Male Cat UTI Help! : [

Yes,  I know he was blocked. The vet told me. Apparently, it's a stress related disease that causes them to do this. I was advised to give him a pheromone collar and keep him away from friends coming over.
 

Yes, stress can cause a number of things: inflammation of the bladder; it can raise the pH of the urine which allows struvite crystals to form. With an inflamed bladder, cells can slough off, a "mucus" plug can form....

If you've been using methigel, as others have said, if not using pH test strips to keep track of his urine pH, it could have caused his urine pH to fall too far, which could have caused calcium oxalate crystals.

The pheremone collar may help.

The most important thing will be eliminating dry food from his diet completely. You should also mix some water into the wet food you feed him, to keep his bladder well flushed.

Whatever you do, if you're going to use anything that can acidify his urine, please purchase urine test strips to keep track of his urine pH. It should be 6.5 - 7.0.

Others have provided the link, but I'm going to reiterate it. There is no more informative thread on FLUTD and blockages than this site, written by a vet: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

DearAmbellina said:

Yes,  I know he was blocked. The vet told me. Apparently, it's a stress related disease that causes them to do this. I was advised to give him a pheromone collar and keep him away from friends coming over. 

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Stress can cause flare-ups, but a pheromone collar alone is not enough. What was the physical cause of his blockage? Was it from inflammation, struvites or stones? Did the vet run an urinalysis? Given your boy's history, it is very important to get to the cause so that it can be treated, and it is treatable in the vast majority of cases.

Yes, absolutely diet is important. As LDG said, getting him off of dry and onto an all wet meaty diet is critical. There are other things you can also do at home. Please let us know what the vet found and the results of the urinalysis.

Yeah, the vet gave me like a 40 page packet all on FLUTD. It's really helpful, I'm going to scan it for anyone else who might need it. 
He always gets a tablespoon of water mixed in to his food. I am going to eliminate dry food from his diet completely, however. 
We also purchased his second litter box today and filled it with pine litter. So far it's a no go, hahaha. He did go straightaway to his other box, which I uncovered, and urinated. Took him a minute, but it was a good amount and no crying. 

The vet told me it was a frustrating disease and to expect this or something like this again and that the goal of treating his disease is to decrease the severity and amount of his episodes.

That is great that he is peeing again. He will be uncomfortable from the catheter, and there's probably still quite a bit of inflammation.

So what is the treatment plan that the vet is recommending? And is the new ER vet, not the old vet?

Yep, the ER vet. He's on a dose of anti-inflammatory medicine (one pill every day by mouth, after the second day half a pill) and we're picking up a script from Wal-Greens for him today. 
As I said, the rest is making sure his anxiety levels are down, switching litter, cutting dry food out, and getting him a drinking fountain.

By the way, has anybody had luck with the drinking fountains? I'd love to get him one, if he'd use it. 

DearAmbellina said:

Yep, the ER vet. He's on a dose of anti-inflammatory medicine (one pill every day by mouth, after the second day half a pill) and we're picking up a script from Wal-Greens for him today. 
As I said, the rest is making sure his anxiety levels are down, switching litter, cutting dry food out, and getting him a drinking fountain.

By the way, has anybody had luck with the drinking fountains? I'd love to get him one, if he'd use it. 

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My cats love their fountain and all four will drink from it. I still have several other bowls throughout the house though just in case. I have a Hagan Catit fountain; it is quiet and elevated (good for seniors). I got it from Amazon and only paid around $20. I wasn't sure if they would like it or not, so I didn't want to shell out the money for a Drinkwell. The Catit fountain is plastic, so it requires frequent cleaning or algae can grow. It is really easy to take apart and put back together. I clean it 2-3 times per week and change the filter once a month.

I have only been using this fountain for 2 months so I don't know how it will compare to the higher ticket fountains in regards to longevity. 

Catit fountains are fairly cheap and my cats love it. I have tried the more expensive stainless steel ones, but they love the catit the most. It is kind of a pain to clean and fill but is pretty low maintenance. 

I'm so glad he's okay. FLUTD can be frustrating, but fortunately, as others have mentioned, there are definitely things you can do to ease it for him and it sounds like you're on the right track.

We have a drinkwell fountain that has been great for our guys - we set up up and they were all over it. from then on standing water was beneath them.

I'd recommend a stainless steel one - easier to keep clean.

