Cat with Tear in Urethra

We had to take my parents' cat (large 6 year old neutered outdoor male) to the vet this morning because he was obviously distressed.  Hiding, growling and yowling, generally not wanting to be handled.  I didn't interact with him much before bringing him to the vet besides putting him in the carrier since it obviously made him uncomfortable.  When we got there and the tech took him out of his carrier bloody urine went all over the place.  We then noticed that one of his legs was very swollen and uncomfortable.  He's normally a very docile cat, but the vet had to sedate him to do a full examination.  Long story short, turns out that he has a stone blocking his urethra, the urethra tore and urine began filling in his leg.  The bloody urine wasn't coming out of the urethral opening, but rather from an opening in his leg.  They completely shaved the area to find that because of the swelling in the area a significant portion of the skin is beginning to die off, and will continue to do so.  They were able to get a catheter in him, so the vet's current plan is to keep that in for a week or so to give the tear an opportunity to heal while managing the dying skin.  Additional measures like antibiotics and pain management are being taken as well, but I'm not sure of exactly what they're using for him.

Has anyone had this happen to their cat/know of this happening?  I've heard lots about urinary blockages in male cats, but never about the urethra tearing.  My parents pay great attention to what's going on with their animals and would have brought him in much sooner if they had seen anything off about him, so I'm surprised and upset that it was able to be that bad.  Most things that I've read about tonight indicated that urethral tears usually happen when the vet attempts to put in a catheter, but I haven't found too much about them happening outside of that.  How long do they usually take to heal?  I don't want the poor guy to have a catheter in him for ages, but I certainly don't want to take it out prematurely and have the leaking into his leg resume while it's trying to heal.  Are cats usually able to recover from such an incident?  What else can you tell me about it?  Is it likely that there will be long term damage in his urinary system and his leg from this?  I've asked my vet all of these questions as well, and her answer has mainly been "we can't tell yet".  I'm very concerned about the poor fellow... he was obviously in great distress today.  The vet allowed us in the back to visit him late this afternoon and he didn't want anything to do with us at all.  He started yowling when we opened the cage door, so we just gave him a quick look and let him be.  I don't blame him since he has been hurting and all day people were probably causing him to hurt even more. 

Wow!  I've honestly never heard of this happening before, and I'm guessing the Vet answer your questions because it's new to them too . 

Gosh, poor cat.  I can't even imagine the pain he was in

mrsgreenjeens said:

 
Wow!  I've honestly never heard of this happening before, and I'm guessing the Vet answer your questions because it's new to them too

. 

Gosh, poor cat.  I can't even imagine the pain he was in

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Yes, the vet said that she's never seen it happen before either.  We went to see him today and he seemed to be feeling somewhat better.  Poor guy tried to get up when he saw us, but he was so loopy that he flopped right back over.  Once he found a position that he was comfortable in he let us pet and talk to him for a little while.  He kept trying to inch his way out of the cage door... I'm not exactly sure where he was planning on going, but he does not seem happy about being in there.  He seemed happy to see someone familiar, but really doesn't seem fond of the tech.  I don't blame him.

His catheter is functioning properly, so he's urinating outside of his body.  They found that there was some swelling in his other leg, so they drained some out of that leg too.  He hasn't been eating well, and the vet thinks this is at least partly due to the pain meds.  They've bumped them down a bit to help, so I guess it can be kind of tricky to figure those out.  He's also getting a lot of fluids to help get his kidney levels down.  The vet says that at this point it's mainly working on the kidneys, letting the urethra heal, caring for the necrotic skin, and managing his pain.  I absolutely hate that he is in such pain right now, but I'm hoping that he'll be able to recover and be his old self afterwards

How's he doing today?  Getting better every day, I hope.

He seems to be feeling better, thanks for asking.  I haven't been able to see him since Saturday as they are only open for a short period for boarding pick up on Sunday and my work schedule was kind of wonky today.  I'll be trying to visit him tomorrow.  My mom went today and he seems to be feeling much better.  His kidney levels are back down to a more normal level.  They've still having trouble getting him to eat, but he's still urinating outside of his body.  He was a lot more alert today and was trying to walk out of the cage when she visited.  He's been wearing a cone on his neck and there's been this extremely obnoxiously loud kitty in the cage next door to him since he got there.  He does not approve of either of those things.  I don't want him to be unhappy about his arrangements, but moving around more and complaining about something other than pain seems like an improvement.  The vet is saying that it's still taking things day by day with him.  Mom didn't mention much about the urinary issues other than the catheter seems to be working, and also didn't mention anything about the dying skin.  Hopefully that means that it's not as bad as they originally thought? 

I'll hopefully get to speak to the vet while I'm out there tomorrow.  It's hard to get good information from my mom, and she gets territorial when she's not the one speaking to the vet directly.  I guess I understand since he lives with her and my parents are the ones paying his vet bill, but she doesn't have any veterinary background, doesn't know what questions to ask, and I feel she misses potentially important bits of information to relay to me.  So, hopefully I can get some more of my questions answered at that time. 

I'm so sorry to hear this! I also have never heard of this before. Unfortunately, cats are extremely good at hiding pain, so this might have been going on for a few days before it became obvious. My cat had 2 blockages, but he became lethargic very quickly, so I was able to bring him in right away. In my experience, it takes a good week after returning home for the cat to get back to normal. My cat had a lot of urine leaking afterwards. When you have a catheter in for a while, it cases urinary incontinence (in humans too!). So the poor thing dribbled for almost a week. But it eventually went away. 

Also, regarding not eating much at the vet. My cat did the same thing. So they asked me to try to hand feed him when I visited. He often would get a few bites in if I was there, licking off my fingers. They'd give him Friskies or Fancy Feast to entice eating, since that's basically like junk food to them. He needed to eat something! Then started on the Rx food once we got home. 

That poor thing! I'm so glad that he's in good hands & can begin to recover. 

Finally got to visit him this week! He is doing SO much better than when I saw him on Saturday. He started purring like a motor boat when we got to his cage. He stood up and walked to us and greatly enjoyed all of the attention. He's been eating and drinking well the past couple of days. On Friday the vet plans to inject him with some dye to see if he can pass urine normal without the catheter. If not the catheter will be put back in, but if he can pass urine normally without any of the dye showing up out of his system then we can talk about him coming home.

YEY! So happy to hear! Seems like he's quite a fighter. Hope he can come home soon! 

Unfortunately, the tear is still present even after having the catheter in for that whole period. He went home on Saturday, and my mom brought him back to the vet today for the vet to check him out. She said that the tear may repair itself after having the catheter replaced, but there's no telling. We've opted to have him euthanized this week instead of putting him through the ordeal again when there's still a fairly high likelihood that it won't work. Very sad, but we all agree that it's what's best for him

DuckDodgers said:

Unfortunately, the tear is still present even after having the catheter in for that whole period. He went home on Saturday, and my mom brought him back to the vet today for the vet to check him out. She said that the tear may repair itself after having the catheter replaced, but there's no telling. We've opted to have him euthanized this week instead of putting him through the ordeal again when there's still a fairly high likelihood that it won't work. Very sad, but we all agree that it's what's best for him

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I'm so sorry to hear that.   You and your family know best. Know that you did everything you could. I've been in this position, needing to make that decision...and it sucks. Stay strong.

I'm so sorry for your loss

I'm so sorry to hear this. My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family.

Poor baby it's a hard decision that's made with love. Sorry you had to make this decision.

I thank all of you for the sympathy. He was a great boy and I am sad he's no longer with us, but I'm glad we were able to let him go with dignity before things got really bad with him again.