Blocked bladder … when do you give up?

[Noshadowsinthedark]

We got two rescues last year, nell exactly a year ago.
They took ages to settle, they had obviously had a really rough time of it, one of them still flinches occasionally a year later.
The more chilled of the two, absolutely loves us now, cuddles, purrs away, likes to mostly stay indoors.
He had issues urinating last month, we popped to the vets. He had a bladder scan and some anti inflammatory meds sorted him out.
I noticed last Friday he was being odd, staying in the garden, a poo on the floor and then Saturday he was really lethargic and I rushed him to the emergency vets.

Long story short he’s been on and off a catheter since Saturday. Multiple medicines every few hours and they just don’t know if he’ll unblock and for how long. When they tried removing the catheter he couldn’t urinate so they put it back in….

He is so miserable and they say it’s stress related but he’s insanely stressed being admitted everyday then coming home and I watch him all night and so his meds then he’s back in again.

What do I do? Just keep going with this? The vets just don’t have any answers as they say each cause is different. Some recover and some don’t.

There is an operation to unblock. And there is a bigger operation (forgotten what its called) to basically widen the urethra - that's normally only done on cats that have a history of blockages and is more or less guaranteed to resolve the problem forever. It's expensive though.

There is a link between cheap dry food and blocked bladders. It can have lots of causes though.

The vets say stress but I am wracking my brains for what could have upset him.

He eats purina but not sure that’s considered a cheap dry food? We’re going to get the special food but gradually change so it doesn’t upset him more.

They have mentioned the operation but say the body often tries to heal it back up…. also I feel awful but I’m not sure I could justify getting into thousands in debt for a possible fix. Maybe I was naive with pet insurance but didn’t imagine he would get through 6k so quickly for one issue.

Try wet food instead of dried. My cats like Purina kibble but also have 2 pouches of Felix a day each. This means they eat less dry Purina kibble.

With the big operation - I wish I could remember the name - there is no chance of it 'healing back up'. After a normal unblocking it could happen again. Usually though it doesn't if supportive food and meds are given.

Purina is Ok. I was referring to Whiskas, Go Cat etc

I know someone whose male cat had his penis removed after multiple episodes of blocking up.

The op was successful and he lived for about another ten years

This is really reassuring! It was indicated to me it’s not always a successful operation.

Don’t suppose anyone has any idea of cost? I feel awful having to consider it but I do.

I understand now the need to have a lot of disposable income for keeping cats really. I always thought a few thousand would be enough but it’s really not!

He used to have wet food but just licked it, we will give it another go.

And that's what I'm referring to when I mentioned the big operation. I think it's because the urethra is narrow in the penis, but not at the join with the body. Female cats don't get blocked bladders, so it's mimicking the anatomy.

Vets won't normally do that immediately - there needs to be a bit of a history of repeated blocking.

Our male cat had a blocked urethra once and surgery to unblock it. After that we fed him a kind of pate food with added water. He never blocked again but he did sometimes get cystitis when stressed. It was usually when we went away so we used to pre-emptively give him metacam (anti inflammatories) and that solved the problem. Sometimes it can be due to crystals in their urine and that needs a special kind of cat food to help dissolve them. The original stress which triggered it was a new male cat moving in across the road.

It has been on and off unblocking and re blocking since last Saturday. All the meds and hospital stays but as soon as the catheter is out we seem to be back to square one.
We’ve made all the changes recommended at home except the food as they said to do this gradually.

It was a vet who said the operation can be risky and the body tries to reheal.

We do have a stock of Metacam now and I have cancelled going away next weekend, I thought that would be too much for him.

I’m afraid I don’t know how much it cost as we’re in another country and it was about 15 years ago

My dog needs a clean and a tooth out, the quote is 1k.

Sadly op it's going to cost an awful lot.

My mum’s cat kept having blockages so is on a 2ml dose of metacam 3 times a week now permanently and fingers crossed he’s been fine since.

No advice concerning it still being blocked but have they tried flushing the bladder? I think a regular on here had it for their kitty recently.

My DDs cat used to frequently get blocked bladders and rushed to the vets but she now has him permanently on specialist urinary biscuits with a pouch of wet food a day, and he hasn't had an episode for a couple of years since. Touch wood it continues!

How old is he?

They have flushed the bladder to get his kidneys back on track.

He’s only 4 we think but he’s hard to age they say, they’re going by teeth.

The poor love had a shitty start to life with neglect so I’m gutted for him that he’s going through this now too.

We’re 3.5k in already but some is covered by insurance to be fair.

I’m going to buy some pate food this evening to go alongside his dry for a starter then get to pets at home as they seem to have a good range of bladder friendly food.

There are lots of theoretical causes of blocked bladder, I’m not sure a definitive cause has ever been ‘proven’ but I would bet money on a large part of the problem being his diet. I would swap him to a high meat wet diet, something like katkin, or untamed, make sure it’s a complete diet, not complementary. It’s more expensive than what you pay for Purina dry, but will be far less expensive than having the operation when he continues to block. I have a large cat (5kg, but he isn’t overweight) and it costs me £80 a month to feed him Untamed. Is he overweight? This is also a risk factor for blocking, and obesity is much more common when fed a dry diet. In the wild cats eat meat, and they get their moisture from their food, some cats just won’t lap water from a bowl which increases their dehydration and causes more concentrated urine, which is then prone to blocking. Feeding tinned wet food is much closer to their natural diet. I would avoid the urinary diets the vets recommend, in my opinion they are expensive, not high enough in meat content and are refused by a lot of cats who realise it’s a plate of shite* please try the diet change for a few months before considering putting him to sleep. I would also consider whether the cats get on. If they sleep together and groom each other, they probably do, if they largely ignore each other, then they probably don’t. Cats don’t like confrontation and will only fight as a last resort.

• I am not a vet, but I work in the profession, and have owned and fostered cats for 30+ years

Zooplus and Bitiba do several types of urinary food that might be cheaper than pets at home.
We also gave Zylkene to ours to help with stress.
I wonder if a mild sedative would be helpful too if the vet agrees?

The cats generally get on but since this one has been at the vets the other won’t go near him. The vet said it might be because he now smells like the vets?

We will try the meat diet, gradually.

He came to us at a whopping nearly 7kg and couldn’t get up and down the stairs well. He’s now 5.6 so still some weight to go but he’s physically much more able now. He can jump to height etc which he couldn’t before.

He is still on a sedative now and they said it might help longterm on a lower dose.

This was done for my cat and so far (5 years on) he hasn't looked back. I'm afraid we were abroad at the time (in a country where veterinary care was so much cheaper than it is here!) so I don't know what it would cost.

Try blending wet food with added water. I use a stick blender so easy to clean. Never had any problems in a while using this method. I used feliway bladder supplement powder for a few months to get him back on track too.

My cats are on food called urinary SO which helps prevent blockages. It was recommended by vet, you and get dry and wet food. It is more expensive than supermarket but we've had no issues since

I hope he recovers soon for you, mine became ill with a blocked bladder after being caught in a humane trap, it was definitely stress related in his case, he relapsed once, but didn't need catheterisation the second time. I found that the Royal Canin food really helped, we didn't bother switching slowly and put him straight on it as it helps to dissolve crystals.

I’ve got some pate food and mixed in some water, he loved it so that’s good.

I am worried as he has tried to use the loo but is just straining. They’ve already unblocked him twice this week.

His next batch of meds are 8pm though so I’m hoping they help.

I feel awful but I don’t know if we can genuinely afford the urethra surgery. It’s been a bad year for redundancy for me so I’ve already hammered the savings we had. I am feeling insanely guilty for even considering it might be too expensive though.