Behavior after urinary blockage

brittanycavs

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My cat Jasper was treated for a urinary blockage about 2 weeks ago. The catheter was kept in for 4 days and we were able to take him home on the 5th day. It has been very stressful since he has come home with multiple episodes of me questioning if he could urinate. After countless trips to the vet, it was found he was still capable of urinating, but appeared to be holding it. During one vet trip he went right into their litter and peed (something he was refusing to do at home, he had been mostly peeing outside the box).
I went out and got a different litter and that seemed to entice him to urinate more often and always in the box.

He was sent home on Buprenorphine and Prazosin, which he just finished yesterday morning. He was doing great and his progress was astounding up until this morning. This am he refused his breakfast and started peeing all over the house. The volume of pee was something we haven't seen since he first got home from the hospital, and he had received tons of subcutaneous fluids. His "peeing fit" went on for about 2 hours. He was producing urine this entire time,but towards the end started showing signs of pain (panting).

After a conversation with my vet, they suggested putting him back on the Buprenorphine and seeing if that helps.

I know the fact that he is peeing is a great thing, but I am so confused as to why it feels like he is digressing.

If anyone has some experience in this, I would really appreciate your input as I am losing my mind over this.
TIA
 

red top rescue

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I think treating the pain will help, and when they are on buprenorphine for awhile, it is best to wean them off it slowly by cutting down the amount gradually.  Otherwise they go through a bit of cold turkey withdrawal which causes anxiety, and this may well be the case with him.  He may also still be very sensitive after being catheterized. 

As for not using the box at home, he may well associate his home litter boxes with pain, or it could be that he is still in pain and the buprenorphine should take care of that.  He also needs to be stress free and this has been a stressful time, so that can also contribute to the problem.  If he pees outside the box, don't be upset with him.  He may be trying to tell  you something in the only way he can.  When my rescue kitty was recovering, we kept her on a low dose of tranquilizer for a couple of weeks.  Also, I gave her a choice of boxes, once she was willing to pee in any box at all (she too had litter box aversion, I brought her home from a shelter when she was in lots of pain and peeing bright red blood every 15 minutes wherever she happened to be.)  I did wean her off the pain medication slowly and the combination worked well.  Also I gave her a few litter boxes that had nothing in them but an incontinence pad, and she was very happy to pee in those, perhaps because there was no negative association. 

In my experience, it takes about three weeks for them to totally get over the trauma of something like this, and they need extra love and petting and praise through this period.  I would be glad to share my LONG story of MJ's recovery with you by private message if you like.  I'm sorry Jasper has had to go through this and hope he continues to recover without further incidents. 
 
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