Blood in cat's urine after taking antibiotics for a separate issue

Hello!

My cat has a pretty awful on going ear infection. Nothing I have tried has helped, and its probably the worst its ever been right now. Weylin is constantly in pain and irritated..

About a month ago, he was given a shot of convenia to attempt kill of the infection. He reacted very poorly, and licked the fur off the inside of his legs.

My vet said that instead of the second shot, I could complete the round of antibiotics with oral pills. His ear has not improved at all, even after the convenia and two weeks of pills. Its even worse than before, and to top it all off, i've noticed blood in his urine!!! 

My vet gave me some strong ear drops that should help his ear (they are the only thing that has helped in the past) and said to bring him if he still peeing blood by monday. 

I did some research and found that its common for cats to develop cystitis during periods of extreme stress. 

Has anyone else had a similar experience after taking antibiotics? Or is it more likely caused by the pain from his ear stressing him out?

Lastly, does anyone have any ideas on how I can soothe his ear until the new ear drops take effect?

PS. My vet also suggested to me that his ear infection could actually be caused by a food allergy, so we are switching to hypoallergenic food, which will take about two months to flush out the allergens and have a noticeable effect. I'm praying that this works!

Thanks!

My initial thoughts are that the stress of being sick, along with vet visits are likely causing a sterile cystitis response in your cat. Did the vet do a urinalysis?

I'm actual surprised that your vet opted for Convenia and oral antibiotics to treat the ear infection. I've been told that these are often ineffective for this and start with cleaning the ears with Epi Otic or other ear solution, waiting about 30 mins and then treating with an ear drop. Another option is the use of an Oti Pack, which is a long-acting medication that the vet administers into the affected ear(s).

My Max has food allergies that cause dermatitis and really affect his ears (they get blistered, very red and look burned), though he never got a true ear infection. I tried every hypoallergenic food on the market, but had the best luck just doing a food trial. I finally settled on Nature's Variety Instinct as they have several limited ingredient formulas. (As a note, Max is allergic to Beef and Rabbit.)

I'm not sure there is anything you can do to help soothe his ears right now. However, if you don't already, I suggest investing in some Feliway diffusers to help with his stress. Poor baby!

Thanks for all the info!
I was extremely worried when I saw the blood, but I'm fairly certain its a reaction to stress. My vet said that if the symptoms persist even after I've administered the new ear drops, that she would do a urinalysis on Monday. 

We have tried several different topical treatments over the past several years, but its never been this bad. After a sedated ear cleaning, they did an ear swab and determined the type of bacteria in his which prompted her to prescribe convenia.

Honestly, Im thinking that its not even an infection at all. I think its something similar to max's problem, and I'm seriously hoping the hypoallergenic food helps. My vet said it will take up to two months before we notice any effect.  What did you mean by a food trial?

I've never heard of feliway before but I'm defintely looking into it! It seems to have some great reviews, and I think that it just may calm him enough to soothe some of the irritation. Thanks for your help. 

A food trial consists of putting the animal on a single protein food. In Max's case I started him on turkey. They remain on this protein for 8 weeks and then a new protein is introduced, and repeat. (I highly suspected beef from the get-go, rabbit was something I found out in doing food trials.)

I had issues with all of the dry hypoallergenic foods (in particular Purina's HA and Hill's z/d.) The foods caused my cats to have diarrhea after eating the food for 4-8 weeks. I didn't have this issue with the canned limited ingredient foods (Royal Canin); however, my oldest cat at the time (who was also on food trials) had IBD and the carrageenan in the canned food caused issues. Max developed IBD/pancreatitis issues at 18 mo old and is now also sensitive to carrageenan.

I actually found that within a matter of days of removing the offending food that Max started to improve. You're very likely to see improvement before 8 weeks if it is a protein allergy.