Which anti-inflammatory med did your vet prescribe? Probably something like Onsior and hopefully not Metacam. Ok, so this is addressing his current symptoms but what's the plan going forward to help prevent flare ups? I'm not trying to be pushy, but I'm still unclear as to the cause of the blockage. Was a urinalysis done?

DearAmbellina, I'm so glad the ER vet gave you a helpful booklet on FLUTD.

As vball91 says, we're not trying to be pushy. :heart2: It's just that so many of us have dealt with this, and have learned how to successfully manage it so that there are no more incidents at all.... we can help you manage this with your boy, if you let us, and if you want the assistance. :rub:

On the fountains... unfortunately it's an issue of figuring out what your boy likes best. Mine like flowing water, so we need the Drinkwell fountain that has water pouring from a spout. Most fountains have water running down a ramp, and that does nothing for my crew of cats.

I found that what helped the most was just having a small dish of water out everywhere. :lol3: Having it really handy and accessible was what - for us - made the most difference.

The meds were Prednisone. He hasn't had an episode since we took him, however, he was upset with my boyfriend for changing out his litter incorrectly and peed on the floor and counter. Instead of slowly working the new litter (Yesterday's News) in, it was changed directly to the new litter. However, I'm certain he did that out of spite instead of a FLUTD episode. The problem is being corrected now, though. We just bought him a big jug of the old litter to mix with the new. So far, he's used it once. XD 

He also is completely off of dry food. Any other people with FLUTD cats? What methods do you use to keep them from getting sick or from urinating outside their box?

That's great that he is off dry food completely. That's a big first step. We would love to give you more suggestions on how to help prevent another flare of FLUTD. However, we need some more info as to what caused the blockage. Was a urinalysis done? If so, can you post the results here please?

No urinalysis was done when I went, unfortunately. : [

DearAmbellina said:

The meds were Prednisone. He hasn't had an episode since we took him, however, he was upset with my boyfriend for changing out his litter incorrectly and peed on the floor and counter. Instead of slowly working the new litter (Yesterday's News) in, it was changed directly to the new litter. However, I'm certain he did that out of spite instead of a FLUTD episode. The problem is being corrected now, though. We just bought him a big jug of the old litter to mix with the new. So far, he's used it once. XD 


He also is completely off of dry food. Any other people with FLUTD cats? What methods do you use to keep them from getting sick or from urinating outside their box?

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Cats don't avoid the litter box "out of spite". They don't understand spite. He avoided the litter box because he didn't understand the change in litter. To him, the new litter was not litter, and he didn't want to use it.

Since it is of the utmost important to keep stress completely out of his life, now is really not a good time to be making litter changes.

Yes, I have a spayed female with FLUTD. I feed her a combination canned and raw diet. She gets krill oil as an anti-inflammatory. She used to take cosequin every day, but hasn't needed that since I added raw to her diet.

I test her urine pH several times a week. I provide plenty of litter boxes and keep them clean. I maintain her at a healthy weight by schedule feeding controlled meal portions, and lots of interactive play so she has plenty of exercise.

I take her to the vet twice a year for check ups and she always has a urinalysis done at that time.

Yeaaah, the 'spite' thing was supposed to convey that, but I guess humor doesn't translate well over the internet. Thanks, though. He's used the litter again once. I changed his litter as it was directed in the pamphlet the vet gave me. Krill oil sounds like it would help him also. I heard multiple a few people talking about how it helped their cats a lot, so I'll be picking up some of that tomorrow. : )

Without a urinalysis I can only give you some general suggestions. I would start by testing his urine pH at home. You can get test strips on Amazon fairly inexpensively. I'm on my phone so I can't post a link, but search on this site for ph test strips posted by otto or LDG.

You want his pH to be as close to 6.5 as possible. If it's too high or too low, we can help you with supplements that will help.

I would also suggest starting corn silk as a supplement for bladder inflammation. It's a very inexpensive herb that you can either make into a tea or given as a powder mixed into his wet food. It is generally very well tolerated by kitties. If you want to know the dosage, just let me know.

Awesome! Thanks, guys. You're all super helpful. : ] 
Do you recommend both corn silk over krill oil? 
Either way, I'll be getting one of the two, hahaha.

Hahaha, I've kind of been tiptoeing around him too. He scares really easy. I've heard pheromone diffusers are pretty helpful for stress too. Will be getting one of those next paycheck. XD