Just had to rush my boy to the vet hospital...

[Bartlebum]

He started acting weirdly today. Hiding and walking like he was in pain. Crying and then falling asleep. Then he crawled under the sofa and was lying on his back clawing it like he was staining, and pooed everywhere - he's never done anything like that before. When I saw his penis sticking out I called the emergency vet and they told us to take him straight in.

He has a blocked urinary tract. They just gave us a quote of £2800 to treat and told us it reoccurs in 1/3 cats. I can't believe it.

I don't have insurance but my husband just got £3k inheritance so it just wipes that out. If it saves him then it's worth it. If it reoccurs I have no idea what we will do.

Save him this time , He needs help. Then prepare yourself in case it does return. There's a good chance it WON'T return though. (66%)
I had to make similar decisions - got four more wonderful years for my lovely boy. But I began to put money away regularly for his treatment and for putting him to sleep when it was time.
Sending hugs - it's so hard.

poor boy, what a nightmare. Sending you hugs

One of mine had a blockage and we paid for surgery - much less than what you've been quoted - and it saved his life. He never had a reoccurrence once we switched his diet.

@itadak I am paying it, as we have the money in our account. I just am in a bit of shock having to hand it all over like that. I'm so upset that he's suffering and hope he gets better quickly...

@lifeispainauchocolat that's good to know. I didn't expect it to be so high but I guess this is another symptom of the CoL increase! And perhaps as we have used emergency care?

I will definitely be switching him to solely wet food after this.

wow! was it caused by dry food? My boy is mostly on dry food, so that is worrying to hear

@Bartlebum yes possibly! We paid about £600 for surgery plus three days/nights in hospital but that was back in 2014 (doesn't feel that long ago 😱).

But like I say, he recovered and is 12 now and still fit and healthy. Never had any further problems ☺️

Dry food won't help but it's something that can happen to all neutered males unfortunately.

I paid £3200 for two lots of overnight stays, fluids, painkiller and some medication for pancreatitis. Emergency. IT's not cheap. That was with Medivet who are a chain/franchise. But that cat gave me 17 years of love and joy.

@itadak If I get 12 years more of him it will be worth it. The vet has called and he has the procedure overnight. He's doing okay but unfortunately they found a narrowing in his urethra which could be scar tissue and mean it's more likely to reoccur soon. They are going to keep him in even longer to monitor it, which of course means more cost.

I asked about the sex change surgery you can get to remove the chances of recurrence and they said that they don't do that operation as it's not considered ethical as the cat lives in chronic pain their whole life. I really hoped that would be a solution.

She said to take it one day at a time...

Ah - I'm so sorry though. It's so very hard. Sending you best wishes. X

Ah, I'm really sorry. It's hard. My cat spent three nights in the hospital and took a good month to recover at home but he was (and still is) healthy as a horse afterwards.

Your vet is right about the surgery though - it's really not recommended. I remember a thread on here not so long ago from someone who's cat had it done and it peed all over the house for years because of pain/incontinence. I think she had him PTS in the end though I could be wrong.

A lot of the cost will be OOH charge , where we are it’s £300 before they even start . Hope he gets well soon .

How is he doing @Bartlebum ?

The OOH will have ramped the cost up massively. It's a shame you didn't have insurance, though I know that's shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted...

Sorry to say but my sister has spent £000s on her boy who had recurring urinary blockages. I don't think he's had one for a while. He's 15 and also diabetic.

@notknowledgeable My most recent rescue adoptee far prefers dry food to wet food - he only eats a little wet. My vet told me literally just this week to just feed him dry! He had poo issues (out of orbit stinky and soft!!) but someone recommended Scrumbles to me, and it's made a massive difference!

Thank you I will look into that

One of ours had struvite crystals and a blocked urethra. Thankfully they were able to catheterisation and flush, our bill was 1200 but he's been on a urinary diet since (it's cheaper on animed) and 15 months on he's doing well.

Is this a blocked urethra? Mine had that about five years ago. I noticed late one night that he kept scrabbling around in the litter tray but that he wasn't producing anything. After a quick Google I took him to overnight emergency vet, who couldn't decide whether it was a blocked urethra or not. When I took him back the following morning a more senior vet confirmed the issue, kept him in and managed to flush things out. Very fortunately it hasn't happened again.

Thanks for your messages, yes he had a blocked uretha and now needs a special diet. We paid for the cost of the operation to fit a cannula and then the next day he chewed through it, so we had to either pay again or wait and see - we have no financial option but to wait and see for now. He was so stressed there that we got asked to bring him home. He's been relaxed and happy here, we have set up extra cat litter trays (as he was an outdoor cat before this) and got new beds etc and expensive urinary cat food on its way.

He honestly seems his normal cuddly self so perhaps he's okay. I have been wondering if the two days of driving rain caused him to hold it in, causing the issue, as the timing seems possible.

I have just bought a second hand blanket box and am turning it into a cat toilet / side table.

I'm buying shelves to stick up high in case he wants to escape, just incase he gets stressed.

Yes it would have been cheaper if we had insurance, but for the level of cover for this condition we would have needed lifelong cover at the highest level of cost and that was coming out £60 a month for both of my cats. At the time we decided to save the money instead, having had two cats that had never needed the vet before. I think in future I will make sure I take out the cover as we have almost broke even after five years. This recurring condition is going to be a problem and now it's too late to insure, ever.

So male cat parents especially - get the cover!

Glad he's doing OK now - just watch that he keeps peeing.

One of our cats had the same - a very expensive veterinary hospital stay, but on a positive note that was nearly three years ago and no reoccurrence so far (fingers crossed).
Hope all goes well.

Bad luck with the insurance - it is always a gamble. We paid top rate, but it didn't cover us when our puss needed expensive dental work

I've taken out a top rate policy for our other cat today!

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats It's hard to check if he's peeling normally again. I've set him up the cat litter trays but he's still going off outside so I assume he's going out there. I'm worried I won't be able to tell. He seems very cuddly and he's sleeping a lot, not crying and straining like he was when he got sick.

I have top level cover for my 2 youngest (who are 4) which costs £80 a month. They have however run up £20k of surgery between them over their short lives due to intestinal blockages so it’s been worth every penny!

@whirlyhead we have found a policy that covers his condition up to 1500 a year for two years and then full cover of he doesn't get it in the meantime, so I will we have sorted long term. It's just getting through these next month or so...

I think you'd know if he still had a problem as he'd be visiting the litter tray a lot when he was indoors (or trying to go in other places instead!) even if he couldn't produce anything. My eldest had that several years ago & after an op to remove all the crystals from his bladder and unblock him has been fine since (touch wood). I had him on a urinary wet food for ages and added some water to his bowl so he'd drink more but he's back on normal food now as the vet said he had the start of kidney disease and the urinary food wouldn't help that! It took me months though to not to get stressed when I heard a cat in the litter tray - the stress they put us through!!