New adopted kitty with UTI and ringworm :(

Hi everyone,

I've been on the cat site forums quite a bit lately so I decided to join to see if I'm missing anything. Lost my older cat 6 mos. ago. Wasn't going to get another but couldn't stand to be without a furry face.

Adopted Tilly, a solid grey, 9lb., 7 yr old girl 2 months ago. The rescue group told me she was healthy but she came to me with ear mites, a resp. Infection and ringworm. We are dealing with the ringworm so I'm not too concerned about that. The resp. Infection is gone. Now we are dealing with a uti.

We've been to the vet. No bacteria and no crystals. She has blood in her urine and is constantly visiting the box. Doesn't "seem" to be in pain but I really don't know. Eating normally but stopped drinking like she normally does.

This is what I've done...
Only wet food since I've had her and mostly premium, grain free, not much fish but a little. Trying to stay away from wheat gluten and carrageenan...but also trying to stay within a budget and get her to eat...she's finicky.
She does get 10 grain free tuna flav treats a day that are kibble- like or dried shrimp.

Just bought a fountain..she's terrified of it
I'm thinking about distilled water for her as I'm on the east coast in an old building and I'm sure the water could be an issue.
Trying cosequin (which she actually eats!!!!) to help her bladder.
Thinking about a uti natural supplement like tract-ease.

Considering even better food even though I really can't afford it. If I could find something she would consistently eat without throwing any away, it would probably save me anyway...but she's SO picky. Was considering making raw but I don't think I'm quite there yet. She wouldn't eat wellness but I may try again. Vet wanted prescription food but even if I do that for a week or so, I don't want to do it indefinitely. She's now eating trader joes, newman's 95% chick, nutro natural choice, and hound and gatos with an occasional classic fancy feast.

I'm worried that it could be stress or anx. related. I've done all I can to make my small place her castle....toys, cat tree, etc. We play every day..but I do have to work and she's alone during the day. I have a varying schedule as well so that doesn't help.

I'm hoping this is an isolated event. Am I missing anything?

She is the cuddliest cat ever. Just want to get her healthy. Thanks for any advice.

Kelly and Miss Tilly Baker

Hi Kelly. I can offer no advice, but I did want to offer you my condolences for the loss of your older kitty and welcome you to TCS! 

It's wonderful that you're taking such good care of Tilly as she gets through the ailments. Many hopes that her UTI clears up soon! 

Welcome to TCS, but I'm sorry it's under such conditions.  I don't really have much help to offer either, but the blood in the urine is a red flag for me.  Did the vet culture the urine and is she on an antibiotic?  It could simply be the stress of the new home or it could be from the ringworm medication.  If your vet seems to be evasive or not willing to get to the bottom of the situation, I'd recommend a second opinion.  To help with the stress, you can invest in a Feliway diffuser.  They have worked wonderfully for my clan, but they don't work for every kitty, but it's worth a try. 

Hi Tilly's mom, and thank you for adopting, well, not a kitten.  Older cats are the BEST.

Yes, it could be stress induced UTIs; Ritz (female) has them.  I also second stephanietx suggestion about Feliway.  Also, I give Ritz L-theanine (100 mg) every day.  L-theanine is a relaxant without drouziness, made from an extract of green tea leaves.    It's a capsule, you can break open the capsule and sprinkle on her food.

Speaking of which, I'd really try to avoid fish of any kind, given Tilly has UTIs.  For treats, you could try giving her freeze dried treats, particularly turkey.  Turkey has the highest amount of l-methionine, which is an essential amino acid.  It is also an acidifier--and an ingredient often added to Rx foods for UTIs. 
You can get the supplement, but this requires testing of Tilly's urine when she is peeing. 

I feed raw, and also give Ritz raw turkey breast.

Finally, I'd ask for another test of the urine.  What method did the vet use to test the urine?

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome.

I LOVE senior kitties. I was actually looking for one that was even older (and a boy, and big) but I was having a hard time finding one...and then met Tilly. She was nothing I imagined I wanted but is a great cat. If I had lots of money, I'd have kitty retirement home.

Thank you for all the suggestions. I have a comfort zone plug in waiting in the wings that I might plug in. She's been with me two months so I don't think it can be the move but who knows. She was with another cat in her previous home so sometimes I worry that she's lonely. At this point I'm not sure she'd want to share me with someone else since she is glued to me when I am home.

Thanks so much for the L-theanine suggestion Cindy. I may actually try taking some myself since I can be quite the nervous nelly! Sounds like good stuff.

I tried the duck version of the same brand of treats she likes and she ate them so I'll buy those from now on. No more canned fish at all. I tried wellness Core and Natural Balance and she would eat either one. I'm thinking she probably ate kibble at her previous home so she is junk food fanatic. I'll keep slowly trying to introduce some better food.

The vet wanted her on Clavamox which I just saw that can be tough on the liver. Vet didn't put her of itraconozole for the ringworm because of an elevated liver number but gave Clavamox. I'm so confused. Plus, no bacteria in the urine so really not necessary. I wish I could find a vet that I just trusted but that's not happening. I moved to a new town a year and a half ago and have not been able to find a decent vet since. One vet I went to wanted to give my VERY sick 17 yr old girl her vaccinations!

