Katie and her health

I took my 18 year old cat for some grooming last week, she had some bad matts on her and I just couldn't get them out. Shes a wild woman in the vets office so they had to sedate her long enough to do the job. She came home looking groggy and not feeling well. She continued for two days and I called the office to see why she would be so long recovering. They told me sometimes older cats have a harder time recovering. Well that night she  got very sick, vomiting and dry heaves. Poor girl, had to rush her to the vets first thing that morning. They found she had a severe urinary tract infection. She never showed any of the telltale symtoms, so that confused me. She was given antibiotic shot and one for nausea and a couple other things...so far in less than two weeks it has cost me $600...my question is has anyone else experienced this with their pet? She still is very very tired and is having a hard time recovering.

I have not had this happen, but I understand that stress can actually cause a UTI, plus it is more common in older cats (so I have read).

I know that older humans have a longer recovery time when coming back from sedation, so I guess it makes sense that the same would hold try with felines .

that your old girl feels much better very soon!

katiesmom said:

I took my 18 year old cat for some grooming last week, she had some bad matts on her and I just couldn't get them out. Shes a wild woman in the vets office so they had to sedate her long enough to do the job. She came home looking groggy and not feeling well. She continued for two days and I called the office to see why she would be so long recovering. They told me sometimes older cats have a harder time recovering. Well that night she  got very sick, vomiting and dry heaves. Poor girl, had to rush her to the vets first thing that morning. They found she had a severe urinary tract infection. She never showed any of the telltale symtoms, so that confused me. She was given antibiotic shot and one for nausea and a couple other things...so far in less than two weeks it has cost me $600...my question is has anyone else experienced this with their pet? She still is very very tired and is having a hard time recovering.

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I agree with Sally, stress definitely can cause a UTI so that could be it. Do you think she is still reacting to the anesthesia or is it the urinary tract infection now? Older cats do have a harder time coming out of an anesthetic (Lucky took a while during his neuter/facial abscess removal, was quite groggy and spacey for a day or so) so she could still be feeling the effects of that. 

So sorry that your baby girl is having trouble. that she feels better soon!

Thanks for replying. They (the vets) feel she may have had one before being put under sedation but she never showed any signs before and shes had UTI's in the past but not for awhile. She never got as sick with them as she did this time. Its been over a week now since her sedation and only a few days since she started treatment. Seems sometimes she looks a little better and other times not. I'm just taking one day at a time with her, trying to coax her to eat. Poor old girl, wish I could do something more for her.
 

I am so sorry to hear this, I also had an older kitty who absolutely hates being taken to the vet, and I had to take her because she was slightly limping. I didn't want to take her bc she was older and she goes crazy, we always had to wrap her in a large blanket and bundle it into an even larger carrier. But I felt negligent not to do it.

I think they manhandled her because even though all her exams were fine, she was diagnosed with idiopathic chylothorax disease a few months later, out of nowhere. After looking it up and learning that it is thought to be the result of trauma, I believe it was from her struggles with the vet that she developed chylothorax, i.e. tore the lining in her lungs and causing the leakage of lymphatic fluid into her lungs. There is no cure for it so she did not recover. :-(

For your kitty, I think she vomited from the sedation, a lot of people react that way to general anesthesia and/or pain meds and it sounds like she got one or both.   It would make sense that they gave her pain meds too, since they were removing mattings. I don't know about the UTI- that sounds suspicious. You have think back to before you took her, whether she was sleeping more, and eating less, moving around less, bc those are the beginning signs of a UTI. 

The only other thing that is troublesome, is that they gave her the antibiotic shot, covenia. That is never a good thing because it can have a bad reaction in cats. A lot of people on this site will not let their vets give covenia to their cats. Here is a link about it and you can scroll down to the part about UTI's and covenia. http://catinfo.org/?link=convenia. My guess is that your kitty maybe had cystitis and they gave the shot as an additional precaution? I am not sure how else they would have diagnosed a severe UTI because I am pretty sure they would have required a blood panel to do that, which would have caused more struggling with your girl because it is hard to draw blood from a kitty, they usually have to do it through the neck.  

