My poor little cat.

[Apanicaday]

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.

He's home again :) He is on 6 different meds (a steroid, omeprazole, diazepam, I think an antibiotic, something to prevent diahorrea and one other that I can't remember) - the vets are pleased with his progress- he's doing slightly bigger wees now - but reckon it will take a good three weeks before he's over "this episode" - so I suspect that the medication will feature fairly regularly over his lifetime. He's eating like he's never been fed (suspect that's the steroid) and he's pretty subdued at the moment- he's clearly not chilled out in the house yet and isn't back to his loud purring and cuddly ways yet.

He's also weeing and pooing everywhere. Which is suitably grim.

His sister is very displeased - she's tolerating him being in the same room now, but if he looks at her wrong he gets the full arched back fluffy hissing cat treatment- with a wallop if he gets too close! Am going to get the feliway going all over the house in the hopes it chills her out a bit!

His toilet habits may settle down as he gets better - he's been in and out of the vets and on medication so might be a bit frazzled and unsettled. Just glad he's back home with you.

And now he's back in again - he was fine yesterday, quiet this morning, and then suddenly had a rectal prolapse at about 1pm. Rushed him back to the vet. It's now gone back in but they are monitoring him overnight. For the first time they habe started talking about if he's better rather than when - they said the longer he has issues for the less likely it is that it will resolve and that we have to start thinking about quality of life. I'm totally gutted :(

Ah no - so sorry for the poor little boy and for you. Wonder if the prolapse was caused by too much straining? Could be some of the medication doesn't agree with him. It can be a period of fine tuning what suits him and what irritates him and hopefully your Vet will be able to work it out. Don't give up on him yet but I know it's hard x.

Oh bloody hell. It sounded like he was on the road to full recovery. Keeping fingers and toes and paws crossed too here.

Just read the thread. Your poor cat, (and poor you). It must be so stressful for all of you. Crossed paws you get some good news

Fingers and paws crossed for you here as well

Oh no and seemed like he was on the mend. Paws crossed here too.

He's totally blocked again. The vet thinks he was straining so much to wee that that's what gave him the prolapse. So he's been anaesthetised and catheterised again. So we are back to where we were right at the start again - he didn't need to be catheterised the last time he was in. Poor poor baby.

Oh no. Have they any idea of the underlying issue? Is it wait and see for now? Thinking of your puss and hoping for good news.

They aren't at all sure. The vet said it's definitely not a physical blockage - which is why it's pointless doing the urethrsectomy thing. He suspects that he may have weak bladder walls or something like that but he's not sure. The vet today said that once the crystals start then it's a bit of a spiral that it's hard to get out of - the crystals cause a blockage which causes irritation and inflammation which causes stress which then causes more crystals. Coupled with the stress of being in the vets and having to get used to that, then coming home and having to get used to that. He's not a stressy cat at all in general (he's Mr chilled and cuddly normally), but I suspect that would stress the most laid back cat.
I suspect this episode started because of his prepuce issues and now he's locked into the crystal cycle and can't get out of it. They seem to be able to clear the crystals for a while but then the irritation starts up again and they reappear.

It's definitely wait and see again - hopefullt the vet that's in tomorrow who has been managing his treatment will have some sort of idea what on earth has triggered this setback.

I do hope so.

Sending good wishes
He is having a time of it. Poor boy

Good luck today, I hope you get some good news

This is heartbreaking to read. He's having such a rough time, poor boy.

Is there any more news OP ?

We've had to let him go. The vet said they would do the surgery, but there was no guarantee that it would be successful- he thought that there was a good chance it could be but we've been there so many times already. He also said he would be highly likely to get recurrent cystitis for the rest of his life.

The kitten that we had home over the weekend wasnt the happy kitten we had before he was ill. He was miserable. And the thoight of putting him through more misery and significant pain when there were no guarantees of it working seemed just too mean.

I'm so sad. And feel very guilty. My head knows it would have been unfair to keep him going any longer but my heart is telling me otherwise. He was such a cuddly, loving special little boy. I'm going to miss him terribly.

You did absolutely everything you could and you have now done the kindest thing. it is always so hard but you loved him and did the best you could for him. Hugs.

So sorry to hear this, I have been checking back regularly.

You did so much for him and he had been through so much that as the PP said, you have done the kindest thing for him. He knew how loved he was, so try not to feel guilty. Be kind to yourself and in time you will remember your happy times with him. I hope you are ok.

I’m so so sorry. But you’ve done the right thing. It’s awful to lose them but a lifetime of pain (even if the surgery worked) wouldn’t have been fair on him.
I am so sorry for your loss. And so pleased he had you. Someone who loved him enough to make the hardest decision.

I’ve just read the whole thread (I hadn’t seen it until today but it came up as active) and I was rooting for the pair of you so much. I’m so sorry you’ve all been through this, but you really couldn’t have done anything else. It’s not natural for animals to be in pain for long periods of time, and recurrent cystitis would have horrible for him.

He was very lucky to have been loved as much as he was by people who would have done anything for him. I hope you’re all doing ok

Oh no I was hoping for a different update. I'm sorry he's gone . You did the best for him and he wouldn't have been happy for him to have recurring issues like that.

I'm so sorry op

You poor thing, I'm so sorry but I'm sure that in your shoes I would have done the same thing. You did the right thing to stop your poor boy's suffering.

So sorry to read your update. We had to let our 5 year old cat go today too, after a shock pancreatic cancer diagnosis. Such a hard thing to do, even when ending their suffering is so clearly the kindest choice.

Sending hugs. It's horrible letting go of our fur babies, I remember holding my little man's paw as he slipped away. Like yours, he could have carried on for a few more months but would have to be drained regularly as he'd retain fluid and it would limit his eating and breathing. I couldn't see him go through it, so I could have a few more cuddles.