Anyone NOT have a male cat block yet?

We see all the posts from owners of cats who go thru hell (emotionally and financially) when their cats get a urinary blockage. My question is to those who have NOT had this issue. How old is your male cat? Is he neutered? What is he fed? Anything else you can mention of note would be interesting. Thanks!

I have a 12 year old neutered male who has never had a blockage. He is almost strictly free fed dry food, but is offered canned every morning and usually just licks the gravy. He does drink often, he loves running water and waits by the sink often for a drink. My 5 year old male is good so far too. Can you tell me what the symptoms are so I would know?

My MIL has had at least 2 male neutered cats who have never had blockages. One just passed away last year at age 20 I believe. All of her cats have been free fed dry plus wet 3 times a day.

I had a 15 year old and an 18 year old neither one of them ever blocked and they were in my life since the day they were born.  Lost both my seniors to strokes.  I currently have 3 year old and a kitten and they have never had problems either.  The only cat I had that blocked was a female.

We have not, but we've only had our rescue Si since March 8th.   He is 9mos old, gets a 1/2 can of wet food for breakfast and dinner, with a couple of ounces of kibble spread out through the day for snacking.  He also likes his water & drinks a little daily.  I would say much less water than he did when we found him & started him on kibble only.

Two males, neither have been blocked. Bugsy had an UTI when he was on kibbles only, but since going on wet and now on raw he is fine. Bugsy is 7, I was told by my vet Mac is around 5. Both neutered, all my cats eat 100% raw.

Di and Bob said:

I have a 12 year old neutered male who has never had a blockage. He is almost strictly free fed dry food, but is offered canned every morning and usually just licks the gravy. He does drink often, he loves running water and waits by the sink often for a drink. My 5 year old male is good so far too. Can you tell me what the symptoms are so I would know?

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Interesting that between the canned and running water he is probably well hydrated - more than my cats who were free-fed kibble (and even  though I use a better brand than typical grocery store stuff.)

The symptoms of a partial or complete urinary blockage gets progressively worse as the cats bladder fills up with urine and the kidneys then shut down to compensate.   At first you will notice the cat taking longer in the litter box.   You will see them straining - sort of looks like when they are pooping since the same abdominal muscles are used - but you see no poop and little if any pee.   If you use a clumping litter, the clumps will be smaller.   You most likely will notice them licking their urethra right after leaving the box.  The cat may or may not cry out at this point.   Mine was - but not in the litter box so I thought he was just asking for food - but I did notice that the cry was more urgent and different than usual.   This will last a couple days and the cat will be going to the box more frequently, with more straining.   At the near crisis point when you will definitely know something is wrong - the cat is peeing or trying to outside the litter box - sometimes standing up.   They will be crying in pain.   The cats bladder will be hard like a peach (vets can feel this - most owners do not know how).   At this point it is a medical emergency and the cat can die within hours if not taken to a vet or hospital to get unblocked.

It seems to occur more often in neutered males in the 2 - 5 yo range.   Not to say that it wont happen at other ages or even to females but just not as often.

As with most ailments the earlier you get treatment - the better.   If caught early the vet may be able to unblock the cat through manipulation of the ureter.  They say a sludge sometimes comes out and things improve.   In the critical stages there is no time to waste so they will install a catheter into the urethra to drain the urine that way.   If you go early the costs could be less than $500, if you go late where multiple days of hospitalization are required it is upwards of $2000 (costs vary depending on if you live in a higher cost-of-living area).

My advice having gone through this twice - if you are unsure - dont wait - go to the vet.   You will only be delaying the inevitable, you will save the cat pain - and if caught early enough, then the treatment may cost less.   

I dont know for sure if home remedies can cure this.   I did try those cranberry chews when the problem started - they didnt help (they may be good for prevention however).   I have read where homeopathic treatments may work (mostly cantharis) but I have no experience.   Either way, if your cat is in the critical stage - GO TO THE VET IMMEDIATELY.

Of course the other problem is if you have an outdoor cat you may not be able to notice anything until it is way too late or the cat may disappear as they go and hide when in deathly pain. 

Seems like more hydration from wet or raw food and extra water with kibble seems to be the common thread here.   Good stuff.... please keep the responses coming.

I have 15 males at moment and only one has urinary issues. I sorta lean to purina dry is not so good. I may be wrong on that.  I fed the cats for years on friskies and last year or so went to all wet.

I have a 5year old male here never been blocked hes fed half wet half dry  and never had an issue 

One thing I keep thinking about is that we use crystal litter.  I am sure there must be some crytals that get stuck to our cats paws and gets ingested when they clean themselves.   Maybe the super-absorbing properties of the crystals is dehydrating the cat along with the dry food?

So there is great info on the site catinfo.org.   Combine that with the posts here and my own personal experience and it is undeniable that DRY food is BAD for cats.   If you are feeding dry food only please for your well-being and your feline friend switch to canned food or at least mostly canned food.    If you are not convinced go to catinfo.org which is authored by a vet.   At this point I feel miserable over the ordeal both my cats and I have gone thru.   The cat with the latest episode from last week is peeing slightly bloody urine at this point and the flow is not great.   I get up every morning praying for him to fully recover.   I feel scared, miserable, angry, and violated.   I wish the government or at least whatever conscience the pet food industry has to put a warning on every bag of dry food.   

Let me put it this way.   Imagine your bladder is full and you are 15 minutes away from the bathroom.  How painful it is to hold your pee for that time.   Well cats suffer excruciating pain for hours maybe days until they are fortunate enough to be taken to the vet for help - if they aren`t, they die the most inhumane, slow, painful death one can imagine.