I think now she is trying to recover from all the stuff they put into her and two visits that stressed her out. I am so sorry to hear that this has happened. If it were me and I had to take this same kitty back to the vet another time for any reason, I would not let her out of my sight and I would talk to the vet ahead of time as far as her reaction to her last sedation and what other things might be done to lessen her stress. I would also consider looking for an at-home vet given her age. 

I think you are doing the right thing for your cat in making a big fuss over her, taking time to nurse her and trying to make her feel better. It is amazing how cats will rally when you coax them and talk softly to them and pet them. They will try hard to get better for you. I am sending vibes that your sweet girl recovers! 

Agree with above post about Convenia (antibiotic shot), it can cause lethargy and it can be prolonged. However lood test does not diagnose UTI, a urinalysis or urine culture is needed for that.

Katie's mom I'm so sorry to hear what you are going through with your beloved girl. I hope she is feeling better soon.

Thanks Otto for that information, I never knew that, since in the cases of my kitties they were usually given "the works" to figure out what was wrong with them   which I now know was the blood panel AND urinalysis plus xrays and what have you. But in fairness to the vet, cats don't stand up and tell you where it hurts. 

However, looking at the description for doing a urinalysis, this might also have stressed out katiesmom's kitty, since she hates the vet, and the procedure, while described as painless, is as follows, and could have been strenuous for a kitty like hers that thrashes at the vet: "The preferred method of collecting urine is by cystocentesis, which involves inserting a needle directly through the abdominal wall, puncturing the bladder and removing the sample by aspiration through a syringe."

So, just more information about what your kitty may have gone thru at the second visit :-(. My thoughts are with you and praying she bounces back to her normal healthy self :-)

Thanks all for your replies! First i should tell you that they did insert a needle into her bladder and tested her urine that way...they said it had alot of bacteria. I don't think it was the anethesia that made her sick as she didn't get sick until 2-3 days after her sedation. They feel it was the infection that made her sick. They did give her a Convenia shot, very expensive too. She is feeling better, certainly not 100 percent yet. Her appetite comes and goes. They want to do a follow up on her 8-10 days from being seen and talking about giving her another convenia shot. I wonder if this is a wise decision? Why not give her a oral antibitic as a precausion? Any views on this would be welcome.
 

I would not allow another Convenia shot. Convenia stays in the system for over 2 months. That's one of the problems with it, if a cat has a bad reaction to an oral antibiotic, you can stop the antibiotic.

With Convenia you're out of luck. It's in the body for 64 days. Convenia isn't really meant for UTIs anyway, it is meant for soft tissue infection. In my opinion some vets way over use this medication. Too many don't even give the pet owners a choice, or discuss the possible side effects with them.

If further antibiotics are needed I recommend this: first, ask that a urine culture be done. A culture is more thorough than a urinalysis. It takes longer for results (usually 3 days) and cost more (has to be sent out to a lab in most cases) but is much more thorough. The results will determine what would be the best antibiotic for her particular bacterial infection, and can also determine crystals, if any, and what kind they are.

Has blood work been done? It should have been done before any sedation, of course, but was it?

While a superchem will does not diagnose UTI, it does tell you what is happening with her organs, especially her kidneys. Every senior cat should have a full senior panel (including thyroid). Often a cat who has CKD (chronic kidney disease) will begin to develop urinary tract infections.

I'm glad she's eating, that is so important. Is she eating canned food? Vibes for your girl, please keep us posted.

She is eating canned food but there are days its just nibbles. She seems very lethargic, wants to sleep sleep sleep. I understand she is 18 but shes far from her old self. We did do some blood work on her, kidneys are ok, not bad for an old cat. When I took her on tuesday, they just gave her some fluids and told me to bring her back before monday for another shot. They also said they looked at her urine culture a day or two later and it had alot of bad bacteria in it. Her thyroid is fine. She was given oral antibtiotics in the past for her UTI's. I wonder if I should aks for this.

Another question. If she needs more antibiotics and I ask for the oral liquid kind, is it okay to give it to her where she was given a covenia shot a week ago? Its so nice to have a support group here, I am so worried about my girl.

Well I talked to the vets office and told them about how I thought the Convenia was making her lethargic. They said they never heard of that happening. So I asked for some oral medicine for her to give her when her 10 days are up after her convenia injection. This is a liquid stuff, new they said and designed for urinary tract infections. Its called Orbax. I doubt its good tasting and hope she takes it ok. This stuff was as expensive as the Convenia shot.

