2.5 year old male urinary blockage

[Kimluvs2dance]

Hi all! I apologize for the lengthy post, but I am really needing some help. My baby boy Eli is a very anxious cat. I got him March 2020, so he is my Covid baby. I work from home and live alone, so we are extremely attached. I left him for a week vacation for the first time ever, with people here 1-2 times a day to see him, about a month ago. I came home to a nightmare.

He was peeing everywhere. I was freaked out and then I saw blood in his urine. Rushed him to the ER. They said no blockage but there were some crystals in his urine. Assumed it was a UTI from stress and gave him antibiotics and fluids. They sent me home with prazosin for 7 days and gabapentin. He seemed fine for a week! Peeing normally and acting like himself. I thought this was behind me.

3 days after we stopped the meds he became super lethargic and weird. Seemed like he wasn’t going to the bathroom. That night, I rushed him back to the ER. They said they didn’t see or feel a blockage. They pumped him with fluids and said if he doesn’t pee by morning, you must bring him back. Well, by morning he was growling and making horrible noises. I rushed him back, and now he’s finally blocked.

Thankfully, they unblocked him fast because it was discovered right away. His levels went back to normal quickly and they removed the catheter after 24 hours. A few hours later, I took him home. He was horrible for 1.5 days. Absolutely traumatized. They said he was not doing well there because of his anxiety. He finally started coming around and being himself, but it took a while.

We started him this past week on Royal Canin wet and dry prescription food. I’ve had him on phenoxybenzamine and gabapentin for 10 days post catheter and he is still not peeing right. He pees every time, but he goes in small spurts. Like little ping pong balls but flat I’d say? He goes a lot less than he was at first, but still way more than normal. The thing that’s worrying me is he is licking after he goes. Not for a long time, but he does it. He is sooo himself in every other way. We stop meds tomorrow (Monday) and the vet wants me to monitor him for 24 hours. He says if he still isn’t peeing full pees, he wants to do a catheter on him again. I truly cannot do this to him again. Has anyone had this happen? What was the outcome? Any advice? I’m a sick anxious mess over this. Please help me

 

[louisstools]

Crystals in urine...not good. Both my cats have had that problem. Some more prone than others. They only eat rx diet...no treats...no human food...just the rx diet. It worked for both. Adding fountains to encourage drinking helps too.

My boy had a full on blockage. Nearly died. Had to have surgery bc his bladder was filled with crystals. I don't know if they felt that or mri/xray or both.

He might still be flushing the crystals out of his system. But as long as he is peeing it's not life threatening. But a blockage is life threatening.

I would be watching him closely. Have the car gassed up, keys/wallet ready, and cat carrier prepped.

 

[fionasmom]

Fiona herself had surgery for bladder stones after repeated UTIs. It solved the problem and she lived for years longer. (Crystals can evolve into stones; give that she was a female and never blocked, we probably continued to treat the symptoms and not the cause for a little too long).

I have a young boy right now who has been having a "urinary episode" that began three weeks ago that the vet and I are watching, so I understand how stressful this is. With a male, you have to really monitor carefully, as you vet has told you.

This may sound a little silly, but I would take the urine clumps out of the box and take a pic. It will give the vet an idea of urinary output, if nothing else and will clarify any difference in interpretation of his volume. Running often with small spurts may not be the best thing, just as licking may not. On the other hand, he may still be sore from previous procedures.

Maybe don't go here yet, but if your vet mentions PU surgery there is some information below. Please let us know what you find out and how Eli is. Many members have faced issues like this with their cats.

Perineal Urethrostomy Surgery in Cats | VCA Animal Hospital.

 

[louisstools]

to plus one what fionasmom regarding taking pictures.... I've found that whenever dealing with poop/pee/litterbox problems that having an always on security camera to monitor the situation can be helpful. I have a motion activated one on our letterboxes and it does a good job letting me know what is going on. Was very helpful a few months ago when I caught a UTI super early in my girl b/c it showed the vet behavior I wasn't describing in terms that made sense to her.

