Almost ubbelievable, *another* of my cats with problem (bladder infection)

Okay, some of you know my track record recently.

Duncan kitty: anaphylactic shock during routine dental in October - nearly died - $6000 vet bill to save his life in emergency care center

Rexy: triaditis diagnosis over xmas holidays - very serious issues - treating and she has stabilized

Murchie: pancreatitis diagnosis over xmas holidays - not very symptomatic but still treating and is in relatively stable condition now, but pancreatitis is a serious issue

Toffee: tons of bladder stones and bladder surgery over xmas holidays, dental done in late November with some problems with the healing where a canine was pulled out (this was fixed again during the bladder surgery)

Gryffin: limping kitten syndrome reaction to vaccination (very weird and not common)

That left but one cat of mine - Liam - that has been trouble free. How long did this last? Well, 4 days ago, he started to eat less and got lethargic. I wondered if another resorptive lesion as he does get these so hauled him into vet. Teeth actually looked pretty good. So geriatric blood panel and urine sample. Urine came out a colour like Coca-Cola diluated with melted ice cubes - horrified as I started to imagine worst case scenarios (cancer and such). Xray showed no bladder stones. I did not even post about this on here last night as I was just in shock to be facing *another* problem with my "problem-free" kitty. Test results back today, and it appears from bloodwork and urine analysis that he has a very bad bladder infection (he has never had one in his life). For now all the tests are pointing at bad bladder infection (let's hope this is the issue) but I will feel better once it clears up and we don't have to ponder other diagnoses. 

I know my cats are senior kitties so things can go wrong but this has been a lot to deal with in so short a time. Nursing is proving almost unmanageable as everyone has medications and individual needs to be met, including lots of coaxing to keep each kitty eating a good amount etc. which I am succeeding at, but it is work. Sigh...

Oh my!!! I think I would have gone to the looney bin already.....or started drinking.....or tried some street drugs....something to ease the insanity and anxiety.
Are you taking care of yourself? Make some time for yourself to relax.

I thought I had it rough with my Mosi during the holidays.....NOT. Yikes!

Scarlett 001, I feel your pain, your kitties' pain, and your wallet's pain!!

I have 8 cats, ranging in age from 4-8, all fixed, all indoors only. This has been the Year of the Sick Kitty in my house too! It seems like we've solved one health issue, and another one is right there to take it's place!

In 2013:

Louie (7 yrs, male) had a terrible case of pancreatitis. I had no idea he was sick as he didn't seem any different except he was meowing...a LOT. It went from a meow to a yowl, and I thought he was just 'chatty'. The yowls came more frequently so in to the vet he went, and we discovered the infection. Poor baby must have been in a lot of pain, and I didn't realize it. :-( Now he may have a UTI. I see him go into the litter box and come back out less than a minute later. When I look inside, there are 4-5 drops of light colored blood on the side of the box.

Duck (7yrs, female) started shedding a ton - way more than I've ever seen. Other than that she seemed fine, but started to be lethargic. Took her in and the vet said she had a "massive infection" of some type, but couldn't identify it. The excessive shedding was because she had a fever.  After a couple of weeks of antibiotics, she went back to normal. She now has very soft stools with a bit of bloody mucus at the end. She's also licked the fur off her big belly,

Autumn (8yrs, female) I can't remember what caused me to think she was sick, it could have been the blood in the stool like Duck has had. Took her in and she had such a bad UTI, the vet said her pee looked like 'tomato juice.' Give her a round of antibiotics on the house!

Turtle (4yrs, female) About 6 weeks ago, her behavior became odd. I took her into the vet to discover a kidney infection in her left kidney (which is now slightly smaller), mild pancreatitis and giardia. How she contracted giardia is a mystery. Two rounds of antibiotics, and I dosed all the cats for the giardia, just in case. She lost 3.5 pounds and went on an appetite stimulant which has unpleasant side effects. I'm worried she's not eating again, and she's started pulling her fur out again (she's a long haired tortie). She's on Prozac for that, but she's doing it again for some reason.

Shyla (7yrs, female) This poor girl has a chronic sinus problem that we can't figure out. She's had her teeth cleaned, tried 4 different antibiotics, a homeopathic remedy and had xrays. The xrays showed both her sinus cavities are completely full. The vet said she'd need an MRI, but that was too expensive to not also fix her. I just keep an eye on her and make sure she can breathe.

Luna (6yrs, female) has also licked off the fur on her belly. Don't know why. She's at a good weight, and healthy except for she sneezes a lot and I'm worried she may have asthma.

