Recovery from Struvite Crystals

My cat Marvel recently came home from being hospitalized for 2 days - he had struvite crystals which were unblocked and he was then catheterized and monitored.

The initial procedure was done at a 24hr emergency hospital, we then transferred him to his regular vet. The regular vet was very unhelpful when I called to check in on him and when we picked him up, I didn't even get to speak to the Dr. They send him home with a prescription diet ONLY. No antibiotics, nothing for pain management whatsoever. Turns out they FORGOT to give us his prescription.

Needless to say I made an appt with another vet the following day and called to chew the regular vet out for not taking proper care of our pet. The new vet is AMAZING and got him set on several different medications plus a different prescription diet.

However, Marvel is not eating or drinking much on his own and has been sleeping a ton. He is also only peeing a little at a time and sometimes does not make it to the litter box to do so. I know he has been through an ordeal and that he needs time to recover, but I am worried about him. I am wondering if any of you could provide info on personal experiences with recovery from this kind of procedure. We have had to force feed him some evaporated milk today after visiting the new vet yesterday - he goes back to the new vet again tomorrow for a check up. 

He is only a year old and has been in great health prior to this. He is also my first pet living on my own as an adult so the level of worry and stress is very high. 

I have never had a blocked kitty but have 2 kitties who have bladder issues.  My first recommendation is to read this site:  http://catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth it is written by a veterinarian and has excellent information about it.  For my kitties what I have done is gone to a canned food only diet with additional 1-2 tablespoons of water added to their food.  I give them both Cosequin which helps with bladder inflammation.  The key to preventing future issues is to increase the water in the diet, more water in = more water out which keeps the bladder flushed so the crystals don't have a chance to settle.  I do not have either of my kitties on a prescription diet, and have been issue free for 4 years up until this past month with of them who is having other issues as well.

Did they just catheterize him then? They did not cut him open and remove stones directly from the bladder?

My kitty had the latter surgery last week and it also involved having a catheter in him as well. He peed wee amounts for the first 3 days or so and I was very anxious. I know how to feel a bladder to tell if it was blocking, but I was worried enough not to trust myself so took him into the clinic so a vet tech could check it for me (all was fine). He was also leaking urine for the first few days. It took about 4-5 days or so before he started to stabilize and pee more normally.

You might end up needing to syringe feed if he does not start eating more, so maybe you can talk to your vet about that. Not eating as you probably know can become serious in a cat quickly.

I just wrote a long reply to the other new thread about urinary blockages, so you might want to take a look at what I wrote there too.

@Scarlett 001  They did just catheterize him - the crystals were struvite so they were flushed easily from his bladder.

Thank you so much for that feedback - I spoke with our new vet and she told his to syringe feed him until he started eating on his own. We were able to get some evaporated milk in him and he actually ate some canned food on his own last night! 

He is peeing small amounts and leaking around the house quite a bit but I'm glad to hear that is normal while he is recovering.

We are taking him to the vet tonight to have his bladder checked again and we have been feeling it periodically - when I took him to the emergency room it felt very stiff so we've been watching out for that. 

He has still been sleeping a lot but has started purring again Hopefully he is on the mend and doesn't re-block!

Thank you again!

Good luck!!

I was just so upset after the surgery with the leaking and I was so worried he was blocking. But all is okay now. Hopefully your kitty recovers quickly - sounds like he is on the mend already if he is beginning to eat again.

My husband just stopped by the house to check on him and he is drinking water and eating on his own!!! Great news!!!!

     

All I can add is that my cat Lloyd had these issues about 16 years ago, so pardon my memory! Lloyd was in and out of the vet office for several weeks, catheter etc,  Finally was told that dry foods or foods with high ash content contributed to condition. So I no longer purchased any more cheap food and at the time Purina offered a low ash dry food. He did pretty well for many years, and then about 10 years later, he let me know he was having some sort of problems - urinating on bathroom floor. There was blood mixed in the urine, and I thought - Here we go again!  Went to vet immediately and got things cleared up. My serious vet then came to front counter, and in his usual, tell it like it is, announced "You know your cat has no penis"  I was of course dumbfounded, and do not remember the vet that had treated him 16 years ago ever mentioning that! Moving forward, Lloyd is now over 18 years old!  He suffers now with old kitty issues, kidney problems, which are common to aging, and constipation issues which has been consuming a few visits to the vet, along with searching the internet, and now finally joining several cat information sites. My only advice would be TO RUN FROM DRY FOOD!  I  don.t care what anyone says, it is not in a cat's best interest!  I finally stopped buying it even serving it to the outdoor kitties...which caused my big beautiful furry white Plumberto to seek (and now live with a neighbor down the street) yes, I tried to retrieve him, but he went right back to the most likely cheap dry food that they provide - kitty crack!  I have dabbled in raw feeding, even bought a Tasin 108 grinder and was ready to go - until I read another website called NO MORE GRINDERS, which made even more sense than Lisa Pierson DMV's web - which will also show you a terrifying photo segment of cat being treated for urinary problems! You will never feed your cat dry food again! She also lists just about every kind of canned food and all kinds of great information for the kitties.  I  feed the cats a little raw chicken, cut from the thigh, and then give them the rest of the thigh bone to gnaw on, which is good for teeth cleaning - and they just love tossing the bones around like a mouse! I give them other meat from pasture raised goats and sheep,cattle that comes from a ranch from the gal hat sells at the local farmers market. Raw chicken livers (but not too many at a time) and am lucky to have large Asian population and source chicken hearts, the liver and gizzards (which cats are not as fond of)  Trader Joe's Turkey Giblet in the can, by the cases1 I don't get the one with rice, as rice negates Biotin absorption. Although heart meat has a lot of Taurine (Essential for cats) I  bought some L-Taurine at health food store, too hard to find at regular pharmacies. Of course  WATER!  WATER ! WATER !    I ordered that Pioneer water fountains today from the Amazon link from review posted on this cite. Good luck with kitty -  he has been through a lot at vets, and should be fine as long as you keep an eye on symptoms - which hopefully will not reoccur!