As Dr Pierson says on catinfo.org,  `the worst canned food is better than the best dry food for cats`.    I totally concur.   

zoneout said:

One thing I keep thinking about is that we use crystal litter.  I am sure there must be some crytals that get stuck to our cats paws and gets ingested when they clean themselves.   Maybe the super-absorbing properties of the crystals is dehydrating the cat along with the dry food?

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I doubt that that the litter acts that way in the digestive system, if it did then you'd see constipation, not urinary crystals.  It would be interesting to know what the crystal litter is made of, and if breaks down in the GI and gets absorbed or just passes through it but I suppose the manufacturer will never tell any one. 

I've never had a male cat who blocked until I adopted Hector.  At the tender age of 9 months old he developed a partial blockage, and he has always been fed an all canned food diet with water added due to his difficulties with eating.  Hector is, special.  He has issues.  He did not require unblocking (thankfully) as we caught it early enough that hydrating him and prazocin helped him pass all the crystals and sludge. 

Has your vet determined what kind of urinary crystals, if any, your cat has?  Have you tried prazocin to help him urinate more comfortably (that would have to prescribed by your vet)?  Has the vet ruled out sterile cystitis? That too can cause blockage from the sheer amount of inflammation involved.

The latest trend we've seen in our office has been cats on the grain-free dry foods, over 80% of the urinary blockages in the last 6 months were cats on grain-free dry.  We're not seeing this issue with grain-free canned.

I have 3 male cats ( all neutered) but they are all 2 years old or under. Two of them I got from rescue as kittens and started them on grain free canned and dry food with some raw. Then I switched them to all wet food ( canned and raw). My third male was a stray I took in about 6 months ago. He is probably a year old. He has been on the same canned and raw as the other boys since I got him. None of the cats have had urinary blockages. One of them did have a UTI about a year ago, but the urine culture we did showed ecoli and another bacteria I can't remember and it was cleared up with antibiotics and post treatment urine culture was clear. That was when I completely removed the dry food. He did have crystals but they were related to the infection and he never formed a stone according to the vet and his urinalysis and X-rays. We have a water fountain for the cats and dogs but I rarely see the boys drinking out of it. Except the youngest one but he is fascinated with water of all kinds and likes to play in it. 

I've always had male cats and only one has had a problem. My current three male cats are 1.5 yrs, 3 yrs and 9 years. None have had issues. I feed Taste of the Wild kibble. Two get the odd Temptation treat. (my devon doesn't like them).

No wet food.

The one cat that did have an issue, only had it once and I switched to TOTW and he never had the problem again. (5 years)

I believe it's really important to have them on a grain free kibble.
 

Imbri said:

I doubt that that the litter acts that way in the digestive system, if it did then you'd see constipation, not urinary crystals.  It would be interesting to know what the crystal litter is made of, and if breaks down in the GI and gets absorbed or just passes through it but I suppose the manufacturer will never tell any one. 

I've never had a male cat who blocked until I adopted Hector.  At the tender age of 9 months old he developed a partial blockage, and he has always been fed an all canned food diet with water added due to his difficulties with eating.  Hector is, special.  He has issues.  He did not require unblocking (thankfully) as we caught it early enough that hydrating him and prazocin helped him pass all the crystals and sludge. 

Has your vet determined what kind of urinary crystals, if any, your cat has?  Have you tried prazocin to help him urinate more comfortably (that would have to prescribed by your vet)?  Has the vet ruled out sterile cystitis? That too can cause blockage from the sheer amount of inflammation involved.

The latest trend we've seen in our office has been cats on the grain-free dry foods, over 80% of the urinary blockages in the last 6 months were cats on grain-free dry.  We're not seeing this issue with grain-free canned.

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Yes he is on prazosin and keeps improving thankfully. Looks like he will make a full recovery. Crytal litter is silica gel and does not break down though you are prolly right about its effects. The vet said there was a lot of gunk and struvite though his ph was neutral.

I have/had a total of 7 males (all neutered) and 2 females ranging in age from 19.5 to 4 years. 3 have passed from on to the RB (2 from cancer and one from complications of Diabetes - 2 males/1 female). We're down to 6 - 5 males/1 female.

They all eat a combination of dried kibble and canned food, some treats and fresh water. Canned 2 times daily. Our oldest males were 18 and 17 (both passed). Our current oldest male (and the current oldest in the house) will be 13 this year and so far (knock on wood) never blocked.

We've had troubles with our RB girl with Urinary tract issues but it's unrelated to being blocked or crystals/stones.

I have a female cat who had surgery 2 years ago to have stones removed from her bladder. Last year her recheck UA showed that she had 4+ struvite crystals and 4+ calcium oxalate crystals which is pretty high. I have since switched her from hills c/d to blue buffalo indoor health and all of her crystals have disappeared.

Just had to bring my cat back to the vet today.   Thankfully he didnt reblock but the urine turned bloody again.  He was fine for about 4 days until today.  It might be a reaction to the Prazosin - not really sure.   More meds - antiinflammatory.    Its been a rough 2 weeks for both of us.   My other cat that blocked was fine as soon as he came back back from the hospital 5 years ago.   This time around has been more difficult.

l'm 50 years old and have had cats my entire life - mostly neutered males, but also a couple of females. l've never had a cat with a blockage or crystals or a UTI.

My parents always fed canned food and cooked meat, and in adulthood, my own cats were fed mostly canned with an offering of dry on the side. l switched to raw last year, with the rare cooked meat and canned as a treat. No more kibble.