Any vets around? Cat's pee pipe problem - when do you call it a day?

[RGPargy]

Hi

My male cat has developed a pee pipe problem, in which crystals are forming in his uretha, preventing him from passing urine.

Anyway, it started on Friday when i noticed he was acting peculiar and holding his back end down so i rang the vet and was able to take him there straight away. She had a feel and said his bladder was HUGE and that she was going to keep him in and insert a catheta (sp?). While he was in, they removed the catheta to see if the bladder would fill up again and unfortunately it did so they had to reinsert it. I brought him home on Sunday night as he was very depressed all weekend (naturally) and the vet thought that he might perk up a bit if he was at home and this might aid his recovery. I had to give him special urinary food and also medication. I had to take him back yesterday to find out the situation and although he was acting fairly normally all the time he was home, unfortunately his bladder had filled up again and i had also noticed him spending about 10 minutes in one spot in the garden trying to have a wee, but it seems that he was not able to do so.

Last night i got up to the baby and noticed that again he was acting weird. He kept trying to wee anywhere he sat, including various places on my bed! In the end i had to shut him out of my bedroom because there's no way, if he were able to, that i or DP were going to be peed on in the middle of the night!

This morning he looks very depressed again and it seems we are back to square one. The medication isn't working, nor is the urinary food that's meant to dissolve the crystals.

The vet said that he might have to be hospitalised for 2/3 days again and have a catheta reinserted but if all this treatment isn't working, when do we say enough is enough?? He's obviously very unhappy. The vet said the worst case scenario would be to amputate his penis () but this seems really macabre!!!

Also, to be very honest, the bill so far is around £500 and we are very very stretched financially. I dont know how much more we can take, cost-wise!

Advice anyone?

TIA.

Guess who's home?!!!

Yay!!!!!

Brilliant

What is happening now?

He's been sent home with a cocktail of drugs, to be seen again on Tuesday, or before if worried.

I HATE trying to battle with him when giving his pills - if anyone knows the correct way for giving tablets to cats i would be eternally greatful! I used to be good but he is so stubborn and wont even open his mouth!!!

At the vet they said to me "oh he's ever so good at taking tablets isn't he?". I truly wondered if they were talking about the same cat!!

grateful, even.

What you have to do is hold the cat with one hand, open his mouth yourself and drop in the tablet. Stroke him under the chin/near neck area and he will have to swallow. Watch if he shakes his head after that he doesn't spit the tablet out after, like my cat did the other day!

Oh yeah, i know i have to open his mouth myself lol. I'm normally really good at getting them and opening their mouths etc but he is such a git that he just clamps his jaws firmly shut! It takes two of us to do it!!

If you take his head and tilt it upwards until his nose is pointing up to the ceiling then you will find it a lot easier to get his mouth opened. Put the tablet as far over the back of the tongue as you can manage and then shut his mouth and hold him until you see him swallow. You may need to relax your grip just a bit before he will swallow and allow his head back down a little bit though. There is a nack to it so if any doubts as the vets next time to show you how to do it.

Message withdrawn

Thanx for the tips, i will try them out very shortly!

Is it best to stand in front of them or behind them??

Personally I usually do them sort of sideways if I have someone else to hold the body. I am right handed so have their head towards my right hand, and use my left hand to hold their head and right hand to open the mouth then pop the tablet in pronto. For my own cat ...coz DH will not help!....I usually kneel on the floor and tuck him in between my legs facing in the same direction as me then I have both hands free to deal with the head and tablet business - and yes if needs be wrap in a big towel first. This method is very helpful where front feet like to interfere with what you are doing

Ah ok the only thing i wasn't doing properly was tilting the head up. I even managed to put a tablet in all on my way this morning!! Yay!! I virtually had to pin him down tho coz he kept trying to get away lol. Little bugger.

The change in him is amazing tho. He is the happiest he's been out of all the times he's come back and he's actually leaving his willy alone too - which is also a first. I would say he seems to be 98% back to his old self. I really hope this is it for him now!

It is sounding great right now. Long may it go on! Keep up the diet for him now and if you are unsure about water intake add a bit into the food and mix it up to help him drink plenty. It really will help especially in these next few weeks.