Ha!!  I have had 2 cats have Convenia shots.  They BOTH were very lethargic for about a week (7-8 days) after the shot.  That's one of the reasons I don't like the shot; it turned my kitties into zombies!  I would wait and see how she's doing AND have another urine culture done after the 10 day period before trying another antibiotic.  If the culture shows no bacteria, then there's no reason to have another antibiotic.

Here is the link for Convenia and the side effects. You can see that every single thing your cat did is listed as a common side effect. So if your vet says they have never heard of that, either they are lying or ignorant :-( :-(, and not in a good way.  https://animalhealth.pfizer.com/sites/pahweb/us/en/Products/Pages/Convenia.aspx

One single shot of Convenia is intended to substitute for a full course of antibiotics, and there is absolutely no reason for a vet to give a second shot, esp to your cat, and especially at her age. I don't know why any vets give more than one shot of this, ever, unless they are totally ignorant or just want the money :-(. The only time I have ever felt good about this antibiotic is when my feral outdoor cat got into a scrap and needed a shot and I would not have been able to give him a pill or oral liquid daily. 

As far as whether you should give her the oral antibiotics in addition to the Convenia, the only good reason would be if the Convenia was not the appropriate antibiotic for the UTI bacteria. It does sound as if the vet's office is having second thoughts about the fact that they gave the shot for the UTI. 

 I am not sure about whether you should do the oral UTI-specific antibiotic after the 10 days following the Convenia shot but maybe someone else on this forum can give you more information.

So puzzling to think that some vets will give Convenia for an UTI.... It just doesn't work for it :dk:

My vet won't give convenia at all - unless he is dealing with a feral kitty that can't be caught for daily antibiotic doses, and it is the only alternative, he won't do it.
He said his clinic lost some patients to it - it can provoke a massive immune-mediated anemia that just can't be stopped
He hasn't only seen one case - he has seen multiple cases, although rare, he has done some research.... It was tracked back to the drug. It comes on fast and furious, and it is quite lethal.

So.... He just doesn't go there, and no vet in his clinic goes either - I have it on my files at the dentist and the e-vet for those reasons :nod:
Dr. Pierson lost 2 patients to the same type of anemia -there is a discussion here, along with side effects information: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=convenia
The other cases I saw she posted in a forum and I Can't post here....

To the OP - that's something you most likely don't need to worry about it.... but definitely keep this in mind for the future :nod:

Katie had a very bad UTI...and the strange thing is she didn't have one before i took her in to be sedated. I really think stress brought it on. Its been a week since shes had the shot and shes actually starting to come around. She has been zombie, shes old but i have never seen her like that. They (the ve)t, told me that sometimes the shot doesn't completely clear it up and suggested the shot again...i said NO. They gave me a liquid antibiotic called Orbax. Suppose to be specifically made for UTI in cats and dog. Anyone heard of this? I am suppose to start it Mon-tues.  I think they told me it was a fairly new product.

Please have them put in Katie's records to NEVER give her Convenia again since she had such a serious reaction to it.
 

katiesmom said:

Katie had a very bad UTI...and the strange thing is she didn't have one before i took her in to be sedated. I really think stress brought it on. Its been a week since shes had the shot and shes actually starting to come around. She has been zombie, shes old but i have never seen her like that. They (the ve)t, told me that sometimes the shot doesn't completely clear it up and suggested the shot again...i said NO. They gave me a liquid antibiotic called Orbax. Suppose to be specifically made for UTI in cats and dog. Anyone heard of this? I am suppose to start it Mon-tues.  I think they told me it was a fairly new product.

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I am not sure - is she still showing signs of an UTI? Is she peeing outside of the box? How is she pee? Is she jumping in and out of the box and can't pee? Is there blood in it? Or is she peeing normally?
I am for LESS antibiotics than more.... I use antibiotics when absolutely necessary - I believe that they are way over used, and they have far too many side effects IMHO to be take lightly as they are....
So, if she is not showing signs.... I would skip it.... My opinion....
If she is not showing signs of an UTI, I would discuss with the vet not giving her the antibiotics.... She is 18... I am sure he will think this is a sound option....