Cat has urine retention, should I put him down.

Hey I'm new here.

I've got a 4 year old cat named 9. Just 2 days ago, he got run over by my car down the driveway, he screamed then ran off immediately when he got himself free. Took my family 8 hours to find and lure him out of the storm drain pipe. Immediately took him to the vet.

He's got no broken bones except a really bad wound on one of his hind legs which they couldn't fully stitch together because there wasn't enough skin on his leg. AND a broken (dislocated) tail, he can't feel anything even if you pressed really really hard so the vet said there is next to no chance of recovery and will have to be amputated. I'm totally okay with this.

The biggest problem is that he is faecal incontinence meaning he is no longer conscious of his poo coming out so he'll poo everywhere and urine retention meaning he can't pass urine at all on his own, due to nerve damage when he dislocated his tail.

What this means for him? That if we were to keep him alive, we would always have to clean up his poo and we have to manually express him ourselves at least 3-4 times a day. Which our whole family of 4 are very willing to do. Looking at his X rays, the vet said it doesn't look like it's spine is fractured and they have no way to find out but there might be a little chance that the nerve is just stretched and not broken so he might recover.

But the vet said that if he can't urinate on his own his quality of life is less and suggested we think about putting him down. I'm at a loss at what to do.

But he's our precious family and we all don't want to lose him because when his leg recovers he would be able to run and jump again with the only problem being we will have to clean up alot and express him 3-4 times a day.

He's currently staying at the vet and he's not eating or drinking and has to be put on fluids because of the pain that his leg is causing him.

At the moment, our family all agree on letting his leg recover and as of now we are learning to express his urine and then we'll see how he goes with the urine problem, if he's really upset and is not adapting, we will consider euthanasia.

Telling the vet that, he implied that we are doing this because of ourselves and not wanting to lose him and we're not thinking about him. But we really want to see how 9 feels after his leg has recovered and whether he is able to get used to it, and if there's a chance of recovery however little it may be, I want to try.

I feel I should give him a chance, to express his feelings because I respect his feelings and give him a chance of recovery. I feel I shouldn't give up on him when he might not have given up on himself yet. I do not want to give him up knowing I haven't done everything I can possibly do for him. Because when his leg recovers he'll be suffering no pain.

And even when he sees us coming to see him at the vet he quickly shifts to a better position to look at us. Apart from whining a little when he shifts positions due to his pain, he's eyes are wide open, he's looking around curiously, leans his head on our hands. And I can never forget the image of him on the night I was trying to lure him out of the pipe in the storm drain. I jumped into the storm drain, constanly meowing at him, we were meowing at each other back and forth like we were having a conversation. At first he was sitting there just meowing at me, but despite all the pain he must've been in, he slowly stepped towards me, one step at a time like a baby making his first steps. How can we bear to put him down when he fought so hard despite all that pain? And even his condition now, if you just, wide awake, curious.

We love our boy so much, he is the pride and joy of our family. But the vets are professionals and we can't disregard what they say and urine retention will greatly lower his quality if life and there might even be infections that come with it.

I'm loss at what's best for him because that's all I want. I've read about a user here called Spike and his cat Max on here who had the same problem but was able to live happily with manual expression of his urine and that really motivated me, if someone has done it before, there is hope. But that was back in 2004 and I wish to get a lot of opinions and advice from everyone here. Thank you in advance.


- Winnie

I'm so sorry your poor boy is going through this. Though I don't have any experience with fecal incontinence or urine retention, many of our members do. Perhaps you'll find some useful info in their threads:

Urine retention due to broken tail
http://www.thecatsite.com/newsearch?search=Incontinence&type=35

Hopefully somebody will be along soon who can give you some advice.

Hi;

I strongly urge you to take him to another vet. I doubt this vet has much experience with this kind of injury. I have seen cats make a good recovery if given some time. For now you will need to learn how to express the bladder, but that won't be hard. It is just to soon to tell right now how much of this is just inflammation of the nerves etc that will go down in time and he will be okay. Every cat is an individual but they do have amazing healing ability.

If he were my cat I would find a vet more in tune with how you view your cat and I would give him at least a month.

Most importantly I would never euthanize a cat based on one veterinarians opinion. Yes the vet is a professional etc. but that doesn't make him an expert in any way shape or form. There is way to much information for one person no matter how bright, to know about multiple species. This vet may just be a vet geared more towards dogs or a Vetosaurus. (very ancient thinking vet that hasn't kept up to date on medicine) They are lurking everywhere.

Also check out a site called handicappedpets.com they have allot of information and supplies for pets with handicaps even if only a temporary problem.

I wouldn't give up on 9 yet. He sounds like a fighter, and it's amazing what you and your family are willing to do for him. I hope you can get some more opinions from more vets, and I hope 9 gets better soon!

I think you and your family are being more compassionate than the vet. You're giving 9 time to heal, and perhaps for the elimination conditions to improve. Once you're expressing and cleaning up at home, you'll see whether you and 9 can tolerate it all.

If you live somewhere with a good number of vets and can afford to pay another, please do try another (or even more than 1) to see if you can find a more positive one with experience caring for cats with such problems.

My wife has cared for a cat with similar problems from a different cause. Once that cat got used to a new person doing what "Mom" usually does, her working relationship with my wife became quite good, even though it includes occasional baths. (That fecal incontinence can be .... well, you know.)

Make sure you have a bunch of old towels or puppy training pads for the inevitable messes. Enzyme cleaner (we use Nature's Miracle) and a solution of chlorine bleach in warm water work wonders on floors.

Best of luck.

Al