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.

https://catit.co.uk/products/catit-flower-fountain - Bought ours 6/7 years ago and it's still going strong!

I think we are talking at cross purposes @Noshadowsinthedark has had the general anaesthetic to have their cat unblocked more than once what they have been considering is the penis removal surgery that reduces the risk of further blockages and is only considered for the most severe cases where other measures have not helped.

That's good to hear, for what it's worth ours took a good week or so to settle after his blockage, everything tends to inflame and irritate with the procedure , so once that reduces it should help. Nerve wracking waitinh though! Really hope he's on the mend now x.

@Needanadultgapyear - Thanks, but I have fully understood the situation. The cat has so far been medicated and catheterised whether under sedation or general anaesthetic, however whilst this removes the immediate blockage it does not solve the underlying problem if urethral narrowing is the cause. Perineal urethrostomy (enlarging the urethral opening) is the only surgery that will significantly reduce the chances of recurrence in cats that are prone to struvine crystals.

Yes, I am on hyper alert for him
looking floppy again.

I was in the same position as you- multiple blockages. In the end I had him pts

My cat had the first op then Cystaid daily and only ever wet food never dry. He's been fine for the last 8 years.

The vet has said right now if he blocks again they couldn’t recatheter as he needs to heal. Poor thing.

People keep mentioning cystease, he is on the supplements and wet food. We’ve had to go for a pate so he isn’t just licking the gravy off.

He’s not exactly right today but has been for a wee so hopefully keeping going the right way.

We did discuss that if ever our cat needed the second,bigger op that we wouldn't do it, it was ridiculously hard for the car to have a catheter at home and he is miserable being kept in.

Yes, it’s been a long week for everyone.

I’m finding I can’t let him upstairs as he has taken to weeing on fabrics. I can just about manage with him downstairs keeping everything clean.

We spent £5k on our cat with this issue this summer. It was about 4 weeks of sleepless nights and monitoring- do not give up!

Things that helped him turn a corner:

1. Cystease, cystease and more cystease. We didn’t push this hard enough to start with and he really turned a corner when we did.
2. we had a failed catherisation. The second time when he went back in we told them not to remove it for 36 hours to monitor urine flow and that we wanted him to stay in and be monitored by them until they saw him wee consistently. It was pricey but bought us 2 nights sleep and then they understood what he was dealing with too.
3. Gabapentin, twice a day, kept him chill enough to tolerate all the interventions.
4. switched to prescription bladder medication.

Then a commitment to any wee is enough! As long as he did the tiniest bit of wee, we didn’t rush him back in- to avoid the stress. To achieve this we had to watch him like a hawk. Push push push the cystease. Ensure frequent drinking. Likelix was a game changer for us as it’s very liquid and helped keep him hydrated.

He will now be on cystease and bladder food for life and we start the gabapentin a few days before any potential stress e.g. us going away.

It was awful awful awful and I was so sad for him but once we got things moving he improved very very slowly over about 2 weeks. I think it’s probably taken 2 months to get him back to full flow and we still watch like a hawk. It was so so stressful and I was so tense the whole time. I didn’t cry until I saw the first flash of his rather opinionated personality and then I really sobbed. Next step for him will be surgery if it ever happens again. He’s been on very strict weightloss since also!

I did the same. My poor boy was 12 and the first time it happened he was traumatised for two weeks afterwards. Was OK for a couple of years, then one more blockage. That was dealt with but after he then had a further 2 in quick succession I made the decision to.pts. Still feel bad and sad about it but he hated the vets so much and it caused him so much stress. If it happened again to one of my younger cats id prob go for the op. Its heartbreaking

This happened to us too, we put old towels down everywhere. Basically post catheter they can be incontinent, it took him a week or two to get control back but it’s better than the opposite!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/the_litter_tray/5367612-can-i-have-some-good-lucks-best-wishes-and-some-please-do-a-wee-for-my-gorgeous-boy?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

our thread from earlier this summer detailing the whole saga.

We had this. Our cat blocked his bladder, was catheterised and then had the catheter removed. All good. Then a few weeks later, it happened again. We had an honest discussion with the vet, who said that they suspected something else could be going on as well because he was so poorly so quickly (his electrolytes were very deranged). He was an older cat and he detested the vets. Even on methadone he would be upside down in the crate, trying to escape. So we PTS. It wouldn't have been a good thing for him to have the major surgery. We would have been doing it so we could say we did everything we could.

I am so sorry to hear this. It’s not an easy decision to make and I hope you’re ok.

It feels like the balance for us is if it’s fair to keep hospitalising him or not.

It’s heartbreaking to see how upset he is in the carrier now. Shaking, vomiting, pooing which is his reaction while he is still on opioids and sedatives, as well as all the pain killers. The look in his eyes as he cries on the way is breaking me.

To put the other side. Our cat had a blocked bladder when he was six. It came completely out of the blue, he'd never had any urinary issues before. We were back and forward to the vets for over a week and he was catheterised a few times but every time they took the catheter out he stopped being able to wee, it was horrific. He started wailing when we took him to the vets, it upset me so much. Our vet told us his only hope was the operation where they remove the penis altogether and, by doing so, create a larger opening for urination. Our vet is more a farm vet and said that to get him the best chance we would need to take him to a specialist veterinary hospital in Glasgow where they had the equipment and knowhow needed, but he was quite downbeat about my cat's chances. Luckily we were insured.

The drive to the hospital with my poor boy sedated was horrible but as soon as we got there I felt a lot more reassured. The surgeon told me he had done 20 of these operations and all of them had been successful with no incontinent cats as a result. Our boy stayed there for about ten days and when he came back he was virtually shaved all over but the operation was a complete success and he's still with us nine years later and has had no further issues so far. He had had one big stone blocking his urethra, apparently.

It cost £7,000 in all but it was totally worth it for us as he was a young cat and we loved him (and still do). I was a bit worried in case the insurance didn't pay out but we didn't have any issues. I would have paid myself anyway TBH.

That’s reassuring. The vets have been quite pessimistic about the operation.

He is still slightly incontinent from the catheters.

We were quoted 6k for the operation but our insurance is already maxed out by the hospitalisation. I took out insurance that covered 6k per issue but I had no idea this was even a thing.