Cat UTI

[NoNeedforALlama]

This is going to be a long one, sorry!

My poor male cat has had one problem after another recently, an infection following an allergic reaction to a flea bite for which he had antibiotics and steroids then problems weeing which couldn't be treated with anti-inflammatory like they usually would because of the steroids he was on so was given a food supplement and hypovase.

Last week it got worse to the point he was weeing blood so took him to emergency vets where they were able to give an anti-inflammatory injection because he had been off the steroids for a few days. They also sent us home with tablets (can't remember what they were now) and metacam. The tablets finished two days ago and so I stopped the metacam then as well because the vet hadn't said how long to keep up with that for and I forgot to ask.

Well today he's used his litter tray and there are traces of blood in his urine again. He seems absolutely fine in himself but I'll start with the metacam tonight again and get him back to the vets on Monday, or sooner if he gets worse but does anyone have any advice or ideas of what I should ask the vets?

Hopeful bump

It is probably either stones, or feline LUTS rather than a UTI. LUTS is strongly associated with stress and your boy does sound like he has had a stressful time.

My girl cat is plagued with this (as have been several previous cats). Metacam sorts her out but you need to use it a long time. We always have a bottle in hand.

Other things include: more litter bins, changing to wet food from dry, feeding urinary cat food, Vet Pro urinary supplement - I don't know what this does but she's worse without it so it clearly helps, Feliway plugins.

As you have a boy you need to be on alert as boy cats are more prone to going into urinary retention which is a medical emergency for cats.

Thank you! Hopefully putting him back on the metacam will sort it!

He is on wet food as well as dry because he's had this problem before ages ago and that was one of the changes I made then to try and stop it happening again.

I have put one of the feliway plugins one, it's one we've had a while designed to help cats be friends but hopefully it'll have a calming effect anyway, I think we have some pet remedy spray somewhere I'll try to dig out as well.

He only has one litter tray as he prefers to go outside, that's one way we noticed he was having problems in the first place because he was actually using his tray instead of going out.

What are the symptoms for urinary retention, I'm worried he's going to go downhill overnight when I'm asleep even though he seems nearly his normal self at the moment. I've had a feel of his abdomen and I can't feel his bladder but then I'm not 100% sure what or where I should be feeling.

Urinary retention: very sad, distressed and unhappy cat, looks in pain, permanently on the litter box with nothing to show for it.

Cats and their bladders is a nightmare. I really thought that this time I'd got 2 cats without bladder issues, having previously had 2 sisters with it, and then we had the telltale sign of multiple very long trips to the litter box.

This cat has been the worst of the lot, she needs constant vigilance to make sure it isn't kicking off again.

When I had a cat with a UTI it was entirely different - she was clearly ill and flopping about all day.

Thanks, that's reassuring as he is very perky and not obviously in pain, I'm hoping we can either get in with a vet in our area we're not registered with today or wait until tomorrow as our vets are closed on Sundays and the emergency one is a 40 minute drive away which obviously doesn't help his stress!

Sorry to hear yours suffer from it too, they're such a worry aren't they?

My cat has had lots of urinary issues! The metacam should help but might need a longer dose
Cystease capsules are good for any type of cystitis like symptoms.

Thanks, he's been trying to use his tray tonight and passing very minimal amounts of urine so we're going back over to the emergency vets with him in about half an hour, it's becoming a rather expensive series of problems! Will update with what the vets advise.

Can you get metacam or similar without a prescription? One of mine has periodic stress-related urine issues and they are relieved by metacam but I don’t have any. It’s impossible to get a vet appointment at the moment as they are so short-staffed!

(sorry to jump on the thread - I also agree with all the measures mentioned upthread like wet food and lots of litter trays)

I tend to give my boy cystease daily and syringe water In to him if he isnt drinking enough he gets stress cystitis over licks his genitals and makes himself sore the vet ran tests its not infected its not crystals he is just "sore" he is also overweight which contributes massively apparently

@ReedOfFate my vet was happy for me to keep a bottle for when I feel its needed. The agreement is I can give him it for 2-3 days and if there is no improvement or a deterioration then I take him into the vet
alternatively if you can get the vet to write you a prescription you can order it yourself online

It sounds like a blockage - crystals or stones if he can't pass urine properly. Sadly it's very common in neutered male cats. The vet is the right place for him 🤞

I've had two cats struggle with it now - one required emergency surgery (which saved his life) and a prescription diet for life but he never had any further issues.