 

[silent meowlook]

Hi. FUS, feline urological syndrome is thought to be stress related. It is important to make sure you have removed any stressors in his life. If he is an only cat, you need two uncovered litter boxes that are cleaned daily. Make sure that he can do “cat stuff” fake hunt ( play) climb ( cat tree) and a safe high up area to observe the world.
I would only feed him prescription canned food, provided he eats it. You never want a cat to stop eating. Make sure his pain is managed because it becomes a slippery slope with the cystitis causing pain and the pain causes stress. Encourage water intake and give bottled water only. You may want to keep him on Gabapentin for a while if it helps with his pain and stress.

 

[Kimluvs2dance]

Thank you everyone for your advice. Today was the last day of his meds. The vet wants me to see how he does without them. I’m worried he will put the catheter back in if he doesn’t pee in full pees by Friday He just really started eating the prescription food a few days ago, so I’m hoping it does it’s job this week!

 

[Kimluvs2dance]

I am watching him like a hawk. Honestly, my mental health is very bad over this. How long did it take for your kitty to dissolve the crystals after the blockage?

 

[Kimluvs2dance]

Crystals in urine...not good. Both my cats have had that problem. Some more prone than others. They only eat rx diet...no treats...no human food...just the rx diet. It worked for both. Adding fountains to encourage drinking helps too.

My boy had a full on blockage. Nearly died. Had to have surgery bc his bladder was filled with crystals. I don't know if they felt that or mri/xray or both.

He might still be flushing the crystals out of his system. But as long as he is peeing it's not life threatening. But a blockage is life threatening.

I would be watching him closely. Have the car gassed up, keys/wallet ready, and cat carrier prepped.

I am watching him like a hawk. Honestly, my mental health is very bad over this. How long did it take for your kitty to dissolve the crystals after the blockage?

 

[Kimluvs2dance]

Fiona herself had surgery for bladder stones after repeated UTIs. It solved the problem and she lived for years longer. (Crystals can evolve into stones; give that she was a female and never blocked, we probably continued to treat the symptoms and not the cause for a little too long).

I have a young boy right now who has been having a "urinary episode" that began three weeks ago that the vet and I are watching, so I understand how stressful this is. With a male, you have to really monitor carefully, as you vet has told you.

This may sound a little silly, but I would take the urine clumps out of the box and take a pic. It will give the vet an idea of urinary output, if nothing else and will clarify any difference in interpretation of his volume. Running often with small spurts may not be the best thing, just as licking may not. On the other hand, he may still be sore from previous procedures.

Maybe don't go here yet, but if your vet mentions PU surgery there is some information below. Please let us know what you find out and how Eli is. Many members have faced issues like this with their cats.

Perineal Urethrostomy Surgery in Cats | VCA Animal Hospital.

That’s a great idea about taking photos. He is doing amazing otherwise. So himself. Playing eating drinking pooping! Just going to the bathroom a bunch of times in small loads. Thanks for your advice and I will keep you posted.

 

[louisstools]

I am watching him like a hawk. Honestly, my mental health is very bad over this. How long did it take for your kitty to dissolve the crystals after the blockage?

Trust me, I understand the mental anguish you're going through. (Just look through my posts and see the crappy year I've had.) It does get better though!

So let's see...my girl cat has had UTI problems all her life. As long as she's on her RX kibble diet the crystals seem to not be an issue. When she was off that diet the crystals came back but when she was put back on the diet things resolved themselves in about a week. She'll remain on this diet until she goes over the rainbow bridge.

My boy that passed, I don't remember him having UTI problems until he suddenly had a full on bladder blockage. They had to do emergency surgery to open up the bladder and clean it out...it was nearly 100% packed with the sand-like crystals. There was no passing or dissolving at that stage. The surgeon had never seen or heard of a case that bad. He recovered and lived another 4-5 years on the RX kibble diet with no issues.

