FLUTD, lost companion, and now gastritis

Hi there...I am brand new to this site and hoping maybe someone has had an experience like this and can give me some guidance.

My 2-year old cat Meeko was acting strange about three weeks ago so I brought him into the vet and they found crystals in his bladder and said he had FLUTD. He has always eaten dry food, so the vet switched him to C/D dry food and said to try getting him to eat some wet food as well. They also gave him some pain meds and antispasmodics. Four days after this, he was really having trouble in his litterbox so back to the vet we went. He wasn't blocked, but the vet had to catheterize him to empty his bladder. They gave him some antibiotics in case of an infection and said he really needed to be on an all wet food C/D diet so we made the switch. Another week passed and Meeko started peeing all over my apartment. After a call to the vet they decided to switch him to Royal Canin S/O wet food and gave him Dasuquin as a supplement to take twice daily. The food that they gave me was chunks of food in gravy and he refused to eat it. After not eating for 24 hours, I tried giving him a different formulation of the wet S/O on Christmas Eve and he loved it.

It finally seemed like things were on the mend. But....in addition to Meeko, I was also the proud mama of a little bunny and he died on Christmas day. Meeko and my bunny were buddies and Meeko kept looking around for his friend for days. Then three days later I woke up to Meeko vomiting. Over the course of a couple hours he vomited 10 times! And he refused food and water. I brought him to the emergency vet and they couldn't find any kind of obstruction and his bloodwork came back normal, so they diagnosed it as gastritis. He was in the hospital getting fluids for two days and they told me he was so so scared and very stressed out. I visited him and they had me try to feed him but he wouldn't eat more than a mouthful of dry food. 

I was able to take him home today and he is eating Royal Canin dry S/O, which is not as good as the wet for his crystals, but it's better than nothing. He ate a good amount and drank some water, which makes me very happy. But he has had some very loose stool and he has been sleeping and sleeping since i brought him home. I'm sure he's just worn out from being so stressed out. But he cries whenever I come near him and that makes me so sad.

Sorry about the long winded story. Meeko is my first cat, and I have been very lucky with all of my previous pets. They have never been sick and needed emergency care. It just makes me nervous that the doctors couldn't figure out what could have caused his gastritis. They said he could be allergic to his food, but the only way we will know is if he eats and starts throwing up again. I don't really like the sound of that plan. Anyways, I was just wondering if anyone had ever had any experience like this or could offer any advice.

Thanks for listening to a new poster who is worried about her poor little guy. It has been a rough couple of weeks.

I'm going through something similar so I wanted to post and at least let you know someone was listening. I'm just learning all about FLUTD myself

so I won't be much help, but I'm sorry you are going through this and I'm sorry about your little bunny.

My boy is still stuck at the vets and he isn't eating yet and the vets haven't been much help. It's going on seven days now.

I really think you shouldn't bother with dry food if your cat isn't set in their ways of having it.

Anyway you could maybe get a second opinion? 

I would make sure he has some good pain medications and the bladder relaxer prazosin. My cat was and is still on the relaxerand I did find it made him have diarrhea almost daily at first becuase I think it relaxes everything. He eventually got used to the meds and now it is just occasional. You kitty is just really sore all over and afraid to go to the bathroom that is what the pain meds are for. It will take him a couple weeks to be himself again and he will pee often now small amounts. To get more moisture in his diet you may want to wet the dry food he is eating now and put out several water bowls to encourage him to drink more. He is just miserable now with the bladder problems and losing his friend but hopefully he will be better soon. This is a stressful conditoon full of worry but if your kitty has the right set of medications he can come through this ok. Mine did.

Thank you guys very much for your responses. Meeko seems to be doing much better now. He wasn't allowed to be on any kind of medication for his FLUTD because of the medicine he was on for his gastritis. It was a long couple of days after he came home. He just always seemed so miserable and the doctor was worried that maybe some crystals had come back. But now he is eating plenty and loving his water and seems to be on the mend. He is still wary of me, which breaks my heart, but I guess he's still upset about the whole ordeal. Now that he's finally eating a normal diet I can get him back on his normal medicine and then we will be all clear! I really hope your kitties feel better soon!