treat UTI's will reduce the swelling for a short period of time. Therefore, if your vet gave you antibiotics for the UTI and your baby has crystals, the antibiotics are only temporarily masking the problem. A big red flag for cats with chronic bladder issues is when a cat has recurring problems after taking antibiotics - the problem seems to crop up within 2-4 weeks after the last dose of antibiotics. This is a sign of either recurring crystals or bladder inflamation.

If the tests do not come back positive for crystals, your next step is probably an ultra-sound to look at the lining of the bladder. Bladder inflamation also mimics the symptoms of crystals, and falls under the general category of a FLUTD type disease. My Muddy has this. Stress causes bladder inflamation, and if not treated quickly, develops into either crystals or a UTI. I went thru urine cultures, then x-rays, then ultrasounds, then finally a surgical biopsy with Muddy before we were able to diagnose his problem.

Oh hun, I am so sorry I can't imagine your frustration.....
What are you feeding her? I would look at a change of diet.... depending of what it is..... that is the route I would go probably.... You want her to get the most moisture as possible if that is crystals...... I don't think dry is a good way to go,really....
Ton, tons of vibes going your way

Momofmany-thanks for all of that information. She doesn't have crystals, we checked that the last time. The vet did mention that if the culture and sensitivity doesn't return a bacteria then we will need to do an ultrasound. I just hate that she feels so bad. 

Carolina - I am trying to increase her wet food intake, however, she just doesn't eat much of it. I keep trying though, we'll see. She is an extremely nervous, shy and skeptical former feral. I have to give her extra treats when she is being medicated so she doesn't run from me. Well, this morning, I walked by her and petted her. Later, I walked up to her and gave her treats. Then, when I walked in the room to give her the antibiotic, she dove off and under the bed and refused to come out. She is too smart for her own good. Lol

Nervously awaiting the results of this test. 

Was just at the vet with the old cat and they had Claire's results....no bacteria. They had put her on Clavamox while we waited for the results and I was only able to get 4 pulls in her but everything cleared up, she stopped going outside the box and peeing multiple times in a row. They vet doesn't understand why but some kitties respond to the Clavamox even when there isn't an infection.

They want to do an ultrasound but I'm going to wait a bit on this. At least until she has another episode and then we'll take a look. So, right now, I'm going to keep Clavamox on-hand and when she has an episode I'll start her on it again.

I'm also going to be a bit more aggressive with looking at her diet. If we are feeding something that is causing blood in her urine, I'll feel like the worst cat mom ever.

RAFM said:

Was just at the vet with the old cat and they had Claire's results....no bacteria. They had put her on Clavamox while we waited for the results and I was only able to get 4 pulls in her but everything cleared up, she stopped going outside the box and peeing multiple times in a row. They vet doesn't understand why but some kitties respond to the Clavamox even when there isn't an infection.
They want to do an ultrasound but I'm going to wait a bit on this. At least until she has another episode and then we'll take a look. So, right now, I'm going to keep Clavamox on-hand and when she has an episode I'll start her on it again.
I'm also going to be a bit more aggressive with looking at her diet. If we are feeding something that is causing blood in her urine, I'll feel like the worst cat mom ever.

Click to expand...

Simple.... coincidence..... Time works, and vets think that Clavamox is actually working..... Time, stress management, diet, water consumption - depends on the case..... The inflammation just goes down and the kitty gets better. There is nothing to do with the antibiotics - antibiotics do one thing, and one thing only: They kill bacteria - if there are no bacteria to be killed, it will not do a thing for your kitty..... besides give you the false impression that they are working, destroying their bacterial flora along the way.
This type of the situation happens more often than not.... which is why it is important to run a culture to see if there is in fact bacteria, and holding off on giving antibiotics....
Clavamox can have nasty side effects..... It should not be used lightly IMHO - I have dealt with them.... and so have others....
I know cystitis is very frustrating..... I can only imagine how frustrating it is to have it recur over and over again.... But if I can give you one word of advice, is to hold off on just giving Clavamox without a bacterial infection..... It won't make a difference to the better..... and it might for the worst....
I hope you get to the bottom of this

Thanks Carolina, and yes, the vet explained that there was no diagnostic reason why Claire should respond to the Clavamox as there is no infection. So, I spent some time researching online last night and actually decided against administering the Clavamox, unless she has a real infection.....and that is about as far as I got in the research.

Regarding the Adequin...our old cat Bogey is on it and just this week we are starting to administer his under the skin instead of in the muscle. We are doing this because we are increasing his injections to 2-3x/month and I a)can't take time off every week to get him there for shots and b)he pukes and poops in the carrier each time we go to the vet (both there and back) so want to reduce as much stress in his life as we possibly can. I'll research this for Claire as well.

Thanks for following along!

Sorry Claire is having so many problems.

Like Claire, Ritz is a shy, skittish cat who lived on the streets for the first five months of her life.  Ritz is prone to stress-induced UTIs (in her case, diet was not the cause, stress was).  Feliway has helped a lot.  On an as-needed basis, I also supplement her (raw) food with a drop or two or Rescue Remedy.  Really helps Ritz.  Maybe it will elp Claire.

RAFM said:

They vet doesn't understand why but some kitties respond to the Clavamox even when there isn't an infection.

So, right now, I'm going to keep Clavamox on-hand and when she has an episode I'll start her on it again.

Click to expand...

I took to Muddy to a cat specialist one time and she explained this to me. Antibiotics, like Clavamox, temporarily reduce inflamation in the bladder. If the problem is caused due to inflamation, a cat will feel better for about a month before the effects of the antibiotic fades. So basically, Clavamox is only masking the symptoms and not treating what is wrong with them. It's sort of like taking aspirin when you have a bacterial infection. The aspirin makes you feel better for a short time but isn't getting rid of the infection.

I'm honestly very cautious about over using antibiotics with my kids. I've had cats with chronic problems where they had to take antibiotics a couple times a year for their entire lives. They build immunities to a particular antibiotic after a while and there were a few brands that I could no longer give to them cause they stopped working. It's OK for now, but bad in the long run.