Hello all,
I have a 5 year old himayalan boy who is our loving little teddy bear. He's never had any health issues until recently. 3 weeks ago, his behavior changed in the span of two days. There were no changes around our home but he woke me up one night yowling and peeing on the middle of the floor. He then went to sleep, and the next day he was walking stiffly and not friendly. I watched him closely and later in the day saw him sitting up leaning back and dribbling urine. Upon inspection it was blood-tinged and his belly was firm. We immediately called our vet who wouldn't see him until the next day, so we called around until we found one who was open later and would see him immediately. There, we found out he was badly obstructed. He was checked in for a few days and given a catheter and flushed for a few days. His labs that stay came back with creatinine of 8. Xrays showed calcium oxalate stones in both his kidneys and bladder. He underwent surgery to remove the bladder stones, came home after another few days. He did well at home the next couple of days and then it started all over again. He rapidly got sick and I took him back, to be told he had re-obstructed. He was checked in again and given another catheter and flush for four days.
Since then he has been home and on a special diet. Since then he has also been yowling when peeing, licking himself every time, pees about every two hours all day, and is peeing anywhere and everywhere. Because of this he has had another urine sample turned in a few days ago, and we were told that he still has large amounts of crystals in his urine. We are now ~$3k into treatment and cannot afford to do much more, especially with no guarantee that he will do better. The vet has told us that the next step is urethral surgery. We have gone through ups and downs thinking we lost him and then thinking he'd be ok and now again worrying sick.
On to my questions: how long can we expect him to be in pain and still have crystals like this? Does this mean the diet is not helping at all, or will it take much longer? In the meantime, can anyone suggest how to make him comfortable? Is this how it will be the rest of his life? Is there anything else we can try to help him through this? (Today we've had to move him into a small room to prevent destroying the house - we rent and have been scrubbing as much as we can but as it is the smell is very strong from so much urine.)
Thank you for reading.
I have a 5 year old himayalan boy who is our loving little teddy bear. He's never had any health issues until recently. 3 weeks ago, his behavior changed in the span of two days. There were no changes around our home but he woke me up one night yowling and peeing on the middle of the floor. He then went to sleep, and the next day he was walking stiffly and not friendly. I watched him closely and later in the day saw him sitting up leaning back and dribbling urine. Upon inspection it was blood-tinged and his belly was firm. We immediately called our vet who wouldn't see him until the next day, so we called around until we found one who was open later and would see him immediately. There, we found out he was badly obstructed. He was checked in for a few days and given a catheter and flushed for a few days. His labs that stay came back with creatinine of 8. Xrays showed calcium oxalate stones in both his kidneys and bladder. He underwent surgery to remove the bladder stones, came home after another few days. He did well at home the next couple of days and then it started all over again. He rapidly got sick and I took him back, to be told he had re-obstructed. He was checked in again and given another catheter and flush for four days.
Since then he has been home and on a special diet. Since then he has also been yowling when peeing, licking himself every time, pees about every two hours all day, and is peeing anywhere and everywhere. Because of this he has had another urine sample turned in a few days ago, and we were told that he still has large amounts of crystals in his urine. We are now ~$3k into treatment and cannot afford to do much more, especially with no guarantee that he will do better. The vet has told us that the next step is urethral surgery. We have gone through ups and downs thinking we lost him and then thinking he'd be ok and now again worrying sick.
On to my questions: how long can we expect him to be in pain and still have crystals like this? Does this mean the diet is not helping at all, or will it take much longer? In the meantime, can anyone suggest how to make him comfortable? Is this how it will be the rest of his life? Is there anything else we can try to help him through this? (Today we've had to move him into a small room to prevent destroying the house - we rent and have been scrubbing as much as we can but as it is the smell is very strong from so much urine.)
Thank you for reading.
