Bladder infection won't go away...

hi all. I'm beside myself.

My 16 yo girl cat got a bladder infection (she's prone to them). I recognized the signs right away and started giving her some amoxy at home, after 3 days little improvement.

Next stop vet's office for urinalysis that confirmed infection and a shot of convenia (I dind't know until after that a lot of vets consider it bad news and won't do it again) and a shot for pain. The next morning she looked great, then a slow decline over the weekend.

Back to the vet Monday AM, this time she added Baytril and gave her some fluids. Roni looked great the next day and over the course of the 8 days on Baytril she was doing well and almost 100% (to my eyes). then the morning after the first course of Baytril ran out, she was in pain again.

Back to the vet for more fluids and another course of Baytril. This round of Baytril she's just not bouncing back. She has moments where she's her happy cat self, trotting around and rubbing and purring, but for the most part she's in pain and sleeping. Even on the pain meds (I forget the name, but it's a liquid).

she had mild renal failure (hasn't progressed over the past 3 yrs), so we have to be careful of treatments.

From what I've noticed, she looks really good after getting fluids. My plan of attack this to finish the course of Baytril, which the doc extended another longer round this time, and bring her in for fluids maybe every other day for at least a week or week and a half. They showed me how to do fluids at home, but I just can't do it.

Next step if this doesn't work is urine aspiration and culture.

any other thoughts? I'm so upset and worried about her, and she's in so muich pain. She's a tiny thing too - only 7 lbs.

PS: she does eat  (canned food), and up until this morning has maintained a pretty good appetite but is not drinking any water on her own.

thanks in advance!

Have you had blood work done? Sometimes blood work will show things that a simple urine culture will not.

Just hearing your story, I would try to look at it another way. She has a history of bladder infections, but she has also had a history of renal issues, and she is 16. Her current bladder issues could be a result of a lowered immunity to something else going on (thus the reason I asked if you had blood work done). Or perhaps you are seeing bladder issues when it is a combination of things or even something else. When a cat gets that old, I do my best to not to make assumptions on what is going on. I have to suggest that you get current blood work done and take it from there.

I have a cat with chronic bladder issues. His gets inflamed which sometimes prompts either an infection or crystals. Giving him fluids makes him feel better. It flushes out his system. Keeping him on an anti-inflamatory drug (prednilisone) keeps his bladder in check and I avoid problems with that.

Is the pain med by chance Metacam? If so, do realize that it has caused renal issues in some cats. It's rare, but it happens.

As far as bloodwork, she had what they call a mini-panel which gives a basic overview of her health. I got the bloodwork "lite" version done on her first visit (not knowing how bad this was going to get), just to keep an eye on her kidney numbers - which are basically the same as three years ago - only slightly elevated. I can't recall right now what else the mini-panel looks at, because I was most concerned with kidneys.

No, the pain med is Buprenorphine, which the vet tells me is easy on the kidneys.

The vet did a urinalysis early on, and confirmed not only high bacteria content, but red blood cells and white cells too and seemed certain it was an infection in the bladder. She's not running a fever though. She had a bout of kidney stones in the past too. I have to ask the vet whether kidney stones can cause infections.

Do you use the prednisone daily? when I take her in for fluids tonight I'm going to see what she says about an anti-inflammatory as well, she told me that the bladder can stay inflamed for a good month aftet the infection and cause a lot of discomfort. I'll also ask about extended bloodwork.

She gets so close to getting better, and then backslides again.

Thanks for your response!

I'm guessing that bladder crystals (stones) have been ruled out - antibiotics probably don't work if a stone is in there kicking up trouble (?).

I hope you find the solution, I'm so sorry she's suffering!

Thank you!

I'm going to press the issue of stones to the vet later and see what she thinks. They may need a urine aspiration to determine that.

Last night when I got home, the old girl was acting like her old self and even rolled over to let me pet her belly and I was convinced she was trying to tell me she passed a stone and felt better - she does things like that - but this morning was hurting badly again. I hate to see her in pain like this.

Can you get a copy of the blood work and urinalysis? I'm curious to know what her urine ph and specific gravity is. That could provide some additional clues as to why she's so prone to bladder issues.

What type of canned food does she eat?

Wasabipea said:

Thank you!

I'm going to press the issue of stones to the vet later and see what she thinks. They may need a urine aspiration to determine that.

Last night when I got home, the old girl was acting like her old self and even rolled over to let me pet her belly and I was convinced she was trying to tell me she passed a stone and felt better - she does things like that - but this morning was hurting badly again. I hate to see her in pain like this.