 

[Kimluvs2dance]

Trust me, I understand the mental anguish you're going through. (Just look through my posts and see the crappy year I've had.) It does get better though!

So let's see...my girl cat has had UTI problems all her life. As long as she's on her RX kibble diet the crystals seem to not be an issue. When she was off that diet the crystals came back but when she was put back on the diet things resolved themselves in about a week. She'll remain on this diet until she goes over the rainbow bridge.

My boy that passed, I don't remember him having UTI problems until he suddenly had a full on bladder blockage. They had to do emergency surgery to open up the bladder and clean it out...it was nearly 100% packed with the sand-like crystals. There was no passing or dissolving at that stage. The surgeon had never seen or heard of a case that bad. He recovered and lived another 4-5 years on the RX kibble diet with no issues.

That’s horrible about your boy. I’m so sorry. I’m glad your girl is doing great! Ugh it truly has been one of the most trying months of my life. My mental health has plummeted. It gives me comfort knowing it will get better

They only said he had “some” crystals. It’s been two weeks since the catheter and he’s so normal in his personality. Eating, drinking, pooping lol. Just not peeing full pees yet. He’s going small amounts throughout the day, but not frantically in and out of the box. I’m hoping in the next few days he will start going fully. He’s been on the prescription diet a little over a week now. Unless you were watching his box habits, you'd never know he was sick!

 

[louisstools]

Unless you were watching his box habits, you'd never know he was sick!

Wifi motion activated security camera on the litter box. Best $50 I ever spent. Took a lot of stress off of me trying to "catch" either cat going potty. The camera sends me an alert and an email when there's activity and I have an app on my phone I can use to view the feed. It records motion events too.

I hope your boy keeps improving! With my girl it just seems as long as she's on this food she has no problems so she'll be on it the rest of her life.

 

[Kimluvs2dance]

Wifi motion activated security camera on the litter box. Best $50 I ever spent. Took a lot of stress off of me trying to "catch" either cat going potty. The camera sends me an alert and an email when there's activity and I have an app on my phone I can use to view the feed. It records motion events too.

I hope your boy keeps improving! With my girl it just seems as long as she's on this food she has no problems so she'll be on it the rest of her life.

Thank you so much for your kind words and for chatting with me I’m going to look into the litter box camera!!

 

[louisstools]

Thank you so much for your kind words and for chatting with me I’m going to look into the litter box camera!!

This is the one I have. Just had to purchase a memory card for it. Some cameras use cloud storage but that costs money monthly. I'm cheap and frankly my camera is on a literal box of poop so I don't feel I need that level of storage

 

[Alldara]

K Kimluvs2dance Did they tell you the type of crystals? This is important as it will dictate the type of food he will need long term. Mine was rarer-- calcium crystals. He needed a lower calcium food not a lower phorporus food like many.

It takes a long time for the crystals to fully leave I think. Depending on how many are there. My boy had a couple of flare ups for the first few years but no blockages.

1. Loads of water to keep his bladder always flushed and to minimize bacteria build up.

2. However many litters you have now, add another if you can. If you are in a house, one per level. You never want them holding it too long.

3. No clay litter. No pine litter. I've had good success with corn litters, paper litters and nut shell based litter. We are now using Catit paper pellets. I always switch litter by putting the new litter 100% in one box and leaving the rest with old litter. Slowly change over (we have 3 boxes).

4. Someone mentioned above but play, enrichment and anything stress relief. Flare ups can be caused by stress. All dry food should be given through enrichment: food balls, puzzles, whatever. Cat calming music (with purring if possible available almost anywhere that streams music); cat TV if you can either virtual or with birdseed outside; consider cat hormones like Feliway. Catnip and silvervine are great too. at least 20 minutes of play, however that looks to you: it can be broken into 5 minutes or all at once, it can be running or just rolling around and poking his feet at the toy if he's not feeling great or is tired. Cat grass?

