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Hi, everyone. I have a five year old male cat named Sachi. About a week ago, he was hospitalized due to partial urinary obstruction. Five months ago, he had the exact same problem, so this is the second time he's having urinary obstruction.
The first time it happened, he was catheterized the vet told me that he had urethral plug. The vet took an x ray (no ultrasound unfortunately) and nothing odd was found. I was told to feed him royal canin s/o and that's basically it.
Here's the problem. He literally choose to starve instead of eating the royal canin s/o. Since I adopted Sachi from the streets when he's about three months old, getting him to eat and drink is extremely difficult and frustrating at times because he's very picky. I feed him mainly canned wet food mixed with a little bit of water and sometimes he'll nibble on few kibbles (about 5-6 pieces). He's not a big eater, no matter how much he likes the food. He will only eat about 1-2 tablespoons of wet food at a time, three times a day tops. No more than that.
To add insult to injury, he also hates drinking water. I very rarely see him drinking water, that's why I add water to his wet food every time. I tried so hard to entice him to drink; using many different size, height, shape, color, material of the water bowl, place them in different locations, using tap & bottled water, flavor the water with broth, tuna juice, catnip, etc, using water fountain, he's not having any of it. He also won't eat if I add too much water to his wet food.
This time when he's hospitalized, I took him to a bigger clinic. The vet took an ultrasound that shows many urinary crystals in his bladder, most likely struvite. Again, I was told to feed him royal canin s/o exclusively and to increase his water intake (about 200 ml a day) to increase the chance of crystal dissolution and prevent another obstruction. I told the vet that's basically impossible since he hates the food and even if he likes the food, getting him to drink 200 ml worth of liquid a day is another impossibility. To my disappointment, the vet can't give me any advice.
The first couple of days at home after hospitalization was so hard. Leave alone the prescription food, Sachi won't even smell his favorite wet food (fancy feast chicken liver pate). He already lost quite a lot of weight and not eating will only worsen his condition. So I force feed him royal canin recovery using a syringe. No matter how hard I tried, he won't get the amount of food and water he need. If anything, the force feeding hurt both of us emotionally.
By the second night, I'm aware that he's dehydrated and there's no 24 hour clinic where I live. I tried my best to get my hands on IV fluids and needle. Thanks to the countless tutorials on the internet about how to give subq fluid to cats, I successfully put 150 ml in without a fight. The next morning, I took him back to the vet. I asked about putting a feeding tube but the vet outright refused the idea. Instead, he gave me Urimav tablets (ammonium chloride to acidify the urine) and told me to continue subq fluids 200 ml a day (twice a day, 100 ml in the morning and 100 ml at night) for as long as necessary. The vet also told me that at this moment, getting Sachi to eat was the first priority to avoid hepatic lipidosis, so I can give him anything as long as he's eating, but it'll be better if the food has low ash content.
So, fast forward to this day... Sachi's been getting his subq fluid (ringer lactate) everyday, he starts to eat by himself little by little. I bought many different kinds of struvite dissolving foods for him like Hill's s/d, Happy Cat struvite, Purina ProPlan urinary, etc. Right now, all he wants to eat is a little of the royal canin s/o gravy (not the morsels) and some Purina One urinary kibbles. He mainly eats canned wet food (mixed with a little water and the prescribed Urimav) with less than 2% ash content, about more or less 1/2 cup (125 ml) amount each day. He pees quite a lot (3-4 times a day, fist sized clumps each time). Because I'm so paranoid, I bought pH test strips to check his urine pH. I know it isn't the most reliable or accurate method, but the strips showed pH around 6 so far.
Now I'm really worried about what's next. I know he will never be able to drink that much water each day to keep his bladder healthy. He also won't properly eat the prescription food. It seems to me like he'll need the subq fluid and medication for the rest of his life. I feel like I'm just avoiding the inevitable. The vet has informed me about the necessity of PU surgery if the obstruction happened again in the future, but it doesn't guarantee the obstruction won't happen again. Honestly, I'm ready for the surgery but at this point I'm trying my absolute best to prevent the obstruction from happening again.
