incontinence after urinary bladder obstruction treatment

Hi , thank you for letting me join. My cat Dev, has had bladder obstruction and was taken to the animal hospital. They kept him overnight and cleared out the crystals in his bladder and had him on IV. We took him home with pain meds and prazosin. The next 5 days he could barely move and didn't want to eat or drink. I had to feed  and give him him with syringe tube. He is doing well and lively again, not quite himself, but it's been 3 days now since he's finished all his meds, but he is still leaking urine. He can go to the bathroom and he's had normal urination there, but he now has fecal and urinary incontinence.

I've called the vet severeal times and they never give me any clear answers, only saying that they'd be more worried if he couldn't urinate, but I have a very active cat running around the home, who is used to laying on our bed and couch with urine leaking constantly!!!

Is this normal??? When will this end?? How long does it take for the cat to regain normal control of his sphincter so that he will not be defecating and urinating all over the place??

Hi and welcome to TCS. Sorry your Dev has urinary issues. It is quite common to have incontinence after bladder obstruction. It will take some time to heal. How long is hard to say since it is very individual. Mega vibes for a quick recovery for Dev.

Here is a recent thread with some experiences that are similar that may help.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264960/my-experience-with-blockages-and-pu-surgery#post_3414833

Vball91, thank you and good morning. I really appreciate your reply and help with this. I was so worried about my Dev Dev and the animal hospital, although very nice and professional, seemed to never be able to give me any clear answers. Should have joined this forum a long time ago. Thank you for the welcome.

Hello! I just found this forum today after dealing with my sweet Dudley's urinary blockage on Christmas Eve. He is a 5 yr old male and this is his first, and hopefully last, blockage. At first, he just showed the signs of being blocked but when the dr pushed on his bladder it was soft. They thought after an X-ray that he was constipated so they gave him two enemas. He came home on Christmas morning but still showed signs that he was blocked. We took him back in that night and found that he really was blocked. They got a catheter in him. He wouldn't eat until I came in to coax him. It took him awhile for him to urinate on his own but he was finally released last night (the 28th). Today he has been relaxed. He is on amitriptyline, baytril, and prazosin. He has been eating and drinking plenty of water and successfully urinated in the litterbox twice this morning. However, as the day progressed, I would bring his water dish to him (bc he is a bit sore and tired) and right after he finished drinking, urine would leak out of him while he just laid in it. Now, as he walks, there is urine dripping from him (not a lot). The vet said this could be due to the prazosin and that we should cut his dose in half. She also said to confine him to the bathroom just so we don't have urine all over the house. His hind quarters are soaked from laying in the urine. I tried cleaning him off a bit but since he is still sore, he won't let me touch him for too long in that area. He also has not had a BM since he's been home but he only ate about a half cup of c/d dry food and two spoonfuls of the SO urinary wet food. I feel so helpless. Is there anything else I should be doing?

How much prazosin is he on? Everything just hurts right now and he is probably frightened to do any straining, if his bladder is too relaxed with the medication it will probably all come out saving any straining. What usually happens if he's on the right dose of praxis in is he'll make it to the litterbox many times a day and pee a teaspoon at a time. It will take him several days to be himself again but it is important for the medication to be the right dosage. My cat was on buprenex for pain. The pain meds he is on may relax him too much as well. The important thing is he is peeing I know that's hard to keep in mind when he is dripping all over.

Can you confine him in the bathroom with some old towels? To allow him to rest and keep your house clean?

He is currently confined to the bathroom. And he was taking 1mg of prazosin twice a day. But the vet said to cut back to a half mg twice a day.

The dose it was reduced to is the standard dose I think. I had 2 separate vets prescribe this dose for my cat. Hopefully that will help with the leaking. I imagine also that cathater didn't help either. I took my cat home with the cathater in for 2 days and it's huge considering what it was put into.

About how long will it take for him to feel himself again?

I had a very similar experience, @dudleyandmissy  . Prazosin is a muscle relaxer, as you probably know, so it does make sense that it could be adding to the incontinence. But since FLUTD and blockages is very painful, I'd be wary to cut the dose early. I left my Rocky on it the full time & just confined him to my room. I picked him up with paper towels under his butt. He had a catheter twice in 2 weeks, so it took 2 more weeks for him to go back to normal. I'd find him sleeping & his bottom half soaked too! But it will get better with time. 

Ok he was doing great this morning and right before we have him his next dose of prazosin he started crying and growling again especially when he moves. I called the emergency vet again and they had an emergency and couldn't get to me. HELP. Is he blocked again?

dudleyandmissy said:

Ok he was doing great this morning and right before we have him his next dose of prazosin he started crying and growling again especially when he moves. I called the emergency vet again and they had an emergency and couldn't get to me. HELP. Is he blocked again?

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That's very concerning. Does he growl & cry when you pick him up or bring him by the litter box? If so, I'd probably try to find an emergency vet

He just growled in the litterbox.

He is partially blocked again

Have you tried calling the emergency vet back and asking when you can fit you in?

We are in now. He has to go through everything again

Ugh! I'm so sorry hopefully this time everything can be flushed out. That is unfortunate he got blocked again. I thought mine did too but when I took him to the vet the vet said his bladder was empty. The vet then suggested another cath but I refused. his badder was empty what was the point, he was obviously peeing and it was a false alarm plus another $600 was not in the budget.I'd ask your vet if any urine came out when he was Cathed this time if not, I doubt there was another blockage because he was emptying his bladder. Your kitty was probably howling because he was in pain due to all the inflammation, that is solved by adjusting pain meds. I would make sure you are sent home this time with good pain meds (buprenex) The only way I know all of this is I ended up taking my cat to a cat specialist after the false alarm who educated me on all this. I was so worried as you are now. She comfirmed that made the right decision not to cath again. Sorry I wasn't here before, I would have chimed in. you did the right thing by taking him in this isn't a condition to gamble with. Keep us posted.

Well I took Dudley back to the emergency vet since they were already treating him this week and were fully up to date on his condition. They discovered that he became partially blocked again. They wanted to put him on a catheter and told us it would be 1-2 thousand dollars. So I called his regular vet who specializes with cats and she said their prices are much less expensive and she can unblock him. So I declined the emergency vet services and took him to his regular vet. She pressed on his bladder and got a good stream of urine to come out so she thinks the stone might have dislodged itself. She put him on a catheter to empty his bladder. Hopefully he can come home tomorrow! I feel much better now that he is in the hands of his normal vet.

Thank goodness glad he is doing better.