5. Add water to his wet food until this is sorted. As much as he will stand you adding (usually a tablespoon or so). You toss it in a blender if you want. You can wet his dry food of he will eat it like that. Again, dry food through enrichment wherever possible (even DIY cat puzzles, check YouTube)..if it takes him a few days before he feels well enough to puzzle, that's fine. He can get the bulk of his food through wet.

6. Add water whenever something stressful is happening, including having a sitter do that on vacation.

7. My vets let me keep some anti-inflammatories medication or some anxiety medication (different vets) on hand for if something stressful was happening, to give in advance as prevention.

8. A study notes that cats with flare ups (various crystal types) have lower levels of glucosamine. However, giving wet food as a bulk of the diet was still better at preventing flares than glucosamine suppliments. Giving both would not hurt, if you want. I also give flax oil as an anti inflammatory a couple times a week.

Knock on wood he's had no (urinary) incidents in many years. I began to learn his subtle signs of stress and stave anything off with extra water and his suppliments. He's been on over-the-counter Purina urinary food for a long time. He has weight loss food for a bit though to kick-start some weight-loss. His dry is senior food with no added dairy.

 

[Kimluvs2dance]

K Kimluvs2dance Did they tell you the type of crystals? This is important as it will dictate the type of food he will need long term. Mine was rarer-- calcium crystals. He needed a lower calcium food not a lower phorporus food like many.

It takes a long time for the crystals to fully leave I think. Depending on how many are there. My boy had a couple of flare ups for the first few years but no blockages.

1. Loads of water to keep his bladder always flushed and to minimize bacteria build up.

2. However many litters you have now, add another if you can. If you are in a house, one per level. You never want them holding it too long.

3. No clay litter. No pine litter. I've had good success with corn litters, paper litters and nut shell based litter. We are now using Catit paper pellets. I always switch litter by putting the new litter 100% in one box and leaving the rest with old litter. Slowly change over (we have 3 boxes).

4. Someone mentioned above but play, enrichment and anything stress relief. Flare ups can be caused by stress. All dry food should be given through enrichment: food balls, puzzles, whatever. Cat calming music (with purring if possible available almost anywhere that streams music); cat TV if you can either virtual or with birdseed outside; consider cat hormones like Feliway. Catnip and silvervine are great too. at least 20 minutes of play, however that looks to you: it can be broken into 5 minutes or all at once, it can be running or just rolling around and poking his feet at the toy if he's not feeling great or is tired. Cat grass?

5. Add water to his wet food until this is sorted. As much as he will stand you adding (usually a tablespoon or so). You toss it in a blender if you want. You can wet his dry food of he will eat it like that. Again, dry food through enrichment wherever possible (even DIY cat puzzles, check YouTube)..if it takes him a few days before he feels well enough to puzzle, that's fine. He can get the bulk of his food through wet.

6. Add water whenever something stressful is happening, including having a sitter do that on vacation.

7. My vets let me keep some anti-inflammatories medication or some anxiety medication (different vets) on hand for if something stressful was happening, to give in advance as prevention.

8. A study notes that cats with flare ups (various crystal types) have lower levels of glucosamine. However, giving wet food as a bulk of the diet was still better at preventing flares than glucosamine suppliments. Giving both would not hurt, if you want. I also give flax oil as an anti inflammatory a couple times a week.

Knock on wood he's had no (urinary) incidents in many years. I began to learn his subtle signs of stress and stave anything off with extra water and his suppliments. He's been on over-the-counter Purina urinary food for a long time. He has weight loss food for a bit though to kick-start some weight-loss. His dry is senior food with no added dairy.

Wow thank you so much for taking the time to write this all. It’s amazing information and tips. I’m going to try the puzzles! I’m also going to look into changing his litter. I didn’t think about that part. I’m so glad your kitty is doing great!

