New Member, worried about cat

Hello Everyone,

About two weeks ago my 2 year old male cat, Elvis, stopped using the litter box, which was extremely unusual. After some time passed I could see he was in a lot of pain, I realized he was sick and I took him to a wonderful animal hospital. The vet diagnosed him with a urinary tract infection, put him on Clavamox, checked for blockage, and did a urinanalysis. From the testing he found out that my cat has a lot of struvite crystals in his bladder, so he put him on special food. This all happened last Thursday so it has not even been a week.

After about a day or two he started to look much better. He also started going poo in the litter box again, but he was still urinating outside the litter box (including on my bed !). So advice was given to me to put him a quiet room with his litter box and food and he would start getting using the box again. This made things worse! I would go in the room and spend time with him, but my cat became extremely fearful of me and my boyfriend, always afraid we were going to throw him in the room. So we let him out of the room again and now he has been acting pretty sluggish and not himself. So, I guess my question is- Is this all normal for a urinary tract infection with the crystals? I know it hasn't been a week but I was wondering if I should be concerned. How long do these things last? Also, should I just give it time before I expect him to use the box again, like when the pain goes away completely? I want to do whats right for my cat (and my bed and furniture), but I definitely don't want to over look something or hurt him in the process.

Sorry for the long post but I am really concerned

Thanks, Nicole

As I'm sure your vet explained to you, UTIs, particularly with crystals, are potentially very dangerous for male cats. You don't say who gave you the advice to put kitty in the room with the litterbox, whether it was the vet or what. Either way, I would call the vet and explain what Elvis is doing now and let the vet tell you what is going on. Sometimes antibiotics will make kitty feel a little off, so that could account for the sluggishness, as well as the fact that he does have an infection. But I would definitely check with the vet.

Hope Elvis feels better soon! Keep us posted!

Hi, welcome to TCS, Nicole! You are doing a great job monitoring your little boy, and are quite right to be very concerned about Elvis, as this can be an extremely dangerous condition for kitties. I agree that you should definately contact your Vet promptly to have him examined!
Please do keep us updated what you learn at the Vet and how Elvis is feeling! Please feel free to contact me any time if I may help you in any way, simply click on my user name and send me a Private Message.

Sorry about that...yeah it wasn't the vet who suggested I do that. I know other people with male cats who have had this problem and they said after a few days in the room, the cats were using the litter box again. The first vet I took my cat to also mentioned said to do this, but he also turned out to not be so helpful.

hi elvis,

You want to get rid of the litter pan, and buy two new brand new ones and start all over. He is not using the pan, because cats associate items with pain. He had pain with that box, that box "hurt" him, then you locked him in the room with the object that caused him pain and so he became fearful of you and the box.

Also call you vet and let him know that the cat is lethargic, don't say sluggish, say lethargic. And keep him on the clavamox, see if you can get him to drink more water and good luck with him-

Thanks Hissy!

I really feel bad now about locking him the room. I would have never done it if I knew it would bother him so much. I thought since he started defecating in the box again, he would just gradually start peeing in there also. He usually isnt the type of cat that gets so upset about things, but I guess with him being sick and all it was just too much. Hopefully as I keep playing with him and petting him, he will forgive me. Thanks for the advice, I am definitely going to try it!

Elvis knows you never meant to upset him and how much you love him. Please do keep us updated how he is feeling!

Hi,
My cat went through that awhile ago, I only noticed as he would sit on certain things and there was trickle of urine when he would get up, I am not sure what they put him on, but I know they changed his food, I think they put him on an antibiotic and a steroid, it seemed to clear up within a week. You may want to call the vet, to see if he needs a different medicine. Hope this helps.