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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

Original poster

My poor little cat.

100 replies

Apanicaday · 15/12/2018 21:16

We adopted him and his sister getting on for 4 months ago. They were dumped on a vets doorstep in a cardboard box at roughly 24 hours old and were hand reared. They are now 5 and a half months old.

He's had all sorts of issues with weeing since we got him - he would wee anywhere and everywhere. We (and the vet) initially assumed it was behavioural and so we tried to deal with it using training.

About a month and a half ago we walked into the bathroom to a scene of carnage - there was blood everywhere. We thought initially that he had a urine infection, but when the vets investigated he was incredibly swollen. They anaesthetised him to investigate and decided to neuter him at the same time. When they did so they discovered that he had incredibly small testicles for his age and they couldn't find his penis (despite cutting him open a bit to try to locate it). He ended up in the vets for a couple of days with them emptying his bladder with a needle throigh his tummy, but eventually he started weeing again. They think that because his penis is either very small or non-existent, when he wees it doesn't poke out like it's supposed to and so he wees into the pouch which should cover it and so it kind of drips out of there. Which explains some of the random weeing- he certainly drips for some time after he's been.

About 10 days ago he started weeing blood again. So we got in touch with the vets who gave us antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. He has been on them since then. He hasn't reallt improved but hadn't got worse until today. Late this afternoon he started trying to wee almost constantly- and only drips were coming out - if anything. He was then sick several times.

So now my DH has taken him to the emergency vets and I'm at home worrying myself sick. He's such a cuddly boy and his sister is missing him :( When he was at the vets last time they said that there's specialist surgery that they can carry out to create a new hole for him to wee through if he keeps having problems, but that it's very fiddly and complicated and expensive. He's insured (thank goodness!) but has already used £500 of his annual limit.

Poor little thing. He had such a crap start to his little life too.

OP posts:
Perfectly1mperfect · 25/12/2018 05:24

Lovely news, home for Christmas. Fingers crossed he keeps improving. Give him lots of cuddles.

Original poster
Apanicaday · 25/12/2018 16:21

He's trying his very hardest to stress me out today. Got up to a scene of carnage in the bathroom- there was litter, wee and poo everywhere!!! I think he had done a poo in the tray, failed to bury it as he can't see what he's doing with the cone on, and then some a wee on top of it and trod in it. It was chaos!!! He had to have a paw wash and you can imagine how pissed off he was after that!!! In protest he then didn't do a wee for a good 5 hours (having been doing them fairly constanrlt up to that point) -just at the point where I was going to phone the vet, he did three little ones. On the floor, naturally!

Poor little thing is very skinny and raggy - he's on a special anti-crystal diet and refused to eat the wet food version at the vets so he's just having dry food - and clearly doesn't like it very much. And it's definitely not the applaws he's used to. He's lost enough weight that he just looks scrawny-and coupled with the fact that he can't groom himself and has shaved patches on both front legs, on his side, and all round his bum, he's not looking at his best!

His sister keeps lying on the other side of the bathroom door :(

OP posts:
Perfectly1mperfect · 26/12/2018 14:05

Oh poor kitty. And poor you with all the mess. How long does he have to keep the cone on for ? They really are horrible for them to have to wear. He's probably feeling very fed up. It will all be worth it in the end.

Hopefully he'll get used to the food. Our cat refused to eat his special renal food when he was first diagnosed with kidney problems but he has got more used to it.

It sounds like his sister is desperate to see him. Very cute.

ILoveChristmasLights · 26/12/2018 14:10

Oh poor little sweetheart. How is he today?

💐for you, no matter how much you love them, it’s still trying!

ImNotKitten · 26/12/2018 14:24

Sorry to hear he has been so unwell.

One of our cats had to have the operation where another hole was made. It was a complete success, he lived another 12 years with only one incident of cystitis since IIRC. I wouldn’t hesitate to have the operation on another one of my cats if they needed it.

Original poster
Apanicaday · 26/12/2018 18:16

He's much more his normal self today managed to escape the bathroom on more than one occasion! (DS1 failed to shut the door properly and he took his chance!!). I think he will be a much happier cat once the collar is off - he's trying to groom himself through it. His reign of chaos continues -he is such a messy cat and flings litter everywhere - normally he has an enclosed litter tray which helps to contain the chaos but I'm trying to make life easier for wee access (not that he's doing many in the tray).

I think we are going to have reintegration problems with his sister though - she properly hissed at him when he came downstairs earlier and then went and hid and growled at anyone who went close - and she hissed at DH when she went to sit on him and then smelt her brother on his jumper. Think we will have to take things very slowly. They were really close before - proper cuddles with each other- so hopefully she will get over herself (in contrast he just looks at her as if she's nuts and then totally ignores her!)