Wee (8yrs, female) has licked all the fur of her lower belly and the inside of her back legs. I'm not sure if she just doesn't like wet food anymore or if she doesn't feel like eating anything but dry food.

Peanut (5 yrs, female) is my Liam. Thankfully, There's nothing wrong with her (knock on wood). She is healthy, happy, and completely insane. If she gets sick too, I'm going to start pulling MY hair out!

I don't know why there has been such a rash of illnesses, one after the other. I know you have seniors, but still, why all at once or one after the other? I'm thinking I may have to do a mass exodus to the vet with everyone except Peanut (she'll wonder where we all went before she sees something shiny). If I can work out a plan for that huge visit (like not charging each cat an office visit fee) I may have to do that. I'm already at $2,600 that I owe them, and I am struggling to pull myself out of a financial hole (I'm getting there, I can see the light!) and I don't want to take advantage of their good nature any more than I already have.

This is the worst part about having cats own you - the constant worry about them!

Awww I am so sorry to hear this.  I hope things will get better for all your kitties soon and that you'll be able to have a peaceful, sickness free 2014.

Mosimom, well tbh my stress levels are high!! I've accidentally skipped way too many meals (not intentional, just get caught up running to and from vet clinics at meal time etc.) and even lost a few pounds - I've lost the same percentage of body weight as my kitties about whom I am worrying!! Time to start eating and sleeping properly and getting some routine back into my life.

8whiskers - wow - your laundry list of issues is on par with mine!! Just bananas!! One big fear with the senior kitties is that because of their age, I fear nasty diagnoses every time I have to take them in.

Tulosai, thank you for the well wishes. Honestly, if I can just get a few weeks without a "new" cat issue emerging, then I would settle for that. Just some stabilization of what is already a tricky situation.

What is so frustrating with troubled kitties is the assortment of opened and partly eaten tins of cat food in my fridge - every day I end up with a multitude of assorted opened cans in the fridge - every cat is changing their mind at every meal about which soft food they prefer that day - this alone is enough to drive one round the bend.  

Scarlett 001, are you looking in my refrigerator? ;-) I do the same thing! I did it with dry food too. Turtle has a horrible habit of loving something the first two times she eats it, then won't touch it after that. The last time she was at the vet's, the tech told me she had found the holy grail of food for Turtle. She "scarfed" down a lot of Veterinary Diet's D/M dry food. So I bought a bag. She fooled us again! Brought it home, put it in a bowl, she wouldn't touch it. Thank goodness the vet took it back - it was $35 for a 16 oz bag!!

What's the age range of all your kitties? Did they all come to you with special needs? I'm terrified of all of mine being geriatric at the same time. They're all still young and look how sick they get now! Sounds you have the classic Mama Cat syndrome of constant worry. I have it too. I don't believe there is a cure at this time...

I am seriously considering taking at least 5 of them to the vet in the next week (Peanut's obviously fine, Wee just has a nekkid belly and there's nothing I can do for Shyla). Even 5 at a time is an ordeal! Last year I decided to bug-bomb under my house, so the vet let me bring them all in to hang out for a couple of hours. I had to borrow 3 pet carriers since nobody likes to ride with someone else. They even found me a bigger one to accommodate Duck. All those carriers looked so funny in the vet's office, all facing different directions while they matched the right chart with the carrier. It looked like a New York City traffic jam (and Duck's carrier was the bus)!

8whiskers said:

 
Scarlett 001, are you looking in my refrigerator? ;-) I do the same thing! I did it with dry food too. Turtle has a horrible habit of loving something the first two times she eats it, then won't touch it after that. The last time she was at the vet's, the tech told me she had found the holy grail of food for Turtle. She "scarfed" down a lot of Veterinary Diet's D/M dry food. So I bought a bag. She fooled us again! Brought it home, put it in a bowl, she wouldn't touch it. Thank goodness the vet took it back - it was $35 for a 16 oz bag!!

What's the age range of all your kitties? Did they all come to you with special needs? I'm terrified of all of mine being geriatric at the same time. They're all still young and look how sick they get now! Sounds you have the classic Mama Cat syndrome of constant worry. I have it too. I don't believe there is a cure at this time...

I am seriously considering taking at least 5 of them to the vet in the next week (Peanut's obviously fine, Wee just has a nekkid belly and there's nothing I can do for Shyla). Even 5 at a time is an ordeal! Last year I decided to bug-bomb under my house, so the vet let me bring them all in to hang out for a couple of hours. I had to borrow 3 pet carriers since nobody likes to ride with someone else. They even found me a bigger one to accommodate Duck. All those carriers looked so funny in the vet's office, all facing different directions while they matched the right chart with the carrier. It looked like a New York City traffic jam (and Duck's carrier was the bus)!

