- Joined
- Dec 15, 2014
- Messages
- 20
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Hi folks,
I have a 5 year old male tabby who for the better part of a year was having urination issues (going to the litterbox once per hour to let only a small amount out, straining, blood in urine, occassional urination outside the litterbox). We tried a few different interventions (antibiotics, etc.) and did blood work a few times which revealed some higher than normal calcium levels.
So, when we noticed our cat was losing weight, we asked our vet if we could step up the treatment and he sent us to get an ultrasound. Lo and behold, he had 3 large bladder stones, so on Friday (12/12) we immediately got him surgery to have them removed. The surgery was a success, but in his pre-op blood work, the vet found that his kidney levels (creatinine) were borderline high. Also, it's clear on the ultrasound that one kidney is quite a bit larger than the other, so it would seem that our poor lil guy had acute kidney failure at some point before the surgery.
After keeping him overnight and giving him fluids (diuresis), his kidney levels returned to normal, so the vet let us take our cat home. It's now been a couple days of recovery on antibiotics and pain killers, and he's *still* going to the litterbox every hour. He always lets something out, even if it's a few drops, but it seems like he goes whether he has to or not. The vet that did the surgery says this is normal for a couple days as his bladder heals, but not if it continues. The second concern I have is that I'm getting conflicting information from our family vet (who referred us to the surgeon) and the surgeon- our family vet is concerned that the kidney levels are likely to go back up, that the fluids only temporarily solved the problem. Our surgeon is unconcerned about that.
So- 1) has anyone had a male cat who went through this surgery? Did they take a while to recover normal urine function? and 2) has anyone had a cat that went into acute kidney failure and responded to fluids immediately? Did he/she recover kidney function after that?
I have a 5 year old male tabby who for the better part of a year was having urination issues (going to the litterbox once per hour to let only a small amount out, straining, blood in urine, occassional urination outside the litterbox). We tried a few different interventions (antibiotics, etc.) and did blood work a few times which revealed some higher than normal calcium levels.
So, when we noticed our cat was losing weight, we asked our vet if we could step up the treatment and he sent us to get an ultrasound. Lo and behold, he had 3 large bladder stones, so on Friday (12/12) we immediately got him surgery to have them removed. The surgery was a success, but in his pre-op blood work, the vet found that his kidney levels (creatinine) were borderline high. Also, it's clear on the ultrasound that one kidney is quite a bit larger than the other, so it would seem that our poor lil guy had acute kidney failure at some point before the surgery.
After keeping him overnight and giving him fluids (diuresis), his kidney levels returned to normal, so the vet let us take our cat home. It's now been a couple days of recovery on antibiotics and pain killers, and he's *still* going to the litterbox every hour. He always lets something out, even if it's a few drops, but it seems like he goes whether he has to or not. The vet that did the surgery says this is normal for a couple days as his bladder heals, but not if it continues. The second concern I have is that I'm getting conflicting information from our family vet (who referred us to the surgeon) and the surgeon- our family vet is concerned that the kidney levels are likely to go back up, that the fluids only temporarily solved the problem. Our surgeon is unconcerned about that.
So- 1) has anyone had a male cat who went through this surgery? Did they take a while to recover normal urine function? and 2) has anyone had a cat that went into acute kidney failure and responded to fluids immediately? Did he/she recover kidney function after that?