FLUTD?

My cat is a little over a year old, male, and has recently started having urinary problems. Straining to urinate with only small drops of urine left behind, bloody urine, constantly in the litter box trying to go. When I first noticed it I rushed him into the ER vet overnight. They did an ultrasound and urinalysis and did not find any stones, crystals, bacteria or blockages. Nothing. Just a ton of blood in the urine. We sent home after a fluid injection with some antibiotics and pain medication. He seemed much better for about a week (I'm assuming from the fluids, diluting his urine and pushing everything out) but then I found blood on the floor and he was dripping around the house for the first time ever. I brought him into my vet for an urgent appointment and they did blood work and checked urine. Blood is perfect and again, no crystals, stones or bacteria in his urine. The vet sent us home with some homeopathic pills and told me to completely remove dry food from his diet and give wet food exclusively (I give Canidae grain-free). Is there anything else I can do? He's having so much trouble and I imagine it must be painful for him. Has anyone been through this before? Any advice? Thanks in advance!!

MiloFever said:

My cat is a little over a year old, male, and has recently started having urinary problems. Straining to urinate with only small drops of urine left behind, bloody urine, constantly in the litter box trying to go. When I first noticed it I rushed him into the ER vet overnight. They did an ultrasound and urinalysis and did not find any stones, crystals, bacteria or blockages. Nothing. Just a ton of blood in the urine. We sent home after a fluid injection with some antibiotics and pain medication. He seemed much better for about a week (I'm assuming from the fluids, diluting his urine and pushing everything out) but then I found blood on the floor and he was dripping around the house for the first time ever. I brought him into my vet for an urgent appointment and they did blood work and checked urine. Blood is perfect and again, no crystals, stones or bacteria in his urine. The vet sent us home with some homeopathic pills and told me to completely remove dry food from his diet and give wet food exclusively (I give Canidae grain-free). Is there anything else I can do? He's having so much trouble and I imagine it must be painful for him. Has anyone been through this before? Any advice? Thanks in advance!!

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Wow this is tough.  I think if it was me I would talk to my vet about treating for a UTI even though bacteria came up negative, and try a prophylactic course of anti-biotics. I wish I had something more to say but something is going on.... 

StephenQ said:

Wow this is tough.  I think if it was me I would talk to my vet about treating for a UTI even though bacteria came up negative, and try a prophylactic course of anti-biotics. I wish I had something more to say but something is going on.... 

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Oh! I forgot to mention the vet gave an antibiotic injection that lasts 14 days. I hope we see an improvement. The antibiotic from the ER didn't help.. Poor buddy. Thank you!

Any updates?

I hope a different kind of antibiotics may help. If it does, you should be seeing the improvement fairly quickly. FLUTD can be very tricky to treat successfully and for a good reason.

Boosting water intake, by switching to wet-only, is a good idea in this case. Anything that gets the cat to get more water inside should help somewhat. If your cat repeatedly has no signs of crystals, either in US or blood samples, he probably has Feline Idiopathic Cystitis. It's actually relatively common and it's something that often leads to litterbox avoidance too. You are definitely not alone. Many many cases of FLUTD don't actually show any indications of either crystals or bacteria. The bladder is inflamed, the urine has blood in it and all the other symptoms you described, yet the underlying cause cannot be identified using lab tests. In that case, it's called FIS (Feline Idiopathic Cystitis, where idiopathic means the cause is unknown). That's makes it tricky to treat. The good news is that the episode is likely to go away with time. The not so good news is that it's also likely to recur. 

Studies show that episodes of Feline Idiopathic Cystitis can be stress-related. Reducing the amount of stress in your cat's life can contribute towards preventing future episodes, so it's definitely something to look into. there's evidence that there is an actual neuro-hormonal mechanism in place, so certain stress hormones physically trigger the episodes. With that in mind, here are a few resources we have about stress management in cats - 

 [article="30307"]Is Your Cat Stressed Out​[/article]  

 [article="30274"]Potential Stressors In Cats The Ultimate Checklist​[/article]  

 [article="30316"]Six Surefire Strategies To Reduce Stress In Cats​[/article]  

 [article="32758"]You Your Cat And Stress​[/article]  

Thanks, everyone! Since receiving the antibiotic injection and switching to wet food exclusively, my cat has been completely symptom free! The only change we noticed is that he started forcefully spraying urine each time he went, maybe because he got so use to straining while he was ill?, and it was a mess as the urine would shoot over the edge of the box. I purchased two of the Clevercat Top Entry litter boxes and that has helped 100%. No more urine to clean from under the boxes multiple times per day. Yikes. I know this urinary issue can reoccur and I've been watching closely, but so far he's fine. I appreciate all the responses! Thank you!