"Sludgy" bladder - anyone else's cat had this?

[shockedballoon]

Our nearly 7yo male tabby started peeing inside in various places & hissing if you went near him when he did this.

Couple of vet trips, an ultrasound, a fun day on morphine (him, not me!) and urine culture later... and he has a "very sludgy bladder" but the test showed it was struvite crystals not anything cancery or calciumy.

As such he's been put on a strict diet of Purina Pro Plan Urinary food, mix of wet and dry - water added to the dry food. This will apparently dissolve the sludge.

If your cat had something similar, howhow long did it take the food to work??

He's still peeing in the house so is confined to the hallway/stairwell/bathroom and is only allowed supervised access to the lounge when he likes to sit on our laps in the evenings. To cover his fave peeing spots he has 4 litter trays and 3 cardboard with newspaper & kitchen roll areas, and he wees in the bath as well.
Before this he always went outside to the point where we haven't had a litter tray indoors for years.
Is he going to get better or is this just how he is forever now...
(Pic included coz he might be currently very pissy but goddamn he's still handsome)

Anyone? Literally anyone come out the other side of this?

Sorry about your cat's symptoms. If you post on the excellent cats thread there are 3 cats there- Basil, Matt and Finlay that have had issues like this.
Or message Papergirl1968 (Matts owner), Grumpyoldpersonwithcats (Basil) or JaceLancs (Finlay)

hope you get some advice

And he is handsome!

@Breadcat24 argh, I thought The Litter Tray was the cat forum. Scuttling off to find where I should post! Thanks for the reply 💖

@shockedballoon you are in the right place and starting your own thread is the right thing to attract the most people.
Some cats the crystals can clear as quick as 6 weeks others it can be 3 months and others need to be on the food for life. Have your vets asked you for follow up urine sample?

@Needanadultgapyear vet said see how he goes for the next few weeks and let us know. Also said to bring straight in if stops weeing and/or is in obvious distress (he's got hissy and yowly previously, hence the day on morphine). I've some arthrocam left and he doesn't seem particularly in pain, but he is still peeing on the stairs & in the bath. Fortunately he still goes out for no2s!
I just feel sad for him that he can't have the run of the house again and sleep in his favorite places. Plus I'm flippin tired of cleaning up piddle and trying to make sure there's 'something' in any location he's likely to pee in...

He is gorgeous, Op.
Matt has had problems with his urethra blocking up several times over the last two or three years. We’ve just got over another episode. This time it was blocked by mucus rather than crystals. He struggles to wee at all during these times though, rather than weeing where he shouldn’t.
It is common in older, neutered, fat male cats. Matt is ten, and approx one and a half stone but your boy doesn’t look overweight.
Good that you’re already adding water to his food. Would he drink from a water fountain? And try milk if it doesn’t upset his stomach (Matt is fine with milk and especially likes what’s left in the bottom of my cornflakes bowl).
I would cut the dry food to a minimum even if it is urinary food. Matt just has a bit at bedtime.
I vary his food between Concept For Life, Smilla and Almo Nature. He wasn’t very keen on Purina or Hills.
I sprinkle a capsule of Cystaid on his food once a day and the vet said to increase this to two.
I’ve also bought a Feliway plug in (Feliway Optimum on the recommendation of the vet) to reduce stress. Although Matt is outwardly very laid back.
I hope this helps. Shout if you have any questions x

Our cat Basil has had urinary problems twice. Three odd years ago and again very recently. On both occasions it's needed veterinary hospital stays and catheters to rinse out his bladder repeatedly to clear the crystals (£££ 😭) . He only seems to exhibit problems when he is actually blocked. It's been very pricy but it means he's now completely clear until next time.
We are now feeding him partially on urinary food (Purina pro plan) and giving him cystaid daily. Hopefully this will keep him clear for a good few years to come.
You might consider asking the vet about flushing his bladder?
Hope yours keeps ok.

Sorry to hear about your cat @shockedballoon
Finlay is very young although I lost my last cat to a kidney stone and he was only 4
It seems to be a mystery as no crystals or stones, but still had blockage then unfortunately traumatised his urethra by pulling his catheter out which left him very uncomfortable for the last week
sedatives and painkillers resolved it in the end - although we don’t think he is stressed have done feliway plug in and spray everywhere
Finn likes sachets so have continued with them but am adding a few teaspoons of water

Hi @Papergirl1968 @Grumpyoldpersonwithcats and @JaceLancs thanks so much for the replies. It sounds like Bootsy is very like Matt & Basil - in fact I have just been at the emergency vets today with him as he has had his worst episode to date, repeatedly straining and only a small pink tinged dot of urine coming out.
By the time we got to the vets he was totally blocked so he has been catheterised and his baldder flushed twice. Apparently it was quite hard as there was a lot of grit in his urethra/penis (poor boy!) and a lot came out with the flushing.
They did an xray and there are definitely no stones but they said there is quite a lot of grit/sludge left which means it could happen again. I should have asked why they couldn't rinse it again until it was clear, but didn't think to whilst on the call (was just relieved the anaesthetic went well!) - I'll ask tomorrow when they call with the update after handover from weekend staff.

Annoyingly, as it happened 'out of hours' the total bill for anything further is over our insurance maximum (of £4K). Not great just before Xmas! Guess the ol credit card is about to get a hammering....