They told me struvite crystals. I’m just worried because it’s been two week since his block and he is still not peeing right. He is producing every time he goes, just in small amounts. He’s also licking his penis. Not every second but throughout the day. Otherwise, you’d never know he was sick! He’s so himself. I don’t want to put him back on the catheter. He was traumatized enough

 

[Alldara]

Wow thank you so much for taking the time to write this all. It’s amazing information and tips. I’m going to try the puzzles! I’m also going to look into changing his litter. I didn’t think about that part. I’m so glad your kitty is doing great!

They told me struvite crystals. I’m just worried because it’s been two week since his block and he is still not peeing right. He is producing every time he goes, just in small amounts. He’s also licking his penis. Not every second but throughout the day. Otherwise, you’d never know he was sick! He’s so himself. I don’t want to put him back on the catheter. He was traumatized enough

It's really normal for him to pee more frequently and lower amounts while his bladder is inflamed. This is a sign you can watch for in the future to know something is started also (like on a pet cam while gone )

What you describe is really normal recovery. He may lick and pee more frequently during this time. I would consider asking the vet for some Metacam as those are signs he's still sore and could prevent another full flare up. Feed food after Metacam so no nausea.

Struvite Bladder Stones in Cats
VCA always has wonderful panflits on things to teach us the basics about diagnosis and treatment.

He should be on the vet diet for at least one year with no flare ups (so you know the crystals are gone) and then you can likely switch to the over-the-counter version for some expenses saving. The over the counter stops crystals forming, and does not dissolve crystals already there.

 

[Kimluvs2dance]

This is the one I have. Just had to purchase a memory card for it. Some cameras use cloud storage but that costs money monthly. I'm cheap and frankly my camera is on a literal box of poop so I don't feel I need that level of storage

Haha yes I’m with you on that!

 

[Kimluvs2dance]

It's really normal for him to pee more frequently and lower amounts while his bladder is inflamed. This is a sign you can watch for in the future to know something is started also (like on a pet cam while gone )

What you describe is really normal recovery. He may lick and pee more frequently during this time. I would consider asking the vet for some Metacam as those are signs he's still sore and could prevent another full flare up. Feed food after Metacam so no nausea.

Struvite Bladder Stones in Cats
VCA always has wonderful panflits on things to teach us the basics about diagnosis and treatment.

He should be on the vet diet for at least one year with no flare ups (so you know the crystals are gone) and then you can likely switch to the over-the-counter version for some expenses saving. The over the counter stops crystals forming, and does not dissolve crystals already there.

You made me feel better. How long could this last for him? Will it just resolve one morning and I’ll be surprised? Lol not really funny, but I’m losing my mind so I have to joke a bit! I am scared to call my vet because he seems to just want to throw a catheter in him. I think there are other things we can try before being drastic if he is not blocked.

I plan to look into the over the counter foods hopefully in a year or so from now. This food is so expensive I cannot believe it. It's criminal.

 

[louisstools]

This food is so expensive I cannot believe it. It's criminal.

I've bought that food for TWO cats for 10 years and now just one for 6 months. At a certain point the cost isn't the problem...it's the availability of it and how sacred these damn RXs for food are. Most stores don't keep this in stock so it's order online. And even a lot of online places don't keep this in stock rather they just send the order straight to Purina/Hills/RC/etc and the manufacturer fulfills it.

My only tips are to have the RX setup at two online places (preferably one that is the manufacturer) and then a copy of the RX in physical paper form. You want the paper form in case you're in a pinch and need to get it from a physical store or an alternative online place. Covid supply chains suck.

It's also useful if the vet gives you hassle for renewing it claiming they can't find it b/c of a system switch. I had this problem last January and it put my cat into a full on eating crisis that we're STILL recovering from and the only way it was resolved was spending time at the vet's office as a tech went through 11 years worth of records looking for the original RX. Never mind we had 11 years worth of purchase records from them for the food. I would have lost my mind had I not needed this magical slip of paper to get my girl the food she needed. It's cat food for pee pee problems, and is damn expensive...this isn't exactly a controlled substance.