Avoiding Urinary Block Recurrance??

[rbg]

I know Dr. Pitcairn! Nice guy, but I never got to use him before we left that city. When he moved to Eugene, OR he wasn't taking many, if any, new patients because all the ones he left behind on the east coast were still using him. Fortunately, I have a vet here who is open to alternatives. She mainly uses herbs and vitamins, but is familiar with homeopathy, especially after she saw what it did for our cat when she had panluekemia. She was close to losing the battle a few times, but a remedy would clear up each problem that arose. The vet was impressed after seeing how well it worked, so maybe she'll study it some day. Right now she doesn't want to take the time since her practice is so busy and it does take a long time to learn it well, especially when using it on animals since a lot of the work is by observation. You choose the remedies based on mental, emotional, and physical characteristics. It's not easy.
There are actually more vets open to alternative meds than MDs, but I know what you mean about some of them not listening.
Europeans are lucky to have it in wide use, even a homeopathic hospital in some areas. The queen and her family use it.
Can you tell I'm sold on it?

If you ever feel the flu coming on, with aches and tiredness, try taking the flu remedy called Oscillococcinum. Don't take the whole tube like the directions say, just fill the top of the cap and drop it under you tongue. It will abort a lot of flu's, but not every one. Some require a different remedy.
I'll get off my soapbox.

 

[crazymomof4]

I've been taking Oscillococcinum every few hours today for a sore throat! Now it's gone! I stocked up early in the season when the disturbing reports were coming in about the potential for a rough flu season. The advice you gave about not using the entire tube was the same as that I recieved from the owner of the health food store. She said Europeans take just a few pellets once a week as a preventative measure during the cold/flu season. I like the fact that my children give me no arguements about taking it because of the sweetness. I also swear by fresh garlic and echinecea capsules to boost the immune system. Although I only do the fresh garlic when I am sure that the illness will have me house-bound for a few days.

 

[rbg]

Good, I'm glad you already got the advice on Ocillo. When it's the right remedy it's great. There's another one called 'Influenzinum' that is used as a preventive, kind of like a flu shot without the side effects.
If someone in my family comes down with the flu I'll usually give the rest of us 1 or 2 doses a day of oscillo. with the hopes of preventing it from going around the whole house.
If you ever get the type of flu that makes you feel heaviness any where, but especially the eyelids and you just can't move much and you have a stiff neck and headache, then you may need gelsemium. That's the remedy that kept me from having a miscarriage the day my dad died and it toned down the pain during her birth, which had become almost unbearable. Just to show the wide range of things one remedy can address. It's very interesting.

 

[billy]

Originally Posted by ahuff

We have an 8-year old, fixed, mixed-breed, mostly indoor, male, with no history of UTI, FLUTD, etc. Fed dry Friskies entire life (hasn't liked super premiums) and has been very healthy and not overweight.
While out of the country for two weeks, he was free-fed. A friend & my mom were checking on him -- all was well. When we arrived home, he was a bit lethargic, but by evening was clearly in pain. We got him to the vet -- full urinary obstruction, temp of 97! He was catheterized, given antibiotics & fluids, a drug to reduce the potassium in his blood, etc. Vet says struvite crystals.

Three days later, he is home from the hospital seemingly as good as new, with vet orders for a wet prescritption diet (Waltham), it's $1/can!! We're trying to figure out our options...

Reading articles online, it seems that there is no clear consensus on the cause or prevention of FLUTD -- I know...low magnesium, acidic. I certainly do not want another sick kitty (nor the vet bills!!), but also want to avoid an expensive diet -- one that makes it difficult to leave him for a weekend!

It seems unusual for an 8-year old cat to have his first urinary issue, with no change in diet. I am curious what others have experienced and what diet options we should consider? How likely is recurrence? What ranges of protein, fat, fiber, minerals are considered ideal? What about some of the non-prescription diets for urinary health?

Any advice or suggested articles are most appreciated!!

I have been searching everywhere to read all I can on Urinary Obstruction, I came upon this site... it is good to know that others are having similar problems. It all started when I went away for seven days. The day came back, my kitty was struggling to urinate and couldn't, fortunatley I have teaken him diectly to the emergency room. Since than, he has been hospitalized three times, each time getting a urinary catherization to un block him. He has been prescribed Walthames SO. He came home from the hospital on Saturday, they told me he was doing great. Since saturday he seems to be urinating less, drinking less water and not loving his new food. My vet has told me that if it doesn't work out this time, we will need to do a surgical procedure that turns him into a she. (They sort of gastrate him so that there is a larger opening to pass blockages.) I am besides myself with worry. His doctors bills have exceeded two thousand. Any advise out there? What about all of this Holistic stuff you read about on the internet??