Our male cat has just got out of hospital following bladder blockage. Current bill stands at about £2900, although we'll 'only' have to pay £680 because PetPlan will pick up the rest.

Oh no, @shockedballoon
Has he had to stay in at the vet’s then?
Matt came home with a catheter in both this most recent time and last year. The first time I assumed he’d have a little urine bag tied to his leg but nope, it was just left to drip everywhere. I couldn’t bear to shut him in bathroom so managed with puppy pads down and towels on the bed. Unlike Jace’s Finlay though he didn’t pull it out (probably too fat to reach).
He’s not insured and i borrowed from family to pay the bill. Luckily wasn’t as high as yours though - I haven’t totalled it up but under £500 this time, I’d say.

It’s a bit of a vicious cycle because going to the vet stresses them out…

Basil was sent home twice from our vet before being admitted to vet hospital. I think he had his bladder flushed about 10 times but he's now clear. I would recommend that you try to get his bladder completely flushed out.
Our total bill was just shy of £3.5k - uninsured 😭

I'll know more when I speak to them tomorrow - this is all useful for questions to ask so thank you! I had to pop back earlier as they didn't have any of his urinary food, they were super busy though so I didn't ask to see him, just popped it into reception. Also didn't want him to hate me for coming in and not taking him back with me.... :(

@Papergirl1968 oh no! I didn't realise it was even a possibility that he might come home with a catheter for a bit. Argh! I think if that happened I'd keep him in the box room/office and put loads of puppy pads down. It's currently bare floorboards in there as we were going to do it up anyway ( though that money might now be gone/going) and it was the location we first realised he was weeing in the house.... At least it has his fave lookout window.

@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats Ouch! I'm reeeeally hoping we don't end up with a bill that high, but I suspect it's still going to be 4 figures. So glad I kept the insurance on as I had been toying with cancelling it and putting the premiums into a savings account.

@Lougle I hope your boy is better soon!

Max was in for 2 nights and 2 days. I had to collect him from the night vet each morning and take him to the day vet. £1600 for the first night, £350 for the second, and £400 for each day.

Just a question from a female (The diva Breadcat) cat owner who has become far too invested in your cat's health- If you have other male cats (@Grumpyoldpersonwithcats ) are you putting them on the urinary food or adding cystaid to try to avoid this or is there no preventative?

It’s interesting how much prices vary
Finlay’s mystery infection a month ago involving blood tests, overnight stay plus following day, IV drip etc came in at £580
Most recent one involving catheter, IV drip, 2 nights and 2 days was £823, then another £98 the following day when we had to rush back - mainly for drugs and feliway
We are lucky in that our vet has 24 hour care, on site hospital, scanner, X-rays etc - the only time we’ve had to go elsewhere was to specialist orthopaedic vet hospital in Lake District for his broken pelvis
They are also great at keeping you constantly updated (at least 3 calls a day)

I’m starting to think we got off lightly cost-wise. I did have to pay £40 for two mins in with the vet when I didn’t think the catheter was working properly (it was) but they didn’t charge for removing it and gave us sone free puppy pads and a half empty bottle of Feliway spray.

Our cat had this last year. He's been on the Royal Canin Urinary food ever since and touch wood it hasn't re-occurred. He also gets wet food (always did) but we give him milk nearly every day now. He bloody loves it.

Our vet bill was 1400 euro, sounds like we got off lightly!

My gast was indeed pretty flabbered at the bill today. With an emergency out of hours consult, blood test, general anesthesia, catheterisation/ bladder flush, X-ray & overnight stay I was expecting it to be pricey, but I was thinking nearer £2k not £3.2k!
Thought I'd have a bit more wiggle room with the insurance to get more on top of it before the cost started hitting.

@Breadcat24
I'm giving Basil Cystaid daily and he's getting some urinary food. Not treating the others although they do pinch the urinary food if they spot that Basil is eating it.
He's the only cat we've ever had with this issue - fingers crossed he's the last one too

My cat had crystals in his bladder and was operated on and had them removed. He’s been on urinary food since then, and like your cat, the vet says he has “sludge” in his bladder that shows up on an ultrasound. He also takes Feliway Cystease or the Yumove urinary supplement for cats. He still has the odd inappropriate peeing session, but the current vet says this is temper/behavioural.

Bootsy update: settled night but had a slight temperature this morning - they think it might be because he was on the heat mat all night though.
He's on IV fluids & pain relief and producing urine OK, which is getting less bloody. They are definitely leaving the catheter in until later this afternoon when they will review him again.
I asked about flushing his bladder out again, they said they could consider this but still likely won't get it all unless they operate which they'd rather not do as the food does have a good track record of dissolving the sludge.
That said, they also can't guarantee he won't block again when they take the catheter out. Could be 5 mins after, or a few days. Will take a few weeks for the food to be fully effective.
I might be able to bring him home tonight, but he might need another night in there - reeeeally hope I can bring him home as he'll definitely be missing us.
One definitely good thing is that there's still £800 left on the insurance - turns out the cost I was given yesterday was a worst case scenario. Obvs that's gone if he stays another night so that's another reason I'd rather he came home - if there's a way I can safely care for him at home.

@shockedballoon I'm glad he had a good night. It's so hard, isn't it?