Click to expand...

At least mine seem ok-ish with their dry food!! Wow, I've only ever taken at most 2 cats into the vet at the same time - maybe I once took in 3 at the same time. What craziness that would be to take so many in at once.

My kitties are 15 years old, 15 years old, 15 years old, 15 years old, 15 years old and < 1 year old!! I adopted them all at the same time when I was working at a no-kill cat shelter. I dreaded the day that they would become senior at the same time, but even in my wildest dreams I did not expect serious diagnoses to all be made within a 2 week period - diagnostics and figuring things out are so trying. I can handle (sort of, this is all relatively speaking) multiple issues at one time if things are stable but not the diagnosing and testing all happening at the same time. My kitties were overall relatively healthy until recently (main issues in past were serious blockage, one hyperthyroid cat, one asthmatic cat - plus assorted minor issues - but diagnosing was ok as these were all spaced out at least and managed successfully). I wanted them to stay healthy as long as possible, but I did realize the window in which things would go seriously wrong would also be a bit more condensed because of this, so somehow I have to come to terms with this.

OMG @Scarlett 001! I'm feeling stressed about your cats and their problems and they're not even mine! I'm so sorry for everything you are going through with your babies. Have you thought about any possible cause that is affecting all of them?  It seems a lot of this happened over the holidays. Did they get in to something? Was there a food change? Gosh...I'd be driving myself crazy trying to find a common denominator, but I suppose that it could be that most of them are seniors with senior problems. 

What do they drink? Tap water? Spring water?

GoHolistic said:

 
OMG @Scarlett 001! I'm feeling stressed about your cats and their problems and they're not even mine! I'm so sorry for everything you are going through with your babies. Have you thought about any possible cause that is affecting all of them? 

It seems a lot of this happened over the holidays. Did they get in to something? Was there a food change? Gosh...I'd be driving myself crazy trying to find a common denominator, but I suppose that it could be that most of them are seniors with senior problems. 

What do they drink? Tap water? Spring water?

Click to expand...

I did try to think of common denominators but both myself and the vets (I've seen lots of them over the holidays) see no identifiable causes. I think it is really just rotten luck. Duncan and Gryffin's issues were one-off bad luck. Rexy's had been developing for some time, but nothing remarkable was showing up in testing until now. Murchie really is not symptomatic at all - I just took him in because of minor weight loss which I only caught because I have a baby scale at home - I suppose his issues could have been brewing for some time and really it is strange that this has been diagnosed as few owners would even notice a few ounces of weight loss, yet alone haul a cat in to vet because of it (!!) but given my other cat issues I was hyper-alert and hauled Murchie in rather quickly. Toffee and Liam are a bit strange, but no common denominators at all (no major diet change or otherwise). They drink tap water which is good quality where I live, but I admit that since all this happened I have switched to spring water!!

The reason I asked is because I noticed a significant reduction in vomiting when I switched my cats to purified water (by reverse osmosis). My tap water is considered "safe" but it certainly leaves a rainbow of colors in the tub and toilet bowl, so after Sebastian's issues, I didn't want to risk it.

GoHolistic said:

 
The reason I asked is because I noticed a significant reduction in vomiting when I switched my cats to purified water (by reverse osmosis). My tap water is considered "safe" but it certainly leaves a rainbow of colors in the tub and toilet bowl, so after Sebastian's issues, I didn't want to risk it.

Click to expand...

Right, makes sense.

Now, on a positive note, I have 5 original cats that are all 15 years old - I have always recognized to have all 5 original cats make it to 15 years old without losing even one of them along the way is a super track record. And only some well-managed issues up until now (hyper-t and asthma). And all of my kitties have either perfect or pretty-good-for-a-senior-cat kidney results in all of this recent bloodwork so this is actually super fortunate for their age. So while I've had a bout of bad luck in the past few weeks, I know in the big picture that my cats have done super well as a group!!  

Wow, as a group your cats really HAVE fared well!

