My cat was diagnosed with Urinary Tract Disease and I need advice!

Hi all,

My cat is only 2 and a half years old and last spring was diagnosed with urinary tract disease (before this he never had any litterbox problems). After many diagnostic tests the veterinarian could not figure out the cause. My cat is on a specialty diet, I have 4 litterboxes in my 900 sq. ft apartment, and he wears pheramone collars. There are no stressors in his environment (ie new animals, moving, new furniture, all is status quo). And yet, he continues to pee outside of the box. He goes through episodes where he will lick himself and growl, so I know sometimes he is in pain, but these usually last 3 or 4 days and then he seems okay again. Recently he peed on my bed while I was in it, on a guests leg, and on my bedside table (not on the legs, but actually on top of the table).

This is very stressful on me. I feel like I have tried everything. I am considering bringing my cat to my father's farm where he could live in a barn and would be fed cat food. The problem is, he is declawed. He is very bitey when he gets irritated, so I feel like he is aware and compensates for being declawed, and could protect himself, and my father has farm dogs that keep larger predators away.

Does anybody have experience with urinary tract disease in young cats, or with declawed cats living outside? Would it be more humane for me to put him down because he does go through pain, even though just the thought breaks my heart?

I don't know what to do!

I am bumping up your post.  Can you be more specific regarding Urinary Tract Disease.  There are many different symptoms under that heading. There is cystitis, inflamed bladder, crystals...

What type of cat litter do you use?

He had crystals and traces of blood when he was diagnosed, I have not seen any blood in his urine since his diagnoses. I have tried multiple litters, right now I am using an unscented natural clumping.

What food is he on...?  I have had two crystal cats.  They did amazingly on c/d food.  When the initial crystals occurred, they were flushed out, put on a urine acidifyer tablet and s/d food for one month.  Then changed to c/d.  Neither had them again.  Are they struvite crystals?

The way your cat is acting suggests blockages, but you need to get a vet check.  My cats were about the same age as yours when they had the crystals. 

The proper diet is key to keeping these nasty things from coming back.  Perhaps another vets opinion is needed.  Please have him checked as a blockage is life threatening very quickly....not to mention very painful for your kitty.

When your vet diagnosed the crystals last spring, what was done to treat the cat. I have had two cats who were very young when they were diagnosed with crystals. They were put on prescription urinary food from the vet's office. One lived to age 14, no problems, and one is now fourteen and doing good as far as the crystals not coming back. You need to take the cat to teh vet and work with the vet to get this problem taken care of with proper medicines and food. Then you might try an unscented clumping litter, being sure that the litter pan is clean with no odor.

As the others have said, it would really help if you could tell us what food you're feeding him now. If he is on a urinary prescription food, there are still options if you're willing to try via diet.

You would need to start by taking him to the vet for a urinalysis and urine culture. Even though nothing was found before, it would help us to know what his urine pH is, and it would help you to ensure there are no crystals in his urine. Was any imaging ever done? I had a cat where nothing could be found in his urine. Yet a high resolution MRI found a small stone embedded in his bladder wall. Once it was surgically removed, the problem resolved.

I have a cat right now where an ultrasound found three stones in her bladder. That raises the urine pH, which then creates an excess formation of crystals and causes her pain and discomfort. We have had her on a urine acidifier for the past month. If that doesn't dissolve the crystals, she'll need surgery to remove them. But it's possible he's got stones in there that don't show up in a urinalysis, but will show up if imaging is done.

I have a vet appointment tomorrow. Right now he is on Science Diet canned. What are c/d foods? I do believe they are struvyate crystals. My kitty gets vey stressed when going to the vet, and tomorrow I am only doing a person to person consult. Should I ask for a sedative? These suggestions are very helpful. I am glad there is hope!

c/d is Hill's Science Diet c/d, the prescription food by Hill's Pet for urinary tract/bladder health that targets a neutral urine pH, which helps prevent crystals.

Without a urinalysis, you can't really know what the problem is. So while a person-person consult may be helpful, without your kitty's urine, I don't know what will really be gained. :dk:

Breyn said:

I have a vet appointment tomorrow. Right now he is on Science Diet canned. What are c/d foods? I do believe they are struvyate crystals. My kitty gets vey stressed when going to the vet, and tomorrow I am only doing a person to person consult. Should I ask for a sedative? These suggestions are very helpful. I am glad there is hope!

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C/D is a prescription food made by Hills that is especially to treat crystals in cats. 

IMO it is a wasted appointment if the kitty is not seen and tested...you are hunting in the dark.

All my cats get soooooo scared when going to the vets.  However, that is temporary.  Weigh that against your cat being in pain and possibly facing a very dangerous situation. 

Please have kitty seen.  He will weather it ..... and you will be on your way to treatment for your little friend.

Best wishes and thoughts going out to you and your kitty.

Well kitty and I went to the vet this morning, as I witnessed him struggling to urinate last night. He had an MRI an Xray a urinalysis and needed to be sedated. He had been partially blocked but became so stressed he blew through the blockage. He is on pain meds, antibiotics, and c/d. With any luck, this will help him out. Thanks guys! Now I just need to worry about my bank account recovering :/

You might consider joining the FLUTD group on Yahoo!  http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/FLUTD/?yguid=353539644   Lots of helpful folks with tons of experience.
 

Hello everyone.

I would love to share my experience with urinary tract infections and my pets. Savannah, my cat and Vicky, my little terrier, just like me had problems with recurring urinary tract infections. I am not sure if it is something in our water, or something else, but all 3 of us had the same problem. For myself, I was successfully using Canadian herbal product called e-drops nano, and i got idea that I might use the same product with my cat and dog.

