"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)

Glad both Bootsy and Morris are on the road to recovery 😺

I’m so glad for both of them too.
Our vet recommended Feliway Optimum for stress.

Any updates @shockedballoon ? Hope all is going well!

Hi @Pudmyboy Bootsy is much more himself thank you. And he much prefers the portable neck pillow to the rigid collar!
He is however getting super, super frustrated with being inside though. We have to open the front door very gingerly as more often than not he has heard us at the front door and ran there ready to make his escape. A good sign is that after food he goes to the boarded up cat flap and yowls to go out. I then lock him in 'his' room with the litter tray and he usually performs. So i'm hoping that he will go back to outdoor toileting when this is all done as I am so over him weeing half on half off the puppy pads!
Roll on the 27th and fingers crossed get the all clear!!

So glad Bootsy is doing well, @shockedballoon
And how is Morris, @HollywoodTease ?

We had a bit of a setback, went for his checkup on Monday and his bladder was full and hard again, even though he was incontinent and leaking pee everywhere. She thought he was possibly partially blocked again 😕. So she gave it a little push, and whoosh. Pee all over the table, the floor, the vet, me......

Put him on different painkillers and went back yesterday where they managed to get a sample. White blood cells, protein and bacteria were all high so he had an antibiotic injection.

Things have been better today, he's still a bit sleepy from the meds (he's still on metacam, gabapentin and now an opiate-based tablet too) but he's eating, not leaking, and earlier he did a proper big wee in the litter tray 😻

He's back for another bladder check on Friday but he seems more comfortable and "normal" now, so fingers crossed!

I’m glad he seems on the mend again,
Even now a few weeks on I still breath a sigh of relief when I see or hear Matt do a big wee.

Ah poor Morris, bet that big wee was sooo satisfying. Keeping my fingers crossed for him. Do let us know how he's going on.

I know what you mean @Papergirl1968 I wasn't even mad when Bootsy did a huge wee near the edge of a puppy pad and it was so big the pad couldn't absorb it in time and flowed over the edge!

How did he get on at the vets, @HollywoodTease ?

I spoke to them this morning and it's postponed til Monday as they had an emergency in and my report was so positive.

He's now "going" regularly (although still cleans himself straight afterwards which he never used to) and we've reduced his painkillers down a fair bit - he's just having the anti-inflammatory in the morning and a morphine tablet at bedtime at the moment unless he shows obvious signs of pain.

There's been no more wet bum since the vet emptied his bladder the other day, I've put the puppy pads away.

He's pretty much back to his old self, keeps shouting at us cos we won't let him go out yet! 😂

I'm aware that it's still early days and he may re-block but it seems that a lot of his post-op discomfort could have been due to the infection as well as the catheter so I'm hoping he may be over the worst 🤞

His bald patches aren't growing back yet though...

Tha sounds really positive! Fingers crossed for Monday 🤞🏼

All good, @HollywoodTease ?

Yes @HollywoodTease do let us know how it went.

So had a rollercoster couple of days with Bootsy. long story short, friday morn found a big bloody wee and a few other pinkish ones. Was worried the new collar meant he'd managed to get to his bum, put other collar back on and messaged vet. said to monitor. same thing on saturday morning - big bloody wee then lots of little pinkish ones - like weeing was uncomfortable again. Both incidents seemed to coincide with after he had a poo. Messaged vet again and they brough forward the check up to sunday.
Went on sunday and the vet picked off a couple of big scabs he said should really have fallen off. Urine test was negative, so no infection. Theory is that straining to have a poo pulled at the scab and caused a bit of bleeding and having that at his entrance made him feel like he needed to wee again. He also said to give it 24hrs then take the collar off as the wound looked mostly well healed and actually letting him lick himself would help the rest of the stiches come out as they should've fallen out by now.
Anyway, took his collar off this morning and he gave himself the biggest longest all over wash ever! I kept him in until I saw him do a poo and wees afterwards - they were all normal, so after his evening food we unblocked the cat flap and he was straight out - he's been in and out all evening, announcing his arrival when he comes back in and generally being chirpy and happy, and is now snuggled up on my knee happy as anything.
Soo, still got the puppy pads etc but I'm hoping he's as much back to normal as he can be....

