possible urethra blockage, can't get through to energency vet

[Mynameisthecatwhogotthecream]

Male cat has signs of possible blockage, have rung emergency vet but going through to answer phone, don't know what to do?

Try others, even if you have to drive miles. Keep trying the other one. He must be seen tonight.

Yes, keep trying.

haven' managed t get hold of our vet but have managed to contact another vet

Any vet will do, urethra blockages can go 0-100 in no time at all. Good luck I hope everything goes ok 🐱🤞🏼

Vet confirmed blockage,keeping him in,

Hope he's ok. Our cat had this is was awful and we nearly lost him but 5 years on and he's been fine on daily Cystaid and changing to wet food only,no dry at all. Fingers crossed x

Hi -- long time lurker, created an account just to reply to you. My male cat has been through this recently. It's been a long journey but we finally have him healthy again (fingers crossed). Here for any questions you might have and sending all my good thoughts to your little one x

Dreading the bill, although we should be able to claim in back, vet only does direct claims for regular customers as they have had problems in the past

Thank God you have got him in.

Hand hold and

You've done your best and well done for recognising the signs.

Well done for recognising the signs

Mine had this once and it nearly killed him the vet said he was lucky we brought him in when we did.

Luckily he's fine now - so paws crossed your lovely boy is the same!

Think we're going to our moneys worth out of 2 1/2 years of pet insurance, haven't claimed anything before

Dcat still at vets but doing ok, hopefully home today or tomorrow

I'm very pleased to hear that. Wishing him a speedy recovery.

Just out of curiosity (and certainly not with the intention of laying blame!) what sort of food does he eat? I'm always going on about the importance of not feeding male cats cheap dry food as it seems to be a risk factor for urinary crystals (and studies have been done to confirm), so it would just be interesting to know. And does he eat mostly dry or wet? Not that a sample of half a dozen proves anything one way or the other of course.

Also the others on this thread that have experienced the same, what sort of food did your cats eat?

Thank goodness you got him seen and I genuinely wish you all the best. We lost our beautiful boy to this a few years ago and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. He was back and forth to vets, had operations, medicated up to the eyeballs. We had great insurance but after a week of treatment and painkillers, the vet advised us to let him go.

thecatneuterer, he ate dry food - but an expensive one. We changed from Felix wet to this on the advice of the vet. We thought we were doing the right thing. His diet was not mentioned by them to be a factor. However, on researching I found that it did have an influence.

@thecatneuterer
Basil had this earlier this year, he's always been fed primarily on wet food (Felix). Vet put it down to stress, for which there was some evidence, (new cat around the area & Basil spraying etc.)
He's fine now - just on daily cystaid, which fortunately he quite likes.

@Seaweasel

I haven't heard that decent dry food is problematic, but I do sometimes think the safest thing with males is to give no dry at all, but that isn't based on any evidence and it's also difficult to do

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats
Well there you go. There seem to be many factors involved and I don't think anyone really knows for sure.

I’ve read on here early neutering is a risk factor which does influence me leaving it later with future Bengal kittens. Asbo was done at 20 weeks and had no end of UTI over the years.

Makes me wonder if it’s less common in stud cats.

@Fluffycloudland77 But then all the kittens that leave us are neutered very young indeed and don't seem to have any higher incidence than toms that were neutered when fully adult. But anecdotal observations don't really cut it as evidence or otherwise of anything. I also read that link and mentioned it to our head vet who didn't agree with it but I haven't had a chance to ask her details.

He was neuteted at about 6 months..He has a mixture of wet and dry(james wellbeloved) but he's v fussy and frequently refuses to eat flavours of wet that he's eaten before but will always eat the dry. Will have to discuss diet with the vet

@thecatneuterer
Basil was done at 6 months. He's now about 11 years ago.
My latest two came already neutered at 9 weeks. I did a bit of reseach into early neutering, and all the peer reviewed papers I could find suggested no link between early neutering and later urinary problems. Not convinced there has been a huge amount of research though.

OP well it almost certainly wasn't caused by his diet then. Poor boy, he's probably just susceptible. He will probably have to have that supplement thing. It's very fortunate that you noticed in time (which is of course much more likely when you have a litter tray than when they go outside to pee) and you got him help. And why do these things always seem to happen at the most inconvenient times?

I hope he's well and gets better soon.

I lost my cat to this, his was caused by an accident where the urethra had been bruised, he was on a catheter in the vets for 4 days hoping for an improvement. Unfortunately he didn't get better, and had to be put to sleep. Male cats are badly designed.

Just glad dh's boss's wife is a vet nurse, I rang her when noticed him straining(I thought at first he was constipated) and she told me what symptoms to look for so I knew we had to get help fast

vet been in touch, hopefully home tomorrow or tuesday as long as he can wee comfortably without the catheter