Is it common?

My cat Chewy was letting out pained howling sounds all night last Thursday. Because we were up with him all night thinking he was badly constipated, we took him to the vet. I just felt something was really wrong. We left him there till the vet got in. She checked him out and called us with the bad news. He has blockage in his urethra, and they wanted to do xrays and such. We gave our approval. A few minutes later another phone call. He has some blood in his bladder but no stones that she could see.she asked us if she could sedate him, give pain medicine, and put a catheter. Again we approved. He stayed there all weekend and we picked him up on Monday. They said he was eating and going potty.
We got home and he seems much happier but he isn't eating much if at all and no drinking. Usually he loves the fountain we have for them but right now he just doesn't care.
Now this is where my question comes in. Do the usually have a hard time urinating after a catheter being removed? He's not howling in pain like before but he kind of does it when he is trying to go potty. Otherwise he's mostly lovey. I am so lost right now. We at $500 in and we have to pay it all within 3 months I believe it was. The vet is talking surgery, which we absolutely can not afford. Our other options were to have her put another catheter and he stays at the vet a couple more days. The vet said she would only charge us for the sedation but she won't charge us for the time he stays there because she knows we are financially strapped. And her last option was euthanasia. I do not want to do this. He is only 3 years old. He's the best cat I've ever had. And he is one of my kids.I have been sitting here crying ever since we got off the phone earlier because we are facing such a difficult thing. I welcome any and all tips, suggestions, advice or anything.
Thanks

Actually, what is the diagnostic? Did you perform lab tests?

Solomonar said:

Actually, what is the diagnostic? Did you perform lab tests?

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I'm not sure if they did or not. He has whats called FLUTD.

Feline lower urinary tract disease. That is soooo broad. The vet said "surgery" - what surgery did the vet think to?  

He had complete blockage. She was basically going to make him like a girl and make the urethra opening a little bigger so the stones wouldn't get stuck like they are. I have no idea what the operation is called. She just dumbed it down for me. There would still be a chance it doesn't help.

The good news, we separated him from the others for a bit today. He is urinating about quarter sized amounts but a lot of them. So he is going to the bathroom. He also finally drank some water. I bought some hills urinary c/d canned food to see if he would eat some of it. I think I kind of surprised her because I was up all night educating myself as much as I could. I asked her many questions like if we can add cranberry supplement to his food. This isn't often used and it's not a long term use but she was willing to get me the prescription for it to see if it would help. She has been so supportive and helpful. I don't think I will ever switch vets. She was more than willing to work with me to help it affordable because she knows I don't want to put him to sleep. She said if we decide to catheter him again we will only have to pay for the medicine. She will not charge us for his stay there. If it comestill down to surgery she is willing to help us out as much as she can. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

WykedKitty said:

He had complete blockage. She was basically going to make him like a girl and make the urethra opening a little bigger so the stones wouldn't get stuck like they are. I have no idea what the operation is called. She just dumbed it down for me. There would still be a chance it doesn't help.

The good news, we separated him from the others for a bit today. He is urinating about quarter sized amounts but a lot of them. So he is going to the bathroom. He also finally drank some water. I bought some hills urinary c/d canned food to see if he would eat some of it. I think I kind of surprised her because I was up all night educating myself as much as I could. I asked her many questions like if we can add cranberry supplement to his food. This isn't often used and it's not a long term use but she was willing to get me the prescription for it to see if it would help. She has been so supportive and helpful. I don't think I will ever switch vets. She was more than willing to work with me to help it affordable because she knows I don't want to put him to sleep. She said if we decide to catheter him again we will only have to pay for the medicine. She will not charge us for his stay there. If it comestill down to surgery she is willing to help us out as much as she can. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

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I think what you're describing is urethrostomy. This surgery is common for a blockage in male cats and the prognosis is good.

That's great to know. I was so nervous because so many were saying there is a good possibility it won't work. I don't want to spend that much on something that is likely not to work. I can't afford it as it is.

So, had the cat stones or not?

Ecography?

If occasional catheter is the solution,  I guess thinking to surgery or even to sleep is extremely far away. It happens once. Careful monitoring for the time being would be enough, in my very personal opinion (and providinmg does not advise otherwise).

Anyway, why not looking to a potential funding for the surgery, just for your peace of mind?

Many cats Ive heard about do have urinary problems, one type or another. They are obligate carnivore (i get sick of this sentence), so the pressure on the urinary apparatus is high. We also feed cats as we feed ourselves: processed food.  We get obesity, they get FLUDT (or something). 

Solomonar said:

So, had the cat stones or not?

Ecography?

If occasional catheter is the solution,  I guess thinking to surgery or even to sleep is extremely far away. It happens once. Careful monitoring for the time being would be enough, in my very personal opinion (and providinmg does not advise otherwise).

Anyway, why not looking to a potential funding for the surgery, just for your peace of mind?

Many cats Ive heard about do have urinary problems, one type or another. They are obligate carnivore (i get sick of this sentence), so the pressure on the urinary apparatus is high. We also feed cats as we feed ourselves: processed food.  We get obesity, they get FLUDT (or something). 