I sent email to manufacturer with question if I can give the same drops to my pets. I got answer within few days, with reply that due extremely strong smell and taste, there is no way I can make dog or cat drink drops. Another issue was that drops are dissolved in alcohol. They told me that e-drops were used successfully on treating urinary tract infection on horse, but it was given to animal forcefully using tube. I was also told that I am not first one asking if e-drops nano can be given to pets and they offered me solution, surprisingly at no any charge. Mira from Nano Essentials sent me concentrated e-drops without alcohol with instructions how to give them to my cat and dog. I bought in health food store empty gelatinize capsules, and I bought Pill Pockets for cats and dogs. I put only one drop in capsule. With capsule in Pill Pocket it was easy to make Savannah and Vicky to take drops. Infection is gone now and I am glad that I did not give antibiotics to my pets.

Marcelina said:

[SIZE=10pt]Hello everyone.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]I would love to share my experience with urinary tract infections and my pets. Savannah, my cat and Vicky, my little terrier, just like me had problems with recurring urinary tract infections. I am not sure if it is something in our water, or something else, but all 3 of us had the same problem. For myself, I was successfully using Canadian herbal product called e-drops nano, and i got idea that I might use the same product with my cat and dog.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]I sent email to manufacturer with question if I can give the same drops to my pets. I got answer within few days, with reply that due extremely strong smell and taste, there is no way I can make dog or cat drink drops. Another issue was that drops are dissolved in alcohol. They told me that e-drops were used successfully on treating urinary tract infection on horse, but it was given to animal forcefully using tube. I was also told that I am not first one asking if e-drops nano can be given to pets and they offered me solution, surprisingly at no any charge. Mira from Nano Essentials sent me concentrated e-drops without alcohol with instructions how to give them to my cat and dog. I bought in health food store empty gelatinize capsules, and I bought Pill Pockets for cats and dogs. I put only one drop in capsule. With capsule in Pill Pocket it was easy to make Savannah and Vicky to take drops. Infection is gone now and I am glad that I did not give antibiotics to my pets.[/SIZE]

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You may have been very lucky. Without a proper analysis it is very dangerous to give unprescribed medicines to your pets. Herbal supplements like e-nano may not cure an underlying infection and the right antibiotics can only be prescribed by a vet. I hope your pets are fine, but we always advise seeing a vet for something like urinary infections.

Hello everyone,

Here's a little update. Went to the vet on the 9th, Roxas was cathed and his bladder was rinsed. He was given antibiotics and pain meds and sent home with c/d food.

I used the last of his pain meds and he seemed very uncomfortable the following saturday. He and I went to the animal hospital where he urinated all over the exam room, I was given more pain meds, some urethral relaxers and s/o food.

The next day (Sunday) he was acting very blocked and like he was in a lot of pain. Back to the animal hospital we went. They wanted to hospitalize him for 3 days, but my finances had run quite dry (I was using care credit at this point). He was hospitalized overnight with a catheter and IV fluids. I was given a higher dose of the urethral relaxer and some more pain meds for him. He was acting blocked last night, but he urinated in the night. The doctor recommended if this continues he get the pernieal urethostomy. I am just a nursing student, I cannot afford a 2500 surgery. So, we are really hoping this works!

Positive thoughts!!

HUGS Breyn and Roxas, all of this is so hard.  Emotionally, financially, physically.   I went through this with my kitty Bam a few months ago, it is very hard, even if things go well there is still a touch and go period for a couple weeks.   Did you join the Yahoo group?   If not, I encourage you to join immediately and put the full story details there.   There are some very experienced people there who helped me a lot.  

A few questions....

1) What particular antibiotics was he on?   How long was he on them?

----> reason for this is that a key part of Bam's recovery was getting on a second antibiotic, Amoxicillin (aka clavamox) that the vet also told me had anti-inflammatory action on the bladder.   The catheterization itself can lead to infection.

2) What kind of pain meds was he on and for how long?

-----> a key part of Bam's recovery was being on burprenorphine regularly for many days as it reduced his pain and relaxed him enough to help reestablish normal urination, gave time for the special food (royal canin s/o which is awesome) and the antibiotic to work

3) How cooperative is Roxas?   One alternative to the extreme expense of hospitalization with fluids is to have them teach you how to give him SubQ fluids yourself this will also help to keep flushing out his bladder.    Doing this can be easy or hard depending on the cat and the owner's daring

Big positive vibes sent for you and Roxas, don't give up! 
 

Feel for you.  A friend's cat kept blocking and had the PU surgery which has been a great success.  It was 4-5 years ago now and he's never had a problem since, so if you can possibly find a way to finance it it really is a great treatment.  My friend had to watch her cat like a hawk for some time after the surgery to make sure he didn't lick the area - he had a cone but just incase he managed to shed it.  If he had damaged it there would have been no choice but pts.

Since you are a nursing student I suspect giving fluids won't be a problem for you.

Bastfriend,Roxas was on Clavamox. He was on them for almost a week. He is still taking 0.1 ml Burnepemorphine twice a day, though only for another day (I may go to the vet for more).I probably wouldn't have a problem giving him some sub q fluids, he is fairly cooperative with the pills, though when the vet techs tried to give him sub q fluids in February it didn't go very well (he peed on them!) OrientalSlave,Unfortunately funding the surgery is out of the question. The only people I could think of that MAY have that money available would never spend it on a pet. I would if I had it, but alas I am but a college student. So far, Roxas has been urinating regularly. I need to go back to the vet soon for more SO food, and possibly more pain meds and urethral relaxer. Also, they recommended another urinalysis on him 14-19 days after he was seen on Sunday.