Urine problem in male cat

[Gingerisgoodforyou]

Any ideas would be much appreciated!
Our boy cat (6, but plump but otherwise healthy) developed what the vet thought was stress related cystitis in the summer. Basically he couldn't wee but they couldn't find a blockage.
£1400 vets bill for GA and catheter.

He was fine after, but last week was struggling to wee - vet found Crystals in his urine this time.
£900 bill for sedation and monitoring.

He's been on meds/ painkillers/ special food, but this morning is struggling to wee again.

What on earth do we do! We're insured but over our max limit per condition per year, so are now paying. We can afford 1 more treatment, but not if it keeps happening.

No obvious stresses - another Tom comes into our garden sometimes, but not sure how to stop that. He's on an expensive social diet now.

We would hate to put him down, but no idea how we'll keep funding the vets bills (which appear extortionate) if it continues like this.

Anyone had any success stories of halting the episodes? We're going to put him on a weightloss diet but anything else we can try short term? We're also using a stress spray, but not sure if it is stress now if they've found Crystals?

Feeling awful about this.

One good story and one bad here! After a couple of blockages our first boy cat this happened to went to a specialist vet for a more complex operation that should have stopped it happening again but sadly he died on the operating table.

About 10 years later we had another boy cat who went on the special diet after the first blockage and has never had any issues since. This was 14 years ago and he is still around (although quite the grumpy old man these days).

Sorry this is happening to you - it is sp stressful and so expensive.

Things that work for our cat - luckily a girl but problem is intractable:

Multiple litter trays
Feliway (works but I'm allergic, pheromone collar also works and is always with the cat)
Metacam at first sign of trouble - basically wee over side of litter tray, too much time spent in tray or too many visits
Vetpro urinary supplement constantly
Upping fluid content - wet food and cat milk
Building her confidence with play

Unfortunately you have to do basically all of it, all the time

Is he taking any urinary supplements?

I've had two with urinary problems and what worked for us was feeding a special urinary food, giving Cystease and D-Mannose supplements daily and making sure he had access to roam.

We've just started him on Smilla special kidney care food. Not sure if the best but a bit more affordable.

He's currently on Hypovase, but we also started him on vet pro today as we had some left.

Plus a painkiller and stress spray. I'm honestly not sure what's stressing him more than normal though if it is that (neighbours Tom cat not new).

Well take him back to the vet tmrw, but dreading another massive bill! I know they train a long time etc, but I just don't see how a sedative and squeezing his bladder, plus a blood and urine test, should cost £900.

If it continues, it will just mean we can't afford to treat him, but putting an otherwise happy and healthy cat down for this seems too awful to do. At a bit of a loss.

Also, keeping him in with a litter tray. Trouble is he likes being outside, and can see our other cat outside, so I wonder if this stresses him too?

Our oldest male cat suffered badly with UTIs (we were up to one every two months at one stage) and had one serious blockage (on a Saturday night/Sunday morning so was an emergency vet situation 💷💷💷) He hasn’t had an UTI for nearly a year now and this is what we’ve done:
•specialised wet food
•limiting dry food until he has eaten his wet (he used to fill up on dry biscuits etc and not eat the wet stuff)
•adding a no/low salt broth to food for even more liquid
•no human food/anything even a little bit salty
•cat water fountains (we have four across the house and have definitely seen a big increase in the amount of water all our cats drink)
•feliway
•anti anxiety medication
•losing a little weight

Hope you can get him sorted out!

is the food that he’s on recommended by the vet? Our boy had this multiple times but he’s been (touch wood) ok since being put on Royal Canin Urinary food. Apparently it neutralises the crystals, not sure what it does for kidney function. Do get it sorted straight away though, apparently it’s agonising for them 😢

Hmm...
He's a picky bugger so no human food anyway.
I'll look into a water fountain as he doesn't drink that much. Never heard of broth with food but will look into that too.
Not sure about food - one we just bought is for sensitive bladders and improving kidney function but will check the Royal canin one to see if its much different.

Just feeling a bit deflated about it as he was only at vets on Thursday and now feel back to square 1 😞

Thanks all

We’ve had the same problem with our cat. At one point, she kept trying to urinate but small amounts of blood were coming out. She was in so much pain.

The vet said it’s very common and prescribed us painkillers for whenever she has a flair up and told us to give her a daily cystease or cystaid. It’s this that has helped immeasurably! If we see the early signs of it happening now we increase to two cystease a day for a few days and the symptoms seem to stop within 24 hours.

Seems to have been relatively under control now for a couple of years.

Known triggers for her are changes in the environment (eg building work, moving furniture etc), changes in the seasons/weather and stress from other cats and young children. We try to minimise all of these where possible!

Hope your cat gets sorted soon. It’s so awful to see them in pain.

Why are you keeping him indoors - is that what the vet suggested for now?

Also, the kidney diet you mention won't help him I'm afraid - you need a urinary food that's specifically formulated to break down crystals. Hills, Purina and Royal Canin all do them but you need to make sure it's the right diet as there are two formulas for the two main crystal types. We use Purina (from Amazon).

We had this with our cat when he was young - after they explained about the crystals he was fed exclusively on Hills Feline CD. He had a couple of episodes early on where we could see he was starting to have issues weeing and we gave him cystaide (I think was the name) to calm the lining of his bladder. He lived to be 17 when he finally had to be PTS with kidney failure but never had any more blockages. The answer is to be really strict with his diet to stop the crystals forming

Ah OK- I'd left dh in charge of food but will change to Royal Canin.

Back to the vets tmrw to ask re more meds!

We've mainly kept him in today so I can check if he's used the tray. He seems perfectly happy at the moment but has done multiple small we es. Just dreading another 1k bill!

What works for mine:

• vet gives huge dose of Gabapentin to chill cat out.
• further doses to rub onto gums if he needs longer
• vet advises multiple small wees is acceptable as long as he's starting to improve.
• Loxicam to remove pain in case he's withholding for pain.
• Bladder crystals on dinner each night on permanent basis.
• strict diet to keep him a healthy weight (v v lazy cat)

So far we've needed several doses of gabapentin (£140) but never the catheter and GA as my vet it convinced it doesn't have a physical cause and he's never stopped weeing completely (usually lots of little small ones)

The supplements we use are just off Amazon and much cheaper than anything you can get off the vets.

Both cost less than £10 a month total and he take them daily.

We’ve had this with our fat 10-year-old boy but no further problems since we lost ddog in the new year so I think stress was a big part of it.
Urinary food - he likes almo nature, smilla and concept for life from Zooplus, plus a cystaid tablet sprinkled into his food once a day.
Won’t drink much water but I left him finish the milk from my cereal bowl - milk doesn’t affect him the way it does some cats.
If you’ve got a PDSA vet near you I think they offer reduced cost treatment.

The PDSA only offer reduced treatment if you're on certain benefits and live in certain areas.