Dealing with a Urinary Tract Blockage

I could scream! March 3rd my four year old flame point Siamese rescue kitty ( Torch ) was throwing up. I noticed he didn't seem to be eating, and seemed bloated so off to the vet we go. The local vet was atrocious and said he had a major urinary blockage, and could die, but she didn't have the tools needed to treat him so I would have to drive fourty minutes away to an emergency center. Of course I'm sobbing and they still charge me $50 for nothing, wasting precious moments of my cats apparently dire situation! I get to the emergency center, they take him and unblock him. They price tag made me even more upset. I say do what you have to do ( while simultaneously screwing myself into credit card debt hell ). They unblock him and catheterize him. They say he'll need monitored for 48 hours, because he could reblock. He reblocks. They unblock him. I go to visit him and I'm pretty upset because he looks like hell. Three days later he's home. A total of five days in the emergency clinic and - get ready - 4,258$. I'm so screwed financially. I have another cat, Cocoa, so I've been quarantining Torch in my bedroom so I can monitor how much he's eating, drinking, and peeing. Mostly small amounts of pee, lots of straining, and minimal blood. It's giving me horrible anxiety because I can't afford for him to block again. I even set up a fundraiser. He's eating Purina Urinary Tract WET food, I bought him a feliway diffuser, a water fountain, put a bit of apple cider vinegar in the water, and urinary Tract cranberry supplements. I'm terrified. He will pee small amounts, he eats decently but still not up to par. I called the vet and she said as long as he's peeing he's probably just healing and still a bit emotionally upset. I've read every thread on here about this issue. How long before your cat peed normally? He's playing a bit, he sleeps with me and purrs like normal but he does lick his genitals and it's hard to catch him all of the time to make him stop. I'm constantly feeling his belly, trying to make sure it feels ok but I'm not a vet. I keep worrying that he's partially blocked or something but I can't go back to the vet. I can't afford it. But he is peeing quarter sized ball amounts, still not normal.

It IS terrifying when something like this happens.  Makes you paranoid, that's for sure. 

If you've read all, or even some of the threads similar to yours, you'll see that the healing time for every cat is different.  But peeing small amounts if certainly a good sign.  And eating the prescription food is what's probably best for him right now.  It does serve it's purpose.  I honestly don't remember reading any threads where a cat clocked while eating the prescription food, particularly the wet food.  As to the use of that cranberry supplement, I just don't know.  I remember reading somewhere that in certain instances, those are NOT good...just can't remember which circumstances. 

So, keep feeding him that food, at least for now, make sure he drinks plenty (even add water to his food), use that Feliway diffuser, and try to keep his stress level down. 

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/six-surefire-strategies-to-reduce-stress-in-cats

The cranberry and apple cider is not good if it is oxolate crystals but it's more likely not.  You should check with your vet to be sure. Chances are it's struative crystals that have formed from an environment that was too alkaline so the apple cider and cranberry will be very helpful. When i say very i mean more like extremely. You can give it to him via eye dropper or needless syringe for a more concentrated dose.

Stick to the prescription food for sure. It is a must. In the early stages you should probably feed him nothing but something like urinary s/o but once he has healed up you can just make sure he gets some of it in his diet on a fairly regular basis.  For now my advice would be to stick with only the wet food. The s/o biscuits do work great and work out cheaper but in these healing stages its best that he gets as much fluid intake as possible.

Make certain he doesn't get ANY normal dry food. Those supermarket style biscuits wreak havoc on this issue. Chances are that if he gets in to any food of that sort he will get blocked again. Even the cheap wet food is terrible for causing this. Stick to the prescription stuff.

I think you might want to have a word with that vet. Sounds like they bloody robbed you. 4.2k!  That is way over the top. My cat had issues early on and was unblocked twice and then had a perenial urethostomy. All in all it was under 1k. You could maybe expect it to cost 2k if it was an emergency vet on the weekend or something but 4.2k, that's just stealing.

Also, what your vet said sounds right. As long as he is peeing something then that's a good thing. It will definitely take a little while before he is back to peeing normally. Just keep an eye on him and make sure something is coming out. 

T torchkitty89
The vet bills are a killer. 5 days at the hospital and intensive care does that. You said you started a fundraiser. There is a kitty SOS subforum where you can post your crowd-funding request.

I hope Torch is feeling better now. Hydration is one of the keys to help him along. You can mix extra water into his wet food to make sure he is getting enough fluids. Cats sometimes don't drink enough water, and adding water to his food can help.