 

[billy]

I have been searching everywhere to read all I can on Urinary Obstruction, I came upon this site... it is good to know that others are having similar problems. It all started when I went away for seven days. The day came back, my kitty was struggling to urinate and couldn't, fortunatley I have teaken him diectly to the emergency room. Since than, he has been hospitalized three times, each time getting a urinary catherization to un block him. He has been prescribed Walthames SO. He came home from the hospital on Saturday, they told me he was doing great. Since saturday he seems to be urinating less, drinking less water and not loving his new food. My vet has told me that if it doesn't work out this time, we will need to do a surgical procedure that turns him into a she. (They sort of gastrate him so that there is a larger opening to pass blockages.) I am besides myself with worry. His doctors bills have exceeded two thousand. Any advise out there? What about all of this Holistic stuff you read about on the internet??

 

[monica's six]

This post is so timely! My cat Zoey is 5 years old and is going into the hospital for some seemingly invasive surgery to remove stones from her bladder.

I have 6 cats and 3 automatic litterboxes and Zoey hasn't acted even one bit strange... not lethargic, nothing. It's really unbelievable that I caught this problem at all. I was over cleaning the litterboxes and she came over and used the one I was cleaning and I saw blood in her urine. Then she went over to the water dish and drank some water... then went back to one of the already cleaned litterboxes and peed there again. I don't even think I finished cleaning that litterbox before I called the vet. I figured she had a UTI and that it wouldn't be too big a deal, but there was no sense waiting to get her checked out. So, she and I went to see the vet within the hour. ($100)

The vet prescribed me some anti-biotics in pill form that really made her sick to her stomach. She'd take one then two hours later vomit up everything she had eaten and I'm assuming the medicine as well. So she was peeing blood and not holding down food. The vet suggested I buy a bag of this Urinary health food by Prescription Diet ($13.00), and try that before I change her medicine. I have never in my life seen 6 cats snub any cat food I brought home the way they did with this stuff and either way I gave her her medicine and again 2 hours later she vomited it up. So I went back to the vet and got another antibiotic in liquid form ($2.00 but only because they refunded me the money from the pills I bought before). I think it was the same drug in liquid form and she handled that one a little bit better so long as I knew she ate right before she got her medicine. The problem with this stuff was that it was PINK and when it dries it's like rubbery plastic... and Zoey would end up with it all over her face and chin. If I didn't clean it up right away she'd get really angry trying to clean it off herself as she did the first time I gave it to her. I've never heard her yelp and growl at the same time before like she did then.

Anyway, what we thought was just a UTI didn't clear up with the anti-biotic. She continued to pee often and with traces of blood in there some of the time. So I took her back to the vet just to see if they could get a urine sample from her, which they couldn't so I had them hold her overnight and try to get one from her that way ($100). They got the urine sample and duhhhh the only thing that told me was that there was blood in her urine, which I already knew. And when she came home she was SO happy to be home. She immediately ate, used the litterbox, then proceeded to sleep the rest of the day. It was very obvious to me that she was incredibly stressed out being at the vet clinic overnight...

I then took her to the Animal Hospital (which is really another branch of the vets office I took her too in the first place) and got X-Rays taken, a sterile urinanalysis, a urine culture ($500). And it was very clear from the X-Rays what the problem was. She had many bladder stones all of which were too big to pass and everytime they rattled around in her bladder they would mildly lacerate her bladder causing bleeding. So she's got to get surgery which is going to cost me $1000 and leave her in the hospital for 2 days.

So tommorrow morning she goes in for surgery and I have to say I'm really concerned about them holding her for 2 days. I'm afraid she's not going to eat, not going to sleep, and that she's going to be incredibly stressed out. The vet clinic is a much noiser environment then what she's used to. I'm hoping this surgery goes very well and that there aren't any complications. I suspect she'll have to wear one of those Elizabethan Collars for a little while which ought to be funny for about 5 minutes then it'll just be annoying for her and me.

Here's a picture of Zoey with her little brother Casey.

 

[monica's six]

DOH! I should have mentioned Zoey is the white and buff... Casey is the grey tiger striped guy. They're both so cute!