It does sound good doesn't it. What puzzles me tho is why he was given steroids and antibiotics and only after the fourth (i think) catheter was he given cystease and all the other drugs he's on? Why weren't they given to him from the start?

Progress update!

So far so good. He's still a very happy boy, especially in the evening after he's had his antidepressant! DP and I have been extra vigilent with his meds and come hell or high water, he's got them down his neck no matter WHAT!

Back to the vets tomorrow afternoon for a check up. I am feeling very positive at the moment!

He's pretty much back to his normal self at the moment! yay!

Went to the vets yesterday and he has basically been given the all clear!!!

Obviously I have to continue with his meds until they are finished, but in the meantime he doesn't have to go back at all!!

I do have to collect a urine sample in a couple of weeks, but have special non-absorbant litter and a pipette and vial to do this. I then have to hot foot the sample down to the vets within 2 hours of collecting it and it will be tested to see if there are more crystals forming.

The vet i saw (vet number 4!) yesterday said that she routinely did a blood test on him and he had an infection. His white blood cells were really really high at about 35 (i think), whereas the normal level is between 5 and 18. I asked why he hadn't had this blood test as routine before now and she just said that some vets do it, some dont. Makes me wonder if he'd had the blood test first of all, they'd have found the infection sooner and saved me all this money!

So in the meantime between now and two weeks, everything is being crossed.

He is now kind of getting used to me shoving pills down his throat three times a day. I think it's because i have a special place that i do it and he knows that he just has to give in and let me do it. DP isn't helping with the tablets anymore because Scratch seems to be alot calmer when it's just me doing it. Probably due to me being his "mum" and all that.

Anyway, sorry for the waffle, i'm just over the moon!!!

Oops - thank you for your email. Sorry i haven't replied (i didn't get it til Saturday). Thanx for your very kind offer, but for now i will put it on hold as he seems to be very much on the mend. Thanx so much again.

Thank you all so much for your support and words of comfort/encouragement.

RGP - I remember from reading the records that he had a whole heap of tests done. We would routinely check that sort of thing in blood tests at the start, but sometimes the change in cell levels can take time to show up anyway. I'll have another read for you on Friday though and try and clarify that further for you if you want. I'll also check if he had antibiotics at the start, but I'd be surprised if he didn't.

Anyway, so pleased to hear that your boy is doing so well now sounds like a fight well worth it after all you and he have been through with this.

Hi BG.

Think he did have antibiotics to begin with. I think all he was on tho was Prednicare and Synulux. He didn't have the cystease etc or anything! I think he's on two lots of anti-b's now.

Synulox would be a pretty standard good first line of antibiotic :-) The cystease is basically helping to provide a protective layer to the bladder wall (in simple terms!) to stop the crystals being able to damage the surface as much. Prednicare is a steroid and will be helping to reduce swelling and inflammation.

Ah ok, thanx for that BG, much appreciated.

The tablets are going down easily now, although i think he's very peed off with me as he was reluctant to come downstairs for his morning lot today lol. I even think he hissed at me when i went to pick him up, the big grump! Nevermind tho, we're almost done with the Baytril and only five more days of the Hypovase. After that he'll just be on amytriptaline (sp?) and cystease for a while longer.

I checked his notes - he did have another antibiotic right on the first admission too that was given by injection and would have covered for 2 weeks without further doses of that specific one. This too is usually a good "cover all" type choice for the problems he was having. Baytril is more commonly used when things are not going the way they should really, but it seems in his case they were necessary. Yep, his bloods were all a bit - poor boy. Still though the main thing is that he is doing well with you back home now. Hopefully he is being good and sticking very hard to his special diet now too. That is probably the single most effective thing I think for the longer term control of his problems.
Keep us updated how he is doing from here anyway.

BG - thank you so much for looking into things for me. It's reassuring to know he did get the right treatment. He's doing so well and resisting the meds alot less every day.

It makes me to think that he could have been a pile of dust now if i'd have listened to Simon the Oz vet and had him put to sleep!! So glad i gave him another go.