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- Jul 8, 2022
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Good morning everyone. Sorry for the paragraphs of info here.
I have an 8 year old neutered male DSH boy who, unfortunately, had to go to ER on the 4th of July. He had a blockage that had come on due to idiopathic cystitis from friends visiting for a month.
He was kept at the hospital for 2 1/2 days, discharged Wednesday the 8th. His urinalysis/culture showed NO crystals, no WBCs, just some standard RBCs and was otherwise unremarkable. He unblocked very easily and the vet was optimistic for him. His appetite was great in the hospital.
Currently he is on Buprenorphine, Gabapentin, Prazosin, and Onsior.
The same day he was discharged, I went back to pick up the Onsior since he was in and out of the litter box constantly - only passing small amounts of urine. Yesterday, I rushed him back over in the evening to ensure he was not blocked again. Veterinarian was easily able to manually express his bladder and finally told me that the dribbling/small urine output is an unfortunately fairly common issue in some cats following a urinary catheter. She stated he is likely suffering from bladder atony - a term I was unfamiliar with until I researched it last night.
Currently I have him isolated to my bedroom. I have his litter box and pee pee pads scattered all over my room. He has an aversion to the litterbox now, likely associating the pain with the box, and is using the pee pads and pretty much *anywhere* in my room he can. We have a smaller upstairs room that has linoleum floors but since his blockage was induced by stress, I'm hesitant to barricade him in there alone. I'll deal with cleaning my carpets when he gets better. He's worth it.
We halved his Buprenorphine dosage to see if it'd help with his dazed urination all over the room. It didn't help. I'm an old vet tech so I check his bladder myself manually 3 times a day, he's a big boy ( 18 lbs ) so its easier said than done, but last night I very gently helped him manually express since his output is droplets/small. It expressed easily, so once again I know he's not blocked. I wanted to give him some relief so he could get some sleep and not feel drawn to constantly get up to go piddle.
He has been prescribed C/D stress formula, wet food. The first day he was out he had a good appetite, today he's eating but not much. He developed diarrhea yesterday - though I am assuming its from the medication cocktail and also abruptly having to switch foods with no gradual transition. The vet told me he needed to be on the new food immediately, gradually switching wasn't an option.
Please, any other owners who have gone through a blockage and the aftercare before - I would appreciate your advice. I've spent over 4,000 dollars ( not credit ) and have missed work all week from worry and needing to be home to properly medicate him. I've got about 1,000 left on my Carecredit limit that I'm trying to reserve for primary veterinarian visits - after that, I'm going to be financially drained for a while.
Calling the ER every time I have questions is not viable as the doctors are overwhelmed as it is - and his primary vet is notoriously difficult to get in with/get advice from. Has anyone else dealt with similar? If so, how long did it take for atony and leakage/incontinence to fade off for you? Perhaps the Prazosin is relaxing him too much and its making it harder for his bladder muscles to contract. Thank you for reading this giant post - I've never personally gone through this before and wasn't aware of all the complications following a UO/catheter placement.
I have an 8 year old neutered male DSH boy who, unfortunately, had to go to ER on the 4th of July. He had a blockage that had come on due to idiopathic cystitis from friends visiting for a month.
He was kept at the hospital for 2 1/2 days, discharged Wednesday the 8th. His urinalysis/culture showed NO crystals, no WBCs, just some standard RBCs and was otherwise unremarkable. He unblocked very easily and the vet was optimistic for him. His appetite was great in the hospital.
Currently he is on Buprenorphine, Gabapentin, Prazosin, and Onsior.
The same day he was discharged, I went back to pick up the Onsior since he was in and out of the litter box constantly - only passing small amounts of urine. Yesterday, I rushed him back over in the evening to ensure he was not blocked again. Veterinarian was easily able to manually express his bladder and finally told me that the dribbling/small urine output is an unfortunately fairly common issue in some cats following a urinary catheter. She stated he is likely suffering from bladder atony - a term I was unfamiliar with until I researched it last night.
Currently I have him isolated to my bedroom. I have his litter box and pee pee pads scattered all over my room. He has an aversion to the litterbox now, likely associating the pain with the box, and is using the pee pads and pretty much *anywhere* in my room he can. We have a smaller upstairs room that has linoleum floors but since his blockage was induced by stress, I'm hesitant to barricade him in there alone. I'll deal with cleaning my carpets when he gets better. He's worth it.
We halved his Buprenorphine dosage to see if it'd help with his dazed urination all over the room. It didn't help. I'm an old vet tech so I check his bladder myself manually 3 times a day, he's a big boy ( 18 lbs ) so its easier said than done, but last night I very gently helped him manually express since his output is droplets/small. It expressed easily, so once again I know he's not blocked. I wanted to give him some relief so he could get some sleep and not feel drawn to constantly get up to go piddle.
He has been prescribed C/D stress formula, wet food. The first day he was out he had a good appetite, today he's eating but not much. He developed diarrhea yesterday - though I am assuming its from the medication cocktail and also abruptly having to switch foods with no gradual transition.
The vet told me he needed to be on the new food immediately, gradually switching wasn't an option. Please, any other owners who have gone through a blockage and the aftercare before - I would appreciate your advice. I've spent over 4,000 dollars ( not credit ) and have missed work all week from worry and needing to be home to properly medicate him. I've got about 1,000 left on my Carecredit limit that I'm trying to reserve for primary veterinarian visits - after that, I'm going to be financially drained for a while.
Calling the ER every time I have questions is not viable as the doctors are overwhelmed as it is - and his primary vet is notoriously difficult to get in with/get advice from. Has anyone else dealt with similar? If so, how long did it take for atony and leakage/incontinence to fade off for you? Perhaps the Prazosin is relaxing him too much and its making it harder for his bladder muscles to contract. Thank you for reading this giant post - I've never personally gone through this before and wasn't aware of all the complications following a UO/catheter placement.
Thank you