OP posts:
Skatersbeskating · 26/12/2018 20:46

Have you got a plug in feliway? That might help her

Original poster
Apanicaday · 26/12/2018 21:33

We have one upstairs (as that was the main location of random weeing!) I might invest in a second one downstairs though to see if if helps to calm her down. I think she's got so used to being the only cat that he's put her nose right out of joint.

OP posts:
viccat · 26/12/2018 21:37

I think they will start getting along fairly soon. I have sibling kittens too and when the boy went in for his neutering for the day, his sister was hissing at him for the first 24-48 hours after as he smelled of the vet! Then they started cuddling again.

madcatladyforever · 26/12/2018 21:39

I want to weep buckets, poor baby. Thank God he has you.

Perfectly1mperfect · 27/12/2018 13:56

He probably looked quite scary to his sister with his cone on so that might be the reason why she hissed. Hopefully when you can take it off him and he's feeling better, things will go snoothly when you reintroduce them. Hope he's doing ok today.

Original poster
Apanicaday · 29/12/2018 12:32

Rollercoaster continues- he's back in at the vets becaise they are not happy with the amount he's weeing. They are going to phone us later with the next step plan - suspect he will be being operated on again :(

OP posts:
thecatneuterer · 29/12/2018 12:43

Oh no. Sending my best wishes to you both.

Fluffycloudland77 · 29/12/2018 13:25

Oh no, he’s having such a rough time. Best of luck to the lad.

Wolfiefan · 29/12/2018 14:36

I’m so sorry. Hoping for good news soon.

Original poster
Apanicaday · 29/12/2018 20:13

They are keeping him in for observation over the weekend- the specialist vet is in on Monday and will make a decision about what to do then. I suspect it will end up being the amputation operation.

OP posts:
Orchiddingme · 29/12/2018 20:18

How stressful. So glad he has you. You sound very patient with all the mess/fuss. He's gorgeous, I hope this gets fixed.

Wolfiefan · 29/12/2018 21:02

At least you’re not sitting at home worrying all weekend about whether he’s ok. He will be closely monitored and spoilt rotten too I suspect. They will also be able to give the specialist exactly the information they need. Thinking hopeful thoughts for Monday.

UptownFlunk · 30/12/2018 03:55

I feel for you so much reading this thread. My dcat had a urinary blockage earlier in the year and it was a terrible and stressful time where we were back and forward to the vets for weeks. Eventually he was referred to an animal hospital and had a urethrostomy (penis removal). Our local vet gave quite a gloomy prognosis for this but the surgeon at the hospital was much more upbeat and dcat sailed through it and was home about a week afterwards and healed in about a month. It cost around £6,500 in all but luckily he was insured and the insurance paid out. You would never know my cat had had the surgery now. Please, just make sure your cat has someone experienced do the surgery. I think that’s what made all the difference in our case, our local vet was honest enough to say that our cat would have a much better chance if the surgery was performed somewhere where the operation was more routine and they had the specialised equipment (cameras etc) necessary rather than just at our local vets.

Good luck and I’ll be thinking of you and your boy. Flowers

phenomenalcat · 30/12/2018 04:10

I hope your little one is soon in the mend. They're lucky to have found you. When he comes home again get two small blankets/towels and give one to him and one to his sister to sleep on. Every day swap them over so they get used to each other's smell. Good luck 🍀

LetBartletBeBartlet · 30/12/2018 08:36

Poor cat, and poor you. I hope you all have a settled weekend.

As a quick tip,if you're getting another feliway, perhaps try the Feliway Friends as it's especially for multi-cat households, so may work to keep the peace once he's home.

Vinorosso74 · 30/12/2018 10:06

Poor lad! At least the specialist is in tomorrow so not too long.Good job for insurance when things like this happen.

Perfectly1mperfect · 31/12/2018 19:09

Just wondering how he is OP. What did the specialist say today ? Hope he's doing ok.

Original poster
Apanicaday · 01/01/2019 08:59

The specialist thinks it's not a narrowing issue now- he thinks the wee is getting out but for some reason he's not effectively emptying. He's not sure if it's a bladder wall issue or something else but he doesn't think the urethr-thingy is going to be the way to sort it. He's trying some different medication - a steroid and diazepam - to see if that helps, and if it doesn't apparently there are some other medication combinations that might work too to try next. He's staying in another couple of days to start him off on the new medication protocol and then hopefully will come home and we will just have to watch him. Fingers tightly crossed he avoids more surgery.

OP posts:
Wolfiefan · 01/01/2019 09:55

Hope so. Let’s hope the meds do the trick.