It's just so overwhelming when they're all sick at once. I've ordered my cats (like they'll listen) not to all get sick at the same time when they're old. I completely forbade it, but no one listens to me around here, so I don't expect a miracle... ;-)

Even more kudos to you that you worked in a no-kill shelter! I am not strong enough to do that, I'd end up with a lot more than 5 cats! I just feel so helpless in shelters, I just want to scoop everyone up and save them, but last time I checked I'm not the sole heiress to a mega-fortune, haven't won so much as a dollar in the powerball, and the money tree I planted in the backyard just won't bear any fruit! ;-)

It's times like these I really wish there was a fund for people like us - who have many cats and do the best we can by them, but sometimes the vet bills are unexpected and astronomical. I've investigated some of the charities that award money to people that need help paying their vet bills, but the qualifications are so restrictive that none of us "regular folks" would qualify!

I remember hearing stories about women posting on the internet about wanting strangers to pay for their boob job, and they got the money, Why can't there be crazy old eccentrics like that willing to give money to us cat parents?!?!

8whiskers said:

 
Wow, as a group your cats really HAVE fared well!

I remember hearing stories about women posting on the internet about wanting strangers to pay for their boob job, and they got the money, Why can't there be crazy old eccentrics like that willing to give money to us cat parents?!?!

Click to expand...

Thank you for that comment!! Probably good to focus on the good fortune that I've had - otherwise I could just curl up in despair!! The woman who runs the no-kill shelter where I got my kitties is AMAZED that Rexy and Murchie have made it to 15 years old, as they had really troubled beginnings that would predispose them to not do nearly as well as they have - so I felt a bit of pride when I heard that recently.

Wishful thinking that anyone would do something so kind as to help cat parents!! If only!!

Wow, you sure have been through the ringer lately.  I just have 3 kitties out of 5 who are having issues right now, oh and my dog.  Next on my agenda is to get Munchie's asthma and respiratory infection taken care of.  Tried to deal with the most pressing issues first.  I hope that your kitties are all on the mend and no more sickies at your house. 

cprcheetah said:

 
Wow, you sure have been through the ringer lately.  I just have 3 kitties out of 5 who are having issues right now, oh and my dog.  Next on my agenda is to get Munchie's asthma and respiratory infection taken care of.  Tried to deal with the most pressing issues first.  I hope that your kitties are all on the mend and no more sickies at your house. 

Click to expand...

Is Munchie on Flovent for asthma? That is what Rexy has been on for a few years with great success. I love that you have a Munchie and I have a Murchie!!

Well in response to your last comment, I've had 3 hours of stability in my house which may be a track record for the past few weeks - no apparent need for a vet visit this evening!! Ha ha!!

Scarlett 001 said:

 
Is Munchie on Flovent for asthma? That is what Rexy has been on for a few years with great success. I love that you have a Munchie and I have a Murchie!!

Well in response to your last comment, I've had 3 hours of stability in my house which may be a track record for the past few weeks - no apparent need for a vet visit this evening!! Ha ha!!

Click to expand...

We have him on Flovent but he is still really wheezy, not sure if it's due to the chronic respiratory infection or if his asthma is acting up.  I have an Albuterol rescue inhaler that we have had to use a lot lately so his asthma is not under good control.  LMAO at your 3 hours of stability.  Take it while you can get it.

cprcheetah said:

 
We have him on Flovent but he is still really wheezy, not sure if it's due to the chronic respiratory infection or if his asthma is acting up.  I have an Albuterol rescue inhaler that we have had to use a lot lately so his asthma is not under good control.  LMAO at your 3 hours of stability.  Take it while you can get it.

Click to expand...

Just curious. What dosage of Flovent is he on? Rexy is on the 225 or 250, 2pumps 2x a day (4 pumps total). A higher dosage but it works for her.

Scarlett 001 said:

 
Just curious. What dosage of Flovent is he on? Rexy is on the 225 or 250, 2pumps 2x a day (4 pumps total). A higher dosage but it works for her.

Click to expand...

He is on 220mcg 2 puffs 2x a day.

Scarlett 001 said:

 
Now, on a positive note, I have 5 original cats that are all 15 years old - I have always recognized to have all 5 original cats make it to 15 years old without losing even one of them along the way is a super track record. And only some well-managed issues up until now (hyper-t and asthma). And all of my kitties have either perfect or pretty-good-for-a-senior-cat kidney results in all of this recent bloodwork so this is actually super fortunate for their age. So while I've had a bout of bad luck in the past few weeks, I know in the big picture that my cats have done super well as a group!!  

Click to expand...

Yes, in looking at the big picture, you're doing a wonderful job taking care of them! 

During those times when I finally get stability in my house, I take advantage of some much needed rest. 

may I ask how you post a forum? I have a few cat issues of myself that I would like to post