Please Help Me Figure Out What's Wrong With Scout

We have no money for a vet right now, so we're hoping to buy a couple of weeks until the money comes in.

Here’s the problem. Scout hasn’t been urinating much and we haven’t seen him defecate for a couple of days. There has been no indication of pain, and the only indicator of discomfort that we see is that he licks his genital area shortly after hopping out of the box. He visits the box frequently, but usually only a little urine comes out. We’ve been treating him with cranberry extract which seems to be helping a little as the urine spots in the box are often a little larger than they were when this first started about two days ago. Again, he doesn’t seem to be in pain. He is very active and playful and has access to clean, fresh drinking water. He doesn’t react negatively to being picked up. His belly is not sensitive nor is his bladder area. Can anybody give me insights to what may be going on?

It sounds like Scout has an urinary tract issue of some kind. It's impossible to determine what's causing it without an urinalysis as there can be various causes and treatment will differ depending on the cause. Cranberry extract will be of limited value to cats and potentially harmful as cranberries contain benzoic acid which is toxic to cats.

I would really urge you to get him to a vet sooner rather than later. Although he doesn't like he is there yet, a blockage in males can be fatal in less than 24 hours. If he stops peeing completely, it becomes an emergency situation.

I'm hoping he can keep peeing for just a little longer. Like I said, we have no money, and the new guy who took over the clinic doesn't do payments. (We don't have any credit, so we can't get CareCredit. ) The good news is I finally saw him defecate.

Maybe some of the suggestions here can help. http://www.thecatsite.com/t/155462/cant-afford-a-vet-please-read

I hadn't known about some of those suggestions. Thanks! We've tried to work with ou rlocal vets before regarding "horse-trading" and payments, but they've all got their own bills to pay as well and simply won't deal with people. We don;t want free care, we just want to set up payments.

When I say "We can't afford a vet", I mean I have 27 cents in my pocket and my husband just spent our last 20 bucks on groceries (and he nearly had to nab my 27 cents!). We had the cats when money was good, but he's now on disability and I'm on unemployment. I'm awaiting a call from the state to se if they'll release my money yet. (It's been on hold for two months thanks to a clerical error.)

We have cat rescue places here. I didn't think to ask them to see what can be done to help. I'll call one now! (It's close to 5PM here, so I'd better scoot!)

It really does sound like a urinary infection and in males could, as others have said, be fatal quite quickly.

You really do need to get him to a vet asap.  Check with local rescues, maybe someone can help.,

In the meantime, you can try to flush him out with water to try and keep the crystals from blocking him so quickly.   Understand this is not instead of a vet, it might just buy you a little bit of time to get proper help.

Take an eye dropper or syringe and force-feed him water from it. Give him 8 to 10 droppers every 15 minutes 4 or 5 times, then keep on doing it maybe every 1/2 hour to an hour.  Hopefully it will help him pee out some of the crystals.

Your kitty sounds like he is having urinary tract issues, sounds like he is trying to block which can be VERY dangerous and life threatening to your kitty, is there any way you can borrow the money from a family member or take out a payday loan or something?  This is a very serious issue and your cat could die.

One other thing you need to consider is that it would end up being a LOT cheaper if you see a vet before the cat gets completely blocked rather than after.

After he'd need surgery.

We're already extended on payday loans, and friends and family are as broke as we are. We don't have much else we can sell or pawn.

I know he should go to a vet. I know it would be cheaper to do it sooner than later, but I'm not being dramatic when I say we have "no money". I know for some folks that means "I don't want to put out that much money." For us it means "If it's going to cost more than a dollar, we don't have it."

The good news is that the rescue place that we called is willing to work with us. We're taking him in tomorrow morning, and he's been drinking water this evening. They say that's a good sign. I don't know if they have an on-site vet or if they'll take him in on their account, but she said they understand that a lot of  people are hurting in this economy, and they're willing to help.

Thanks for the tip about calling the rescue place. It really helped!

I am so glad to hear that you found someone to help Scout. Many vibes for him and lots of hugs for you. Hope he's feeling better soon.

I'm really glad you found someone to help.  the water thing helps a lot.  Even if he's drinking water, give him more with an eyedropper or syringe.  It can make a big difference.  You want it to flush out his bladder as much as possible.