UTI - how long until she feels better?

Hi, took my cat to the vet yesterday with a UTI, my regular vet wasn't there and a young vet saw her. My regular vet usually gives an antibiotic injection to start working straight away and then some antibiotics to take at home. But his vet only gave me antibiotics (amoxyclav) to give her at home twice a day - how long will they take to work? She has had 2 doses so far. Also vet gave her an anti inflammatory shot that she said would last about 3 days but my cat was comfortable and not constantly visiting the litter box for only 10 hours and now she is back to hourly visits it's 3am at the moment and I'm up worrying and watching her so any advice is appreciated. I will call the vet back again in the morning if she is still suffering.

My cat started feeling better after about three days but as soon as the antibiotic ran out, all her symptoms returned. In the end it took 4 visits to the vet, three different antibiotics and a switch over to wet food before she was finally better. The things that helped the most were switching to wet food and giving her a second course of clavimox. This took at least two months. Not all UTIs are so hard to treat but they can be very difficult to deal with. All of which is to say - keeping after it with the vet is definitely a good idea!

Not all UTIs can be treated using an injection.  Just like with humans, I give the antibiotic at least 3 days to do its work and for my kitty to start feeling better.  Keep an eye on her.  Also, if this is a recurring problem, you might want to talk to your vet about changing her diet.

Did the vet do a cystocentesis to collect sterile urine? And has he run a Culture and Sensivity? This determines if there is a bacterial infection and which antibiotics they will be sensitive to. For my kitty, once bacterial infection was determined and the correct antibiotic administered, she started to feel better within hours and was urinating and carrying on as usual. Your vet should do a follow up approximately one week after the course of antibiotics is finished to make sure the bacteria is gone.

MOST cats "diagnosed" with a UTI does not have one.

Younger, healthy cats are very unlikely to get a Urinary Tract Infection.

Unless a culture was done from a sterile urine collection one can not diagnose a UTI with any reasonable certainty.

But MOST vets will give some antibiotic.... Infection or not....

It is very/most likely your cat had NO infection but has Cystitis, inflammation of the bladder which presents with similar symptoms as a UTI.

Many cases of cystitis resolve on their own within a week, ten days, and most folks believe it was the antibiotic that did the trick...

Reading a urine in the microscope being able to distinguish bacteria from other amorphous substances takes a lot of practice.

I, personally, would not trust ANY microscopic result done in your local vet's office, even if it was done by the vet her/him self.

I would insist on a cysto collection, have the urine sent to Idexx with reflex to culture if positive.  That is the ONLY way to get a proper diagnosis.

Source:

I'm a Med Tech working in a human hospital and licensed to perform these tests. Also had a cat that for over 4 years had recurrent bouts of cystitis

but never had an infection. I deflected a ton of unneeded/dangerous antibiotics...    that said, if there truly IS an infection, antibiotics are warranted which is why a PROPER diagnosis has to be made!! That means a sterile sample and a culture!

Thanks everyone for your responses, I'm back to the vet today as now that the anti inflammatory has worn off she is on the litter box every half hour and clearly uncomfortable - she's exhausted too from the constant trips to the box and straining. Happily yesterday's vet isn't in today but neither is my regular vet. I wasn't happy with yesterday's vet as when I think back, she didn't even take my cats temperature - just felt around her tummy and didn't even try to get a urine sample. I said I was happy for her to do blood tests but she really wasn't keen to. Hopefully we'll get this sorted out today.