You're doing the right thing by watching the litter box. Try to take some deep breaths and relax a little. Torch will pick up on your stress and that won't help him at all.

Thank you all for your kind words and advice. This forum is seriously the best. He's unfortunately sort of straining - again - and I've decided to take him to a different vet tomorrow. This vet also can do the surgery is necessary. Hopefully it doesn't come to that. I'll let you know how it goes. They claimed it would be nowhere near that expensive thank god. Also posted a SOS post with the fundraiser in the SOS forum, still needs approved by a moderator so hopefully that helps our situation also. Thanks again guys I'll keep you updated on my furbaby

Tommy did the same thing to us pretty much. He blocked November 30th and I took him to the ER and I think I got him back December 2nd. It was $2100.
He started peeing normally afterwards in about 36 hrs.
We were good until February. He blocked again and this time they sent him home in under 36 hours and he peed a great amount, but there was blood in his urine and by noon the next day, he was blocked again. That week on its own was over $4000.
We discussed it and said we can afford to unblock him again and if it's not successful, he'll die, because we can't keep doing this... or we afford the surgery instead of the next blockage. 
During his third trip to the ER we told them we were transferring him to surgery within the next 2 days and they kept him catheterized and loaned us a carrier, and we kept him connected to tubes until we gave him to the hospital the next state over. He got the PU that afternoon and by the next evening he was peeing on his own so they sent him home. The surgery was $2400.
We've got a $10,ooo cat. We put he and his male roommate on a raw diet. Recently I started adding cranberry relief. It's $75-85 more a month to feed them now and turns out my boyfriend loves the paper cat litter so its about $30 more a month, when I thought we were just using it while Tommy was healing.
It's a lot of stress and it's a lot for me to rely on my boyfriend for the additional costs. I was going to put Tommy down around the $4000 mark, but he said he'll take care of it and we're not letting bubba go yet. My cat turns 8 in May.

Atleast I'm not alone!! He's only four, abs he's seriously a four legged human being. I understand!!

Hi TorchKitty, I made an account just to reply to this post as I am dealing with the exact same problem right now. My cat, Luka, had his  first urinary blockage out of the blue on Thursday 3/16, brought to emergency vet hospital and was catheterized, IV administered and tests conducted. $2300 later, he had blockage cleared, and was sent home on Sunday 3/19. Prescribed Prazosin for spasms for 7 days and was given a 3-day injection of buprenorphine. Has since been eating a strict diet of Royal Canin s/o wet food since the surgery, with just a small amount of s/o dry before bed. Brought him into see our regular vet on Monday 3/20 as well, who said his bladder was small and unblocked, and was given a shot of Covenia antibiotic. He's been eating and drinking well, generally playful and upbeat all things considered. I also bought a fountain to encourage him to drink more, which he has been doing at least.

​He's been having frequent sessions of back to back trips to the litter box, expressing small dime or quarter to ping-pong ball sized at most amounts of urine, and often sits in the litter box for several minutes at a time. He has not been crying in pain when he pees like he did when he was blocked, but does make small grunts with his nose, then licks his privates afterwards, and seems to have some discomfort. I'm hoping this discomfort is because of being catheterized for several days. These marathon trips back and forth have me concerned though, and I am really hoping he starts going to the box normally soon. Our vet told me that as long as he is peeing small amounts, he is on the right track. Trying to pee, nothing coming out, and crying would not be a good sign.

You're not alone. My anxiety is off the charts because I am so worried that he will reblock, or worst case he will reblock on Saturday/Sunday and I'll have to take him back to the emergency vet. I can't afford another visit there and I don't want to be faced with a hard decision. I am analyzing every single thing he does because I'm so afraid of having him reblock again, and I have him quarantined in my bedroom as well so I can monitor his litter box. But I'm doing literally everything I can do between his diet, water, and medicine. Good luck to you and Torch.

My heart goes out to all of you who are going thru this right now .  I"ve got two males myself, and it's a constant worry "what if?"  Every time they groom themselves "down there " I wonder if they've got a problem, simply because I read of all the issues that are presented here on The Cat Site   Whoever said pets are a stress reliever never had any pets with health issues, that's for sure!  They can certainly be stress inducers, can't they? But what would we do without them, our sweet furbabies

Hoping all of your are out of the woods now and NEVER have these issues again