Cuddles rushed into the animal hospital today with suspected UTI, Gastroenteritis and inflamed bladd

[cuddlesmycat]

Cuddles my 3 year old cat has has been diagnosed with suspected Urinary Tract Infection, Inflamed Bladder and Suspected Gastroenteritis  today. She is hardly peeing and is very lethargic, although she is eating absolutely fine.

When I visited the vet he said that he was going to treat Cuddles with Noroclav 50mg  antibiotics for 10 days (Noroclav has 40mg Amoxicillin and 10mg Clavulanic acid in it) and gave me 7 days worth of Hills Prescription Diet I/D saches and asked me to feed Cuddles one of these a day to help with the Gastroenteritis.

Poor Cuddles has had a UTI for the second time in 2 months and I was wondering what steps I can tack at home to help prevent this re-occurring again?

 

[revenwyn]

Get the cat off of grains and switch to wet food or better yet make your own raw cat food.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

It is true that diet plays a huge part in causing these health issues.  Stress too.  What does Cuddles normally eat?  If it's dry food, then you might try to switch her over to canned food, at the very least.  A good quality canned food (grain free), would be optimal.  (and yes, raw would be the very best!)  And she needs to drink plenty of water (from what I just read up on this topic).  If she doesn't drink much, you might try getting a fountain. 

Do you give her any probiotics?  I'm thinking that might help with the gastroenteritis.  Certainly couldn't hurt.  There are quite a few of us here who give our cats probiotics every day, just to ensure they have a healthy gut.  Some of us give them the same probiotics that we take ourselves!  I used to, and am going to start up again, once I finish off the bottle of Mercola I ordered them, since they don't seem to care for it as much as mine

Hope Cuddles feels better very soon, and doesn't have yet another recurrence

 

[angels mommy]

I just went through a bacterial bladder infection w/ Angel. Thank goodness there was no blockage!!

Even though I only feed wet & now 90% raw. They saw small crystals in his bladder, & the bladder wall was 3xs thicker than it should've been, because of inflammation.

Yes, I agree. wet, grain free food, or raw only would be best. I would also mix some water in her food, to get more into her. (mix to about the consistency as oatmeal). Also, another important thing is filtered water only.

(I use the Pur water filter on the faucet). 

Good luck & sending vibes for your little girl!!

 

[cuddlesmycat]

Hi there,

Thanks for the replies.

Cuddles has been eating GranataPet White Fish & Wild Livers and Power of Nature Lamb flavour which are both pate wet foods which I purchase from http://floydspfotenshop.de/  and get delivered to my address in the UK. Because she is eating wet food I think this is stress related cystitis because she has been in and out of the animal hospital for a month in July 2012 with asthma attacks and scans for her HCM (Heart Condition). Someone else suggested to me on another forum trying Cystease  to ease up the inflammation in her bladder and Zylkene (75mg) to help calm her stress levels down. I have subsequently placed an order for these with delivery taking place tomorrow (Thursday 06/09/2012).

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Well,yes, it certainly could be stress related then, poor girl.  Hope these new things you have ordered will hope calm her down.  Does she have HCM as well as asthma?  I guess she takes quite a few meds then?  Does she pill well, or is that stressful in itself?  I know you can get asthma meds compounded, but don't know about the HCM meds.  I just remember seeing a cat on Youtube taking his asthma meds like a treat actually running for them and chewing them up! 

Continued

for Cuddles, and

for you!

 

[cuddlesmycat]

She is currently on no medication for the HCM as she has a very mild grade 2 so is in no immediate danger and has been discharged from the animal hospital with the HCM for 1 year at which stage they will re-scan her heart and do further xrays.

Yes she has asthma as well which is under control now with a steriod called Prednisolone 5mg tablets which she takes half (2.5mg) every 2 days unless she has breathing problems which in this case she gets an extra half to help calm it down.

The antibiotics seem to have started working with the Cystitis as her mood has lifted and she is managing to go for a pee more frequent. She has just had her first tablet of the Cystease which was a battle to get her to take. I try and give her antibiotics when she has just got up otherwise she gets stressed out as she won't have them in her food.

 

[angels mommy]

When Angel came home from his two nights in the hospital, he had three pills to take!  The anti-biotic, the anti-spasmodic/depressant, & the pain pill.

Luckily the vet tech fit two into a capsule for me, so that cut down on how many I had to pill him. It didn't matter, piling him was still stressful, even w/ helping wash them down w/ a little water from a syringe squirted in his cheek. After everything he had been through, I didn't want the stress to bring on a herpes episode, & in his case that means eye drops too, so I just bought pill pockets. I used just enough of one to cover each pill, so they weren't too big &  this way his meds became treats!

I hope that helps!  Good Luck!