Recovery/care after blockage

Hi, I am feeling exactly the same. Picked my 2yr old male up this evening. He is eating but sitting in the litter tray very often and peeing little amounts each time. I've got 4 lots of meds to give him. I've shut him off upstairs to separate him from the other cat and earlier he was settled on the bed which was nice. I've got to ring the vet tmrw as she wants to see how he is, then he is booked in for checkup later this week. I don't know what I will do if he gets a recurrence as he is not insured. It's been a very stressful few days so any reassurance his recovery is normal will be most appreciated.

Melanie Andrews said:

Hi, I am feeling exactly the same. Picked my 2yr old male up this evening. He is eating but sitting in the litter tray very often and peeing little amounts each time. I've got 4 lots of meds to give him. I've shut him off upstairs to separate him from the other cat and earlier he was settled on the bed which was nice. I've got to ring the vet tmrw as she wants to see how he is, then he is booked in for checkup later this week. I don't know what I will do if he gets a recurrence as he is not insured. It's been a very stressful few days so any reassurance his recovery is normal will be most appreciated.

Click to expand...

Yes, this is normal.  What are you feeding him now?  As you read in the above thread, he needs to be drinking plenty of water, and needs to be eating the right kind of food to try to prevent future issues.  

Thanks for the reply. The vet gave me some royal canin urinary pouches which he is not that keen on. They also gave me some of the dry as a last resort. I tried mixing it but he just picked the dry bits and spat the rest out! I guess I need to be tough and assume he will eat it eventually, at the moment he eats a little then leaves it, but if i put the dry stuff out he will eat that so he does have an appetite. Not sure how much he is drinking. He always liked drinking from the tap,but that isn't interesting him today. I've got bowls and glasses of water around for him to drink from and I've also put a little water with his food as he does tend to lick the juices.

Anyway I got myself in a state earlier because of the litter trips, especially as he did growl a little after one trip. I rang the vet. she said she was ok with this as long as he looks comfortable (he does), isn't vomiting (he isn't) and does pass something, even if its only a little. She said he is likely to still be in pain and doesn't think he is in any danger So I will continue with his medicines and hope he starts passing more urine. I tried to buy a fountain today but couldn't find any decent ones so I have ordered one online.

It's just stressful as I have to leave him for work. I already had to leave my job this evening before I'd even started cause I was getting upset. At least this was only my casual job and they could cover, but I cant' expect my proper work to be so tolerant tomorrow. I am tempted to drop him back in to be monitored, but he did get very stressed in the vets, they commented that he would be better off recovering at home.

Sorry for the long post, I'm just a silly mess at the moment!

What was he eating before he blocked?  Was it dry food?  Do not be fooled and think that he will eat if he gets hungry enough.  Cat's will starve themselves rather than eat something they don't like.  You need to find something he likes, preferably wet food because whatever he was on before obviously wasn't good for him.  My cats were all on dry food and I was able to switch them all to wet food, and one of them had been eating dry for 12 years.  Now none of them will touch the dry stuff   It's just a matter of finding wet foods they like. 

I don't think you are in the United States, are you?  Here, we have Fancy Feast CLASSICS, which almost no cat can resist.  I think perhaps in other countries they are called Fancy Fast GOURMET?  Anyway, if you have Fancy Feast at all, look for the ones that do NOT have any wheat gluten or any carbohydrates of any kind.  That might be a good place to start, and most grocery stores sell them.  Also, Friskies Special Diet cans are specifically made for PH balance and are low in carbs, and easy on the pocketbook.  Most cats like these wet foods if they haven't eaten canned foods before (especially the Fancy Feast).  What you have to be careful of, though, is that both of these brands have cans that also are full of carbs, so you have to get the correct ones.

Here is a thread about feeding to avoid crystals:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/268561/best-canned-food-for-preventing-struvite-crystals

BTW, since this is actually on someone else's thread, and they receive emails everyone someone does any activity on it, I'm going to ask a moderator to split out your comments into a separate thread
 

When my cat had crystals two years ago, he was completely blocked. It was only a fluke that I happened to even catch it! I was on my boyfriends computer and the litter box was nearby. I looked over and noticed our cat was in there for 10 minutes and nothing was happening. I freaked. I did some internet research, thinking it was constipation, but decided it wasn't worth the risk of waiting. We took him to vet emergency where we were told he was completely blocked.

He spent almost two weeks at the vet, hooked up to a catheter. After that he had to be brought back every day for another week so they could drain his bladder. It was awful. He had to wear that cone thing for almost two weeks because he kept trying to lick down there and it was causing him to heal slower. Licking is very bad, very irritating on that part.

Recovery was very slow, and I have been obsessed with his peeing habits ever since. I would NEVER make the mistake of not noticing him not peeing ever again. The litter is cleaned every single day now, and thankfully he usually pees in the same spot so I can see how much there is.

He eats 90% canned food now - at least, his meals are only canned, but I give dry food for games, exercise, etc. I give T/D dry because it has dl-methionine which is a medication that is helpful for urinary issues. I also give him some Taste of the Wild, small amounts.

I also recently bought some PH strips. This really takes the mystery out of what is going on!!! For the first year after he blocked I was taking him back to the vet for a urine analysis every 4 months, because I was SO paranoid! But now, I can keep track of his PH.

I also started giving him chicken broth - home made (no salt). I put the broth into ice cube trays and each night I microwave a cube and add a bit of T/D to it (otherwise he won't drink it). This helps him a lot, he's peeing much more, and PH is good.

He licked himself A LOT, for a long time. It was disturbing. And when he came back from the vet he had a new strange sensitivity "down there" because he started trying to hump things. He also started spraying right around that time, and two years later we only have that under control with Feliway.

Peeing for him was a very traumatic experience for a VERY long time. Even now he still has days where he just doesn't want to go pee, the memories are too strong. He'll pace for a while, crying, because he has to go pee - but doesn't *want* to. Sometimes I have to go upstairs with him, to the litter box and talk to him gently, tell him it's ok. Then he'll go.

After he's peed, he often flies out of his box and runs away at full speed. So, psychologically, he hasn't really *fully* recovered. He has nightmares (lot's of twitching and spazzing when sleeping - our other cat doesn't do this)

@Sara457: Your poor baby .. He has been through quite the ordeal! ... Sounds like you are doing all the right things and life is getting back to some normalcy for him despite the trauma and aversion to the litter box. Hope things can continue to improve for him.

My young Tuxedo was just diagnosed with struvite crystals as the result of a routine urinalysis I had done on him. He is not experiencing ANY issues with urination however, was not blocked or licking, etc. So it was just good timing that I did the urinalysis. We are currently feeding an RC S/O food to dissolve the crystals. His regular diet is high protein wet canned and so the crystals came as quite a surprise. However, Thomas is not a frequent pee-er, and this along with perhaps not enough moisture, can also cause crystals, I have learned. I plan on purchasing some PH strips shortly so I can monitor progress before our next urinalysis.

Posts have been split from this thread.