Does anyone ever faced the same problem or has any advice to offer? Thank you so much and I'm sorry for such a long post.
The first time it happened, he was catheterized the vet told me that he had urethral plug. The vet took an x ray (no ultrasound unfortunately) and nothing odd was found. I was told to feed him royal canin s/o and that's basically it.
Here's the problem. He literally choose to starve instead of eating the royal canin s/o. Since I adopted Sachi from the streets when he's about three months old, getting him to eat and drink is extremely difficult and frustrating at times because he's very picky. I feed him mainly canned wet food mixed with a little bit of water and sometimes he'll nibble on few kibbles (about 5-6 pieces). He's not a big eater, no matter how much he likes the food. He will only eat about 1-2 tablespoons of wet food at a time, three times a day tops. No more than that.
To add insult to injury, he also hates drinking water. I very rarely see him drinking water, that's why I add water to his wet food every time. I tried so hard to entice him to drink; using many different size, height, shape, color, material of the water bowl, place them in different locations, using tap & bottled water, flavor the water with broth, tuna juice, catnip, etc, using water fountain, he's not having any of it. He also won't eat if I add too much water to his wet food.
This time when he's hospitalized, I took him to a bigger clinic. The vet took an ultrasound that shows many urinary crystals in his bladder, most likely struvite. Again, I was told to feed him royal canin s/o exclusively and to increase his water intake (about 200 ml a day) to increase the chance of crystal dissolution and prevent another obstruction. I told the vet that's basically impossible since he hates the food and even if he likes the food, getting him to drink 200 ml worth of liquid a day is another impossibility. To my disappointment, the vet can't give me any advice.
The first couple of days at home after hospitalization was so hard. Leave alone the prescription food, Sachi won't even smell his favorite wet food (fancy feast chicken liver pate). He already lost quite a lot of weight and not eating will only worsen his condition. So I force feed him royal canin recovery using a syringe. No matter how hard I tried, he won't get the amount of food and water he need. If anything, the force feeding hurt both of us emotionally.
By the second night, I'm aware that he's dehydrated and there's no 24 hour clinic where I live. I tried my best to get my hands on IV fluids and needle. Thanks to the countless tutorials on the internet about how to give subq fluid to cats, I successfully put 150 ml in without a fight. The next morning, I took him back to the vet. I asked about putting a feeding tube but the vet outright refused the idea. Instead, he gave me Urimav tablets (ammonium chloride to acidify the urine) and told me to continue subq fluids 200 ml a day (twice a day, 100 ml in the morning and 100 ml at night) for as long as necessary. The vet also told me that at this moment, getting Sachi to eat was the first priority to avoid hepatic lipidosis, so I can give him anything as long as he's eating, but it'll be better if the food has low ash content.
So, fast forward to this day... Sachi's been getting his subq fluid (ringer lactate) everyday, he starts to eat by himself little by little. I bought many different kinds of struvite dissolving foods for him like Hill's s/d, Happy Cat struvite, Purina ProPlan urinary, etc. Right now, all he wants to eat is a little of the royal canin s/o gravy (not the morsels) and some Purina One urinary kibbles. He mainly eats canned wet food (mixed with a little water and the prescribed Urimav) with less than 2% ash content, about more or less 1/2 cup (125 ml) amount each day. He pees quite a lot (3-4 times a day, fist sized clumps each time). Because I'm so paranoid, I bought pH test strips to check his urine pH. I know it isn't the most reliable or accurate method, but the strips showed pH around 6 so far.
Now I'm really worried about what's next. I know he will never be able to drink that much water each day to keep his bladder healthy. He also won't properly eat the prescription food. It seems to me like he'll need the subq fluid and medication for the rest of his life. I feel like I'm just avoiding the inevitable. The vet has informed me about the necessity of PU surgery if the obstruction happened again in the future, but it doesn't guarantee the obstruction won't happen again. Honestly, I'm ready for the surgery but at this point I'm trying my absolute best to prevent the obstruction from happening again.
Does anyone ever faced the same problem or has any advice to offer? Thank you so much and I'm sorry for such a long post.