Forgot to attach snuggle photo

Ohh, @shockedballoon what a worrying few days for you again.
Hopefully the vet was right and everything will settle down now.
Bootsy is beautiful!

Aww, go Bootsy! He looks so comfy and happy there.

I have no idea if today was good or bad. His bladder wasn't full, but the vet said it didn't feel quite right. Apparently it's hard and lumpy when it should be soft and squishy, even though the scans didn't show anything obvious last week.

I've got to try and catch a urine sample Thursday night or Friday morning 😬 and drop it off Friday for analysis to see if there's still infection and he needs more specific antibiotics.

In the meantime we've dropped the morphine and he's just on the anti-inflammatory for now. I still have morphine and gabapentin available if he shows signs of pain or distress but at the moment he seems fine.

I know he must be feeling better cos he shouted at me in the car all the way to the vet tonight 😁 He seems OK in himself, maybe a little more clingy and he's not been mithering to go out though so who knows? Times like this I really wish they could talk!

Furry hugs to Bootsy though, looks like a positive outcome after a worrying set of symptoms for him!

Exactly a month after coming out of hospital with his bladder blockage, Max was ill again today. Night before last I heard scratching noises and thought he might be in trouble, but when I phoned the vet hospital they were really non-committal and said it could be something or nothing. The day time didn't seem strange (although DH was in hospital with pneumonia, so I've been out of the house a lot, visiting), but in the evening I noticed that he hadn't moved much, when I cuddled him he was a bit floppy, and when he walked he staggered a bit. I couldn't do anything overnight because I have a teen with SEN who can't be left in the house unattended.

This morning I took him to the vets as soon as it opened, saying that I didn't have an appointment but I thought he was ill. The vet said immediately that he was very ill and suffering, so he gave him a pain killer. His abdomen was rock hard around his bladder area, but he suspected that there could be 'more' as he was so poorly, too, and his gums were pale. Options were attempt to unblock, but with a warning that it might not work and he'd have to spend days in hospital because his bloods would be awful (they were bad last time), or to refer for the PU procedure, which is hugely expensive, and the vet wasn't sure he was well enough to withstand the anaesthetic, or euthanise.

I feel hugely guilty that I chose to euthanise but he was so very poorly. Just so floppy and when the vet sedated him prior to euthanasia he said he dropped immediately despite the tiny sedative dose, which he said was a sign of how ill he was.

@Lougle
Really sorry to see this update. Please try not to feel guilty about your decision, it sounds exactly the correct course of action. You have my sympathy. 💐

@Lougle I think often we instinctively know how much a pet can take in terms of treatment and when it's not right to keep trying. It really does sound like it was very unwell. You made the right decision because you love him. So sorry.

I'm so sorry to hear about Max, @Lougle
Such a tough Christmas for you. Be kind to yourself x

So sorry @Lougle , what a sad day, but please remember you did the right thing, it is the kindest but sometimes hardest gift to give when they get to that state💐

I have had several cats that have had crystals at various times. The diet works but takes time. Flushing the bladder also works if they are prone to blockages.

All of them absolutely despised the prescription wet food and refused to eat it.

Ah @Lougle I'm so sorry to hear that. Sounds like you made the best but toughest decision. I agree with @TemporaryCatSlave in that we instinctively know when to treat and when to stop. Max had the right person in his corner and was clearly very loved. Big hugs to you xxx

Oh Lougle I'm so sorry. I'm sure you did the right thing, but my heart is breaking for you xx

So sorry Lougle. It is such a hard decision but the right thing to do. We had to make the same decision for our 17 year old cat a few months ago.
❤