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Honestly we aren't sure. She did not see any but said that doesn't mean there isn't any. The urethra however was completely blocked. He couldn't go potty at all. And he was severely inflamed.

I understand. Ecography (at least the technology I am aware, could be other more advanced) cannot spot very small stones (bellow some o.5 mm diameter). But something blocked the urethra, by logic.

But I do still have some 10% doubt, as for any indirect proof. I want to see, to believe. :-)

Did you check  bacteria presence?

I'm not sure if she did. I know she probably avoided some testing because it was starting to add up in cost and she knew we were limited. We owe them close to $500 for the stuff they did do. I will find the bill and let you know.

I do not know your prices. But in my country, bacteria presence in  urine is equivalent to 10 -12 USD (antibiogram included). Of course, it is an add-up cost. I do not know if the procedures allows you to test the presence only (without antibiogram) - that could be some 2 USD (I mean, just to know whether there is a bacteria or not).     

Solomonar said:

I do not know your prices. But in my country, bacteria presence in  urine is equivalent to 10 -12 USD (antibiogram included). Of course, it is an add-up cost. I do not know if the procedures allows you to test the presence only (without antibiogram) - that could be some 2 USD (I mean, just to know whether there is a bacteria or not).     

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I am not sure the prices myself. I will have to check.
The good news is that we talked to the vet yesterday. She suggested we lock him in the bathroom, away from the other 3. In doing this we have found he is using the litter box. He only urinated about quarter sized but he is going several times at once. Today it looks like he is urinating a little larger amounts than yesterday, so maybe he is feeling a little better. He is eating Hills urinary c/d wet and dry food. Usually i only give them wet food as a treat but right now i want to get him eating again so i bouggt a few cans. Im gonna have to stock up. Although the food is expensive, we are going to switch all the cats to it because 1. Its difficult keeping them out of Chewys food and chewy out of theirs. And 2. Hopefully we can avoid this problem with my other kitties since they are all fixed and only one is a female. I dont want to chance this again and possibly lose one of them.

I found very difficult to estimate the urine volume of my cat (and of any cat, generally speaking). I came across an article that suggested a method for achieving this measurement at an acceptable accuracy. Basically, it was about a closed big box where the cat was closed (like small room). It is even more difficult to asses the relation of water intake to volume of urine.

Concerning the cat food - I would say that "prescription" food are sometimes just marketing. Although having no starch in food for particular case do make sense. 

Some  (usually big) companies are very good in marketing, since a good marketing leads to acceptance of high price without any problem. Image building is a common trick these days, and starting to appeal to the "vet approval" to posting nice images of people "looking like a vet" (in reality professional models who have no idea about veterinary, but look very nice :-)).

So I would rather search for small companies (preferable local) for the cat food, in an effort to get more for my buck and to avoid being manipulated.

How much a cat need to eat out of a particular food is also  important in judging price. 

Just my morning thoughts :-).

Solomonar said:

I found very difficult to estimate the urine volume of my cat (and of any cat, generally speaking). I came across an article that suggested a method for achieving this measurement at an acceptable accuracy. Basically, it was about a closed big box where the cat was closed (like small room). It is even more difficult to asses the relation of water intake to volume of urine.

Concerning the cat food - I would say that "prescription" food are sometimes just marketing. Although having no starch in food for particular case do make sense. 

Some  (usually big) companies are very good in marketing, since a good marketing leads to acceptance of high price without any problem. Image building is a common trick these days, and starting to appeal to the "vet approval" to posting nice images of people "looking like a vet" (in reality professional models who have no idea about veterinary, but look very nice :-)).

So I would rather search for small companies (preferable local) for the cat food, in an effort to get more for my buck and to avoid being manipulated.

How much a cat need to eat out of a particular food is also  important in judging price. 

Just my morning thoughts :-).

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Thank you for sharing. I have looked around but there isn't much where I live since I'm in a small town. I even checked out amazon, which they had some but they have "different ingredients" than the prescription diet so it won't do what's needed. He's doing really well and all of them seem to really like this food. Chewy has become partial to the wet food even though I mix the wet and dry food. The canned food is much cheaper and I feel like it all goes further by mixing the wet and dry. I could be wrong though.

I also feed my cat mix diet (wet + dry + raw (raw like a treat once in a week). My cat sometimes eats sometimes does not eat a certain brand. I suspect the cats  are not like dogs (disregarding taste) but like us (loving some sort of variation).

Ingredients are not all based on a scientific evidence. Some just look nice on the label. I always ask myself: "Why this particular ingredient is there? What is the reason?" Especially plants make me nervous, because cats are obligate carnivors (I hate repeating this like a parrot, but it nevertheless good to remember).

Local or small companies - I mean these days a small company located thousand of miles away can easily send the parcels, no problem in that.

Amazon is to big to care about their customers. I am not sayng Amazon is bad, I am just saying it became a sort of on-line hypermarket (for me, non-personal service is asking for trouble, but this is me).