Bladder infection or crystals?

Hello,
My 5 year old black smoked asian has developed an infection of some sort and I'm hoping some one has some advice. this all started on Friday. I took her into emergency cause she had blood in her urine and they gave me an antibiotic for her which didn't seem to be working. I have never seen so much blood around the house!! And last night she had clots of blood. They said she may have crystals but there not sure. I'm hoping the antibiotics works. They say it could take up to 3 days to kick in. This morning she had a little pee with barley any blood. Then a bit bigger pee with mo blood at all. She still has an apatite and is drinking and affectionate. The emergency hospital did a pee test but still haven't given me results. The blood in the urine stopped from 1:30-11:30 tonight and has started to come back a little bit. I'm really worried about her. If anyone has any advice on what else I can do to keep her happy and comfortable until tomorrow morning when I take her to my vets I'd really appreciate it. They say she may have peed a bit cause the crystals may have moved. But I'm not sure. Any advice is welcome and will be appreciated!

Thank you

I don't have any magic that will relieve the discomfort.  Just as long as she can pee, then she isn't blocked.  When they are blocked the situation gets really dangerous. This sounds extreme with the clots and all. 

I do have some long term advice for avoiding Feline Urinary Syndrome and struvite crystals in the future. The common causes for urinary problems like struvite crystals are not enough water and incorrect urine pH(not acidic enough).  If you are feeding her dry food you should switch to canned.  I even water down the canned food.  My vet says the more water the better.  Cats are not naturally water drinkers, although some of them take to it, others do not.  They are designed to get the vast majority of their water from food.  Therefore, if there isn't water in their food then they've lost their primary source.  The other thing is you can give them ammonium chloride to acidify their urine to the correct pH.  The product your vet is going to be most familiar with is called "uroeze"  It is a chewable tablet made for pets and it's active ingredient is around 300 mg of ammonium chloride.  It's expensive, about $30 a bottle.  However there is a work around.  My cats have never accepted chewables (that's a dog thing).  The human version is a non-chewable, tablet that is just over 300 mg.  The tablet is smaller making it easier to swallow, is buffered,and is just over 300mg.  I've cleared this with my vet.  The great thing is it cost about 10% of what uroeze does. 

I have solutions for a few problems I've run into over the years.  Most common is that it is too large for a small cat to swallow, or it may be to strong for a cat with a sensitive stomach.  I get around both problems by buying gelatin capsules at the local health food store, splitting the tablets in half and loading them in the capsules.  If the cat is OK with the  whole tablet then I give it to them once a day after a meal.  I feed twice a day so if they need the capsules, I give one with each meal.  This is an acidifier so let them eat first.

This is a tactic that is good long term and has helped me avoid expensive prescription diets.  Read the ingredients and you'll find the prescription food is much more expensive and isn't as good as a high quality food like Wellness brand.

Hope this helps

p.s.  I buy mine from a site called pureformulas.com, the brand is Nutricology

Your poor kitty! You are obviously very concerned about her so hopefully you have been able to get her to your regular vet and get some answers. Had she been acting like she had a urinary tract infection or blockage? Frequent straining to pee, peeing small amounts, etc?

With respect to blood in the urine, it can be caused by a bacterial infection, but more often than not, it's caused by inflammation, stones or crystals.  The vet should be able to determine the above with a urinary analysis plus culture (for bacteria).  Visible blood can come and go - I have a cat that's had cystitis for years, and he can have visible blood on alternate pees.

Diet can play a part in the bladder issues; wet food, high in meat protein, low in carbs, low fish content, can help the problem.  The wet provides important fluids, the meat protein will make the urine pH more acidic, low carbs and low fish will reduce inflammation/irritation.  Lots of things (beyond diet) can trigger bladder problems, but diet is a good place to start. 

I would not supplement your cat's diet with the ammonium chloride on your own!  That should be something monitored by your vet.  You first need to identify the problem and maybe correct the food provided to your cat...no dry food, get rid of carbs, monitor the urine pH (at home test strips), before you start adding acidifiers.  The vet may suggest prescription food specifically oriented to reduce crystals.  It's not my favorite food because it still has lots of carbs, but if you go that route, I would choose the wet food over the dry.  When you look at food, you should look at a commercial food analysis found at  www.catinfo.org   Dr. Pierson has summarized many canned foods and listed their protein, fat, and carb analysis.  I had assumed I was feeding appropriate food to my cats because I was feeding grain free.  Lo and behold, the grain free was still full of carbs. 

It's always a scary thing to see blood.  Hopefully your vet will figure out what's going on and your cat will resolve quickly.  Good luck to both of you!

LCat4 said:

 
With respect to blood in the urine, it can be caused by a bacterial infection, but more often than not, it's caused by inflammation, stones or crystals.  The vet should be able to determine the above with a urinary analysis plus culture (for bacteria).  Visible blood can come and go - I have a cat that's had cystitis for years, and he can have visible blood on alternate pees.

Diet can play a part in the bladder issues; wet food, high in meat protein, low in carbs, low fish content, can help the problem.  The wet provides important fluids, the meat protein will make the urine pH more acidic, low carbs and low fish will reduce inflammation/irritation.  Lots of things (beyond diet) can trigger bladder problems, but diet is a good place to start. 

I would not supplement your cat's diet with the ammonium chloride on your own!  That should be something monitored by your vet.  You first need to identify the problem and maybe correct the food provided to your cat...no dry food, get rid of carbs, monitor the urine pH (at home test strips), before you start adding acidifiers.  The vet may suggest prescription food specifically oriented to reduce crystals.  It's not my favorite food because it still has lots of carbs, but if you go that route, I would choose the wet food over the dry.  When you look at food, you should look at a commercial food analysis found at  www.catinfo.org   Dr. Pierson has summarized many canned foods and listed their protein, fat, and carb analysis.  I had assumed I was feeding appropriate food to my cats because I was feeding grain free.  Lo and behold, the grain free was still full of carbs. 

It's always a scary thing to see blood.  Hopefully your vet will figure out what's going on and your cat will resolve quickly.  Good luck to both of you!

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I agree that feeding good quality food is key and will help not just with bladder issues but to avoid metabolic problems such as diabetes.  I'm also not a fan of prescription food.  I started the pursuit of better food when my wife's favorite cat developed diabetes and interestingly enough Dr. Pierson's web page was the first source I came across.  Dr. Pierson advocates feeding a raw homemade diet.  I credit her with changing my attitude towards pet food, and allowing me to save my cat without using insulin or prescription food.  Unfortunately, with 7 cats and 2 large dogs making food in a way that my vet would approve was just too time consuming.  It isn't as simple as going to the meat department and buying a bunch of hamburger and chicken quarters.  If you decide to go that route I have good resources.  Unfortunately my research and food plan was lost when my hard drive crashed.

I to, don't go trying things that could jeopardize my cat's and dog's health without consulting my vet.  When I didn't want to use prescription food  he recommended the uroeze, since that was what was used before prescription diets came along. After using it for an extended period, I discovered that the same thing was available for human consumption at a much lower price.  I talked to my vet and he approved the change.

On the subject of grain free, I agree that it doesn't guaranty good quality food but it's best to avoid grain since it is high in carbs and rarely part of a cats natural diet. If your moving to a more natural diet, you don't want a grain packed food.  I'm an avid label reader.  The ingredients list and the order on that list can tell you allot.