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My vet usually has found them with a sonogram?  Hate to ask this - but are you feeding dry and/or fish?  

She went thru a round of sonograms a few years back which determined the presence of stones, and since he thought they were oxalate said there wasn't much that could be done except treat them with a prescription food which *may* dissolve them (which she won't eat) or possibly surgery - which at her age said the recovery would be really rough on her. But repeated sonograms indicated that she was passing them, at that time. I'm hesitant to put her thru all that again only to have the same outcome of "well they are there, here's your only option that won't work"

No, no dry food - only the occasional few crunchy treats. I've been cutting back on the seafood since this started but she still gets it occasionally. She's limited at what she will eat, so... I"m limited too.

But I have been giving her that Fresh Pet wet (in the yogurt type containers) - she loves it and it has a water content of 85% so at least she is getting her fluids that way, even if she won't drink water. Usually she's a good drinker between her fountain and running the tap, but when she gets an infection - she won't drink extra water at all.

Taking her in for fluids tonight. I hope she's ok when I get home. Thank you

I have two that have had issues with stones.

Our girl - Phoebe - had to have bladder surgery in 2010 - the sonogram showed one stone too big to pass, and while in surgery the vet found another little one that fell apart when she  tried to collect it.  If I remember correctly, the crystals were struvite.

They are now eating - 100% - Royal Canin Urinary SO - the canned 99% of the time - I give them some dry RC as "cookies", or ground them up and sprinkle a dab on their plates to encourage them to eat the wet food.  

The Royal Canin Urinary SO is good for both kinds of crystals.  I was told that I should not feed them another food with the RC because it would prevent the prescription diet from working.

The male cat, now 8 and been on this diet for over 4 years without incident, and Miss Phoebe, now 6,  has been on it since 12/2010 without any problems.

Since I have 3 cats that live together in one zone of our house, and I would have feeding issues - the vet has given approval to feed our 3rd cat on the RC, too - and he has never had urinary issues as of this date.

Removing a stone   may    be the only thing - along with diet - that will relieve her of this constant problem ??

Since I have excellent vets - the one that cares for my cats is also a specialist in anesthesia - so I have a high level of confidence in her abilities to have a successful outcome. 

You might already be familiar with this website - I've found it helpful:  http://www.catinfo.org/

info on urinary issues:

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

I think it was there that I read something about giving antibiotics and they are not helpful if there are crystals (?)  They help for a short time, but the problem returns because the crystals just keep banging against the walls of the bladder.  

When I read your first post about giving antibiotics I was reminded about the futility of giving antibiotics when a crystal is causing the problem.  

Hugs for your baby,

g

Sugarcatmom: I"m sorry I didn't see your post earlier. Usually I alterante between friskies pate and Whiskas pate (I know, but we take what we can get). Lately I've been alteranting Fresh Pet Wet and their moist "kibble" too. Right now it;s anything to get food into her.

I was with the tech today for fluids, didn't see the vet so I dind't get to ask a lot of the questions on my mind, but she's going back for more fluids tomorrow, we're going to try to flush this infection/stones(?) out. I will get notes of the specifics of the urinalysis. In all honesty, I has all these questions prepped but then a woman came in that had to have her dog put down and was so upset and I was all crying by the time it was my turn.

If the stones are in the bladder, I think I heard of a different technique where they flush(?) out the bladder via some kind of catheter type thing? I probalby have this wrong, it was a couple of years ago. but if the stones are in the kidneys and can't pass, then the only alterantive is surgery. At her age, 16, I don't know that I would want to put her thur that. Her stones, going from past history, are of the oxalate variety and there's little hope of dissloving them from what I understand.

Gloria, I tried the Royal Canin brand that you use when this was bad a few years ago. I have two cats and have overlapping feeding issues, and a boy with struvite tendencies - so this semed like the perfect solution. They loved it for about a week, and then apparently convened behind closed doors and decided to boycott(!!) at once, because they both stopped eating it out of nowhere on the same day. *sigh* I will check out that link tomorrow, thank you.

Anyway, she ate well after her vet visit tonight and was walking around like a sassycat for a bit. She even drank some water on her own! That's a huge thumb up. We'll see what tomorrow brings, but tonight we had purring, a big dinner, she drank water on her own and went down to the little box on her own. I'll take that for today

Thanks again for your caring and kitty-hugs!

Thanks for the

Did she get over it? My guy can't get over his infection and I don't know what's wrong