UA issues

My rescued Cami from last year is still having UA issues. She's been on antibiotics for quite some time & was on Veraflox & now on Primor 120. She had crystals in her urine again so that is why she was put back on Veraflox.  In May she was on Orbax & finally the crystals were gone but she still had bacteria in her urine & she was still periodically peeing where she shouldn't & at that time she refused to eat the prescription food as she is one picky cat. So I had to give her a urinary acidifier as well. Well, I finally found a wet food she would actually eat & I was happy about that but it was not a prescription food that she needed. So, when she started peeing again in places she shouldn't, I took her back in & found out that her crystals came back & my vet said she has to eat the prescription food or else she may end up having surgery. So, I put down the feline c/d (yep, I know not exactly the best food to feed) but to my surprise she finally starting eating the dry c/d, will not touch the wet at all but at least she is eating the dry & she is drinking water.  We started back on the Veraflox on 8/3rd & my vet said that since she is eating the dry c/d, that I can discontinue the Uroeze. She's been doing pretty good on the Veraflox but than she has a mishap on 8/11th so my vet said when she finished the Veraflox put her on the Primor 120 which I started that on 8/20th. So, she has had 2 doses of that so far (its only given SID) & when I let her out of her room this morning, I discovered she had peed on the bed again even though she does use her kitty box which is in the same room. Thank goodness, I had a vinyl tablecloth covering the entire bed so it didn't penetrate thru but now I wonder if maybe the Primor is not working & maybe she still has crystals? I'm suppose to finish this med & than wait a  week & have her recked again. My vet said that it usually takes about 2 wks if not longer for the crystals to go away but I would think since she has been on meds since 8/3rd that it would be gone by now so I don't understand why she continues to do this. I'm trying to reach him to see if maybe I should put her back on Veraflox again but its the wkend so not sure if I will be able to get in touch with him or not. This is so frustrating & seems to be a never ending problem.

cats5 said:

 

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If she still has crystals then Hill's S/D is designed to dissolve them, C/D is a maintenance diet.  Was she ever on S/D and if not, you might want to discuss using this food temporarily.

Well, unfortunately, she is one picky cat & refuses to eat the S/D diet at all. I'm lucky that she is actually eating the C/D dry. She does not like wet food as I have tried all kinds, brands, flavors & nope, won't touch it. I realize S/D would be a better choice but if she won't eat it & she has gone many days refusing to eat the food she should, its like a no win situation. I've never had a cat like her that didn't like wet food & all my other cats will eat almost anything I give them. Its very frustrating to say the least.

What about Royal Canin Urinary SO? Our handicapped cat has been on it (at first full time, then mixed with other food as he got sick of it). He is on the wet variety, but there is also a dry food version. We found mixing it with our other kitten's food when he got bored with it helped (James Wellbeloved wet food, but for you any good dry food I guess..), now we mix it with BARF patties.

Also, have you spoken to your vet about potentially slowly adding some water to the dry food your cat already eats/likes to get more liquid into your cat if your cat refuses to eat wet? We have spent countless hours reading about cat urinary issues and talking to our vet(s) and everything seems to point to the fact that the main contributor to crystals is lack of sufficient fluids to flush out the bladder/keep any tiny crystals forming moving through the system. 

Thankfully our cats were not so picky so we were able to switch them to all-wet as soon as our cat's problems started, so  we have never actually done the dry food soaking and I don't know much about it, but might be worth talking to the vet about? Especially if there is already a dry food she likes, maybe you could slowly introduce some water into it a tiny bit at a time. 

Thanks for the info; however, I have already tried the Royal Canin Urinary SO & that was a no go, too. My other cats liked it but not her. I even tried mixing it with something she liked & than she refused to eat it altogether. She does seem to drink a fair good bit of water but maybe not enough. Yes, I already tried adding water to the wet food & that didn't work either. I really wish she would eat wet food as that would be better for her but she is not a fan. I did find 2 wets food that she did like & eat but unfortunately it was not the prescription food she needed so I had to discontinue that when we found she had crystals again. Yesterday she peed on our chair in the sunroom (thank goodness I had it covered so it didn't damage the chair) & last night she stayed in her room all night with her own kitty box. Well, this morning I discovered she did poop in her kitty box but she peed on the bed (which is covered w/ a vinyl tablecloth-thank goodness) so I got a syringe & sucked up the pee & my vet friend stops by to take it in to get it checked as it looked a little dark like maybe there was blood in it. I, also, noticed the other day when I was cleaning her kitty box out, that the clumped pee looked a little reddish & I saw a couple of dry red marks next to the kitty box. So, maybe the Primor antibiotic she is on, is not working & we need to switch to something else.

None of my other cats or even the ones I have had in the past, have ever been this picky & all of them loved wet food, too. Not giving up on her but I sure hope there is a resolution to this problem.

Has a culture and sensitivity been done?  That is pretty much the sure fire way to tell if a cat actually has an infection. (The vast majority do not but are still given antibiotics)

When a UA is done at the vet's office, I would not put much trust in the microscopic. Especially if there are crystals present.

Frequently there will be a lot of tiny crystals that can easily be mistaken for bacteria for an untrained, or even a pretty trained eye.

Collecting the urine by cysto, have it sent to a laboratory for the ua with reflex to culture if positive.

The bloody patches sound all too familiar In the last bloody-peeing stint we started with an infection that he was on antibiotics for (and we knew it was an infection - the vets here refuse to prescribe antibiotics until a test is done unless absolutely necessary). It later turned into a bout of stress induced cystitis. We were confused because he was still on the antibiotics and suddenly got worse. Submitted a new sample and found that there was no infection left at all. We concluded that the partner's kids coming over for a week the day before may have triggered the cystitis. He loves the kids but it's still a change in the house that he has to get used to.

Great that you got a sample you can have tested. During this latest bout of infection/cystitis we started him on cystease twice a day and Zylkene once a day, and a Feliway diffuser. So far we haven't had a recurrence, but he's had so much wrong with him and is still on so many meds that who knows what the correlation is. I hope you can get this resolved soon!

No, we have not done a culture & sensitivity on her yet but will do next time for sure. Yes, that definitely was blood in the urine but the good news is that the crystals are gone & her PH is normal. They wanted me to bring her in as the vet said that she wanted to give her some sub-Q fluids to try to flush out the bacteria that was causing the irritation & caused the blood. I have to take her back again on Friday to give her some more fluids. They also gave her a cerenia injection as that is suppose to help clear up the infection as well. I'm to continue with the Primor 120 & start on some amitriptyline as the vet said that helps calm the bladder. I do trust my vet & also, my vet tech which is a very good friend of mine plus I use to work there for 34 yrs so that's why I continue to go there. I'm hoping that this will clear up the infection & at least she is eating the feline c/d diet (dry), still wish she would eat the wet & I will continue to offer it to her in hopes that maybe one day she will eat it & like it. I guess she will have to stay on this diet for the rest of her life. The next time we reck her urine, I will get a cysto done & have it sent to the lab.  She is one lucky cat for she was rescued by us & there's not a lot of people that would do all that I do for her plus if she continued to live outside & had these issues, who would know & it would only get worse for her as well & than who knows what will happen to her. I thank you all for your comments & suggestions & its good that we have this site to share our experiences.