Anyway, thank you again for your thoughts. I'm not sure what kind of urinalysis they did. There was a lot on info going back and forth. I'm going to call them and get all the paperwork and confirm about the crystals - which I remember as a no.

She did drink from her new water bowl today and I almost did a happy dance. Visits to the box are a little less frequent and clumps are slightly larger so we're heading in the right direction.

Kelly and Till

Thanks for following up.
By "what kind of urinalysis did they do" I meant: needle in the bladder? pushing the bladder to get the urine out? The needle in the bladder is the most reliable way; collecting urine yourself and storing it in the refrigerator, is not (done both). And yeah I would get the paperwork.
Yeah, my human nutritionist also suggested I give MYSELF the l-theanine--take it on a Saturday to see how it affects me. It does not make Ritz sleepy (the Bachs Rescue Remedy did, but it has a fair amount of alcohol.)

Oh!

Well, they didn't think they would get any out with a needle so they weren't even going to try but we were there so long poor Tilly proceeded to go over to the side of the room and pee on the floor. The vet did say we would take the results with a grain of salt since it was off the floor but she was quite happy to get any sample at all. Considering there was nothing really in it but blood I'd say that went ok....I could be wrong. For the follow up test in 2 weeks she wants me to collect it myself with the special non absorbing litter. I have been successful with my older cat using a ladle! ...but her hearing was going. Tilly would probably not tolerate that.

That is the worse, least scientific, least reliable method of collecting urine. As soon as urine leaves the vagina, crystals and bacteria start to form.
Personally, I would want the vet to take a sample, either by expressing her bladder or needle in the bladder method, and then doing a culture.

The blood in the urine could indicate she has a sterile cystitis especially if she has no bacteria in her urine.  Have you read this site?  http://catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth#Cystitis  It has a lot of good information about cystitis in cats.  Cystitis can be quite painful for them.  I've had a kitty who has chronic cystitis.  We are keeping it at bay with increased moisture in the diet by canned food only, adding additional water to her food, water fountain and cosequin.  She hasn't had an episode for 4 years up until recently when she has other conditions going on. As for the ringworm, I treated my kitty with just athletes foot cream when she had it.  She had it all over her body. 

Seconding the need for another urine sample. My vet does the needle method. At this point, my cat has had enough bacterial UTIs that we can tell what's going on without one (usually she's pretty goopy around her rear, too), but when she first started getting them, I'd bring her in early, and if she didn't have enough urine for them to do a needle sample, I'd leave her there, go get lunch, and come back. My vet was more than fine with that, because they wanted to know what she had and that they were treating it properly.

If your vet didn't suggest keeping her there for a couple hours to get a sample, and especially if they took a sample off of the floor, those are huge red flags. I would definitely be looking for another vet.

It's always tough to have a kitty with health problems, especially when you were told they were healthy. I'm sorry you're having to go through this, and I hope Tilly is feeling great ASAP!

I would highly recommend the needle draw from the bladder over the litter try.  Every single cat that I have that I've tried that fake litter stuff with has never peed in the box!  LOL  With the blood in the urine, there's definitely something going on.

Thanks everyone. I'm going to keep monitoring her and the box. My apartment is small so i's pretty "front and center" . She's visiting it much less...almost normal. She doesn't seem to be in pain, although I know sometimes it's tough to tell in cats. She's still running around killing toy mice and playing feather. she's also drinking and eating a lot more. Great to see.

I'll also try to insist that they take the next sample with a needle. I work with someone tomorrow who has a more holistic vet so I'll get that info and think about switching.

Cheetah, the athletes foot cream is what I used originally (lamisil). I think it was working ok but the vet thinks that may have raised her liver ALT level. She may have cleaned much of it off. She is quite fastidious and I just can't bear to have a cone on her 24 hrs. a day. Do you remember what it looked like in the healing stage? Can't find much info on that and to me, it seems less "angry" looking, not red or itchy. I don't want to try yet another med (duomo) if it's headed out. I think all the cleaning, itching and scratching of meds is what made it worse in the first place.

Off to get myself some green tea supplements and try to relax. Tilly hasn't left my lap all night so that hasn't changed.

Oh my goodness that last pic is adorable!

Poor baby. She looked really uncomfortable. Tilly only has one big and one small spot on her head so we're lucky. Your kitty was lucky to have you caring for her...it's such a trying condition. And all the cleaning, ugh!

Tillysmom said:

Oh my goodness that last pic is adorable!

Poor baby. She looked really uncomfortable. Tilly only has one big and one small spot on her head so we're lucky. Your kitty was lucky to have you caring for her...it's such a trying condition. And all the cleaning, ugh!

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It's actually how I ended up with her, worked for a vet (also my dad) and she came from the shelter with her mom and siblings.  She wasn't doing too good so I took her home to supplement feed her etc, then she broke out with ringworm.  I nursed her back to health and she had tugged on my heart strings so we kept the little stink.  Now she's so naughty it's a good thing she is so darn cute.  She likes to get into trouble.