The other never got to the point of surgery as I knew all the warning signs - he takes Cystease tablets and D-Mannose supplements daily to improve his bladder health and is also on a specific food for urinary crystals (not prescription but a formulated food by Purina) - we've had no issues in the last year (when he was last in the vets) so fingers crossed he's okay too.

Some cats require surgery to widen/shorten the urethra to prevent blockages again, for others a change in diet and supplements is all it takes.

Please let us know what the vets say!

Thanks all, vet said his bladder was empty so no blockage fortunately! She's given us some more of the tablets which are gabapentin. We also discussed prescription food and I'm ordering some Hill's today. The supplement we have is CystiCalm, I'm guessing that's similar to the Cystease?

It sounds very similar! Good luck, I hope he is feeling better soon, it’s such a stress when they are unwell

I would highly recommend D-Mannose on top of whatever the vet has prescribed.

It's herbal and won't interfere with any other medication and can be used alongside things like Cystease (never heard of Cysticalm but I assume it's similar!)

I found it on a lot of American forums when our kitten was poorly and thought we'd try it out. It basically supports good bladder and urinary health. Mine takes two tablets a day and so far, so good. He also takes Cystease daily and has Purina Urinary food (half the price of Hills and seems to do exactly the same job).

It's been almost a year and we've had no further issues. Luckily he's very cooperative and sits nicely for his tablets - he even comes to remind me if I forget the furry little weirdo 🤣

Have they done a urine test to check for crystals. I'm a vet nurse and my cat has issues with his bladder. He's on CD feline food now. He isn't allowed any other food. You can get it without a prescription and it's been a blessing for him. I won't risk changing his diet now. Occasionally he will show signs starting and I do a few days metacam and it stops. You can get cystophan capsules that help too

Thanks for the further advice, I'll look into the D-Mannose.

He hasn't had a urine sample taken, we did have to do that before when he had issues but he hates using his tray so much he actually held it in for nearly 3 days rather than wee in the tray with the little plastic pellets so I don't think that'd be ideal for him at the moment!

The Hills food arrived today so will start introducing that tomorrow.

He seems happy enough and hasn't tried using his tray recently which was what he was doing when he was in the worst of it.

He has been sick the past couple of nights though, he has always been quite a sicky cat so we're going to see if he does it again tonight and then ring the vets tomorrow to see if they recommend swapping any of his medicine to an alternative. I've realised today that it's not actually metacam he's on, it's rheumocam, which I'm guessing does the same thing but maybe he needs the actual metacam.

So the sick continued so we rang the vets who recommended stopping the rheumocam but continuing the gabapentin, this was on Tuesday. That seemed to help but yesterday he was struggling to wee again so he's now on Onsior anti-inflammatory pills, gabapentin, CystiCalm, D-Mannose powder, Hills prescription dry food (as well as his normal wet food which I will swap over to the prescription stuff in the coming weeks). He was sick again last night 🙄 so I'll ring the vets again on Monday to see what they suggest as this can't be good for him long-term. Any other suggestions anyone has would be appreciated.

Mild dose of amitriptyline?

id take him off all dry and just do wet with the cysticalm etc.

Thanks, will ask the vets about that.

That does sound sensible, was keen to get the prescription food in him but maybe the extra fluids from the wet food might be more beneficial

The sickness could be a medication side effect but it can also be a sign of a blockage or pain.

Is he peeing normally?

Not peeing normally as he's using his tray which he doesn't when he's 100% ok but he is peeing. The sickness is only at night as far as we can tell and we've been giving him the anti-inflammatories later in in the evening so that fact plus the fact it eased off when we stopped the rheumocam my gut feeling is it's a side effect of that.