Cat at the vets...blocked bladder, need advice & hand holding!

[bebejones]

This might come out a bit long winded...bear with me!

Thursday just gone my older male cat (8 years old) spent pretty much the entire day asleep on a dining chair tucked away under the table. (This is very unusual for him.) Didn't come when called, didn't eat. Friday he seemed alot brighter, ate food, was moving around, went outside etc. He went out after his dinner (about 9.30pm) and didn't come back when called, was no where to be found. He has been known to do this before, but always turned up in the morning. This morning he was no where to be seen, so DH went to look for him & found him curled up under DDs sandpit in the back garden. He wouldn't get up, didn't want food. Rang vets and got an appointment straight away this morning.

Vet suspected he had a blocked bladder & took him in to clear the blockage an assess him & see if his kidneys had been compromised. He is not insured, we are fairly skint right now & she promised to keep costs down as much as possible. :(

This was at 10am this morning. At 1.30 she rang & said that they had only just got him catheterised (sp?) as he has developed alkaline urine which has formed crystals in his bladder & blocked it. They are hoping to be able to clear it out & we will see where we go from there. He is sedated & on high dose painkillers as he was in alot of pain. She said it was one of the worst cases she has ever seen. (Am starting to think this may have been the root cause of him weeing all over the house which the vets had previously put down to behaviour issues) He showed no other outward signs of being unwell before Thursday.

The now trouble is, if they can clear all the crystals he will have to be on a very strict diet & will no longer be allowed the dry food (left out for both of my cats during the day) which will make it trcky feeding the other cat, but I know there are ways around that. He will be on special food from the vets (which I am not sure we can afford). Not sure what quality of life he will have. If they can't clear the crystals he will require surgery which we can't really afford (vet bill already at £200...only day 1 and he is likely to be in there for at least another 2 days). I just don't know what is going to happen. And so worried that we will have to have him put to sleep. :(

Does anyone else have any experience of this condition or any words of wisdom? Feel very attached to my bonkers big puss cat. DH got him for me just after my dad died & although he is my older cat, he's only 8, that's not really that old is it? My 3 year old DD absolutely adores him & is very upset that he isn't here & doesn't really understand. Just feeling very wobbly, and the uncertainty of it all isn't helping! :(

[Fluffycloudland77]

I don't have any advice just so sorry your boys ill. I hope he pulls through.

[sweetkitty]

Oh just seen this and you know I left you a message on FB, we were the same couldn't afford the mega expensive cat food for the 3 of them, it was something like £28 a week for one cat, we would have had to put 3 on it as 2 of them didn't like to be watched eating (!)

As I said on FB he had 2 ops and when he needed a third just after his thyroid op we said enough was enough. Plus he needed to be on tablets for life and he was so scared of getting them despite everything we tried he had started to pee himself when DP tried to give him a tablet. It was horrible, we put him to sleep in the end but he was 14 at the time.

I hope he's ok and you can find a way to afford the food.

[stinkyfluffycat]

We had exactly the same thing with our cat, and the good news is he's absolutely fine now, in fact he was in the vet's for 4 days and was fine from the moment he came home, so hopefully your cat will be back to normal really soon. Also your vet should let you visit, my 2 year old understood that the cat wasn't feeling well and had gone to the vet to get better and was allowed to visit every day, which helped.

The other good news is that our cat absolutely refused point blank to eat the TEN QUID A BLOODY BOX special urinary prescription cat food we totally couldn't afford, and the vet said it's ok to just feed normal wet food, we just have to not leave biscuits out.

The bad news is our total vet bill came to about £570, but hopefully your vet might let you pay in installments?

Vet said that stress and not drinking enough water can cause the crystals to form, so to use Feliway and always make sure there is fresh water.

Hope your cat's better soon, poor puss.

[bebejones]

Thank you all!

I said to DH I didn't think we would be able to spend as much on one weeks worth of food for one as we spend on the other in a month! But he is being very positive about the whole thing & saying 'wait & see'.

No news from vets as yet, hoping I can go see him today. They have said that they will look into us paying in instalments, which would be a massive help. My younger cat broke his leg on a building site 2 years ago & the bill was over £800. He had it pinned & had to have new casts on it every few days! They were really good about payment then, so hoping they will be the same this time.

The biggest problem with his diet is that he is a scavenger. He constantly rips open rubbish bags & I often find bit of chicken carcass & things from other peoples bins in our porch. We live in a very catty area & I'm sure he gets fed elsewhere. But he won't use a litter tray so I just can't stop him from going outside. :(

[stinkyfluffycat]

How is your cat? [spends too much time worrying about cats she's never met emoticon]

[bebejones]

He is doing ok thank you! Picking him up from vets in half an hour. He has lots of medication & special food (for now) and he has the cone of shame!! They said he urinated on his own (without cathetar) this morning which is really good news.

Just got to figure out how on earth we are going to pay the bill, but they are being very kind & letting us pay a bit at a time.

[stinkyfluffycat]

Oh good, glad he's on the mend. Give him a stroke from me
Now go and get yourself some pet insurance before the next bill comes along!

Oh, and if he's anything like my cat he'll look miserable, but will cheer up 100% when he gets to take the lampshade off!

[bebejones]

He thankfully has come home without the cone! He's on 2 different muscle relaxants though & is a tad wobbly! :( Pet insurance with an existing condition would be extortionate wouldn't it?

[mrsravelstein]

my old fella, sadly no longer with us, had this very badly and things were a bit touch and go by the time we got it sorted. our vet advised us to give him wet food not dry, and he was absolutely fine on that for the rest of his life.

[TarquinGyrfalcon]

One of our cats had this. He now has wet food with extra water and no biscuits, we have 3 other cats so at feeding time he has to be isolated until he has cleared his bowl and I know that sometimes he will pinch dry food if the others haven't eaten it all but as long as he has eaten all his wet food with the extra gravy he seems to be OK.

I hope your boy perks up soon.

[bebejones]

Well he only came home yesterday afternoon & I think I'm going to have to take him back to the vets today. Doesn't seem to be urinating & appears to be in pain :(

[bebejones]

Just wanted to let you all know I just made the horrible & hard decision to have my dear boy put to sleep :(

He was blocked back up again with the crystals & we just didn't think it was fair to put him back through 4-5 more days of catheterisation when it could happen again & again. He was suffering & now he isn't so I am taking small comfort in that. Do feel wretched & can't stop crying. Poor DD doesn't quite understand. :(

RIP my Archie, you will be missed :(

[TarquinGyrfalcon]

bebejones, I'm so sorry to read this

Archie was lucky to have an owner who cared so much and did the difficult, but right hting

[stinkyfluffycat]

Oh no! So sorry, poor puss. I guess though if he'd become blocked up again so soon after they'd cleared him it might just have kept on happening, and a cat with a catheter and a cone is a miserable cat
Organise a nice day out/treat for yourself and your dd to help take your mind off it if you can, and have a good wail tonight after she's gone to bed. And

[bebejones]

Thank you both. Was a tough day, but I know I did the right thing :)