Feline Idiopathic Cystitis

Hi everyone! I am new here, I just discovered this site trying to find help for my cat who was diagnosed with feline idiopathic cystitis. A little information about the situation:

Pogo is a 12 year old neutered male with three legs. He has been on a dry food diet his entire life with occasional wet food as a treat. Usually he goes crazy for it. We've been feeding The Good Life for a while now but recently we had tried a few better brands such as Blue Wilderness and Taste of the Wild but they didn't care for them so we went back. He lives in a household with 11 other cats. I know... it's a lot of cats. Pogo is the second oldest. With so many cats we do have problems with spraying with a few of the cats and fighting between a few but Pogo is not usually involved and it's not a new problem. Because of this some of the cats sleep in separate room and we put Pogo in a bedroom at night to keep our oldest company. They get along great. This is around when he started having problems and we have  stopped putting him in the room at night after his diagnosis.

I believe it has been at least a month since Pogo's problems started. First we noticed that he was using the litterbox frequently in small amounts and then he started urinated outside the litterbox around the edges of his bedroom and in his cat beds. When we noticed blood in the spots we immediately took him to the vet and they gave him an antibiotic and a steroid shot. At that time they were unable to get a urine sample because his bladder was empty. For a few days it seemed like he was getting a little better but soon he was worse than before and back at the vet. They made sure he wasn't blocked but his bladder was still empty so they gave him another antibiotic to give him for two weeks. Again he seemed a little better at first but it didn't last and when the antibiotics were out we took him back. This time they were able to get a urine sample that showed no bacteria or crystals. They also did an xray to check for stones or anything like that. After this they diagnosed him with FIC and gave us C/D wet food to give him as well as Prednisone, Dasuquin, and Solliquin. Pogo would not touch the prescription food so we have been giving him Friskies(which is actually, that he normally loves. From my understanding he needs a low carb diet. Unfortunately even this is tough to get him to eat, even when I don't sprinkle the Dasuquin on it. He looks like he is losing weight. We have added several water bowls with a wide brim all over the house but have not noticed him drinking any more. We also have a pet fountain coming in the mail tomorrow as well as a feliway diffuser. I have been making sure to play with him everyday and just generally keeping his stress away even though he doesn't seem overly stressed to me.

At this point, from the research I have done, this seems a little irregular for an FIC episode. It feels odd that it is lasting this long and I feel awful that he has felt like this for over a month! I love my vet but they seem kinda stumped by this too. They want to see him on Monday. I was going to bring up adequan injections since he is not eating the food with the dasuquin and maybe some kind of pain medicine or even a low dose of tranquilizer. I've heard people have had some success with these sometimes.

Is it possible that this is FIC but it is being caused by something serious? I know idiopathic just means the cause is unknown. I went through a long battle with an unknown disease with my dog last year and we ended up losing that fight. I'm afraid that is happening again.

Sorry for the novel sized post. Anyone with similar experience with FIC would be helpful and appreciated!

My cat Chula has been through the FIC experience.  In her case, it took about 2 1/2 months, three antibiotics, a switch from dry to canned food and growing used to me - her problems were probably stress related as she and her brother had just been uprooted from their old home to live with me.  Since Pogo doesn't have crystals, stones or a bacterial infection it could be stress related considering he lives with so many other cats.  Resolving stress-related FIC can take months to resolve so one month is not all that unusual.    You said he doesn't seem stressed but he may not be showing it.   He's getting old and things that didn't stress him before might be bothering him now. 

You could try experimenting with different foods than Friskies and find a canned food he likes better and that has a higher protein level.  If finances are an issue, start with either Fancy Feast pates or Sheba.  Both are higher quality than Friskies.  The pates are better from a nutrition standpoint than the gravy styles but since getting him to eat is extremely important, try him on everything. Fancy Feast has a very wide selection. You can add a bit of water to the food and mix it up well to get more water into him. To get a better idea of the higher end cat foods (including raw) check out the nutrition forum.  http://www.thecatsite.com/f/64/cat-nutrition  There are some very knowledgeable people posting there. 

I'll admit that half-way through your post, I started wondering if something other than FIC was involved.  Then I kept reading and see that you've come to the same suspicion.  You have done and tried everything that I could suggest except getting a second opinion.  If you have faith in your vet, you might ask him about additional tests that might give more information, such as a complete blood work up and an ultrasound.  So far, it sounds like your vet has been doing the right things as well so he might be open to trying something new.

Please let us know how Pogo does.