Cystitis in a cat

[Polkadottablecloth]

One of our 10 year old moggies got in a fight a couple of weeks ago, bites to the head caused nasty swelling and infection but easily dealt with with antibiotic injection, salt water cleaning and it’s healing nicely. However he’s developed some unitary tract issues - weeing blood, lots of little wees all over the house, not settling etc. We had kept him in overnight following his injury as he has gained 1 kg in 8 months and think he’s eating elsewhere. Had planned to do that for a month, vet approved, to check this out. He has always been nervous and had free access to outside.
2 days post vet visit re urinary tract issues he’s no better, no worse either though. I’m going to attempt to collect wee sample - needing to either use the shower/ bath or litter tray not one of his new carpet covered corners do this though!

Do you cat experts have any suggestions? Have we upset him by keeping him in overnight? Would he be happier with free rein even though he was nearly 7kg (!) What can I do to help him get better? Food?

Poor little guy.

I highly recommend cystaid

Here

It made a massive difference to our cat who suffered with on and off for some time. She’s a nervy rescue and honestly this has been life changing ( we only wish we have found it a thousand pound ago)!

He's probably stressed by the fight, vet trips and change in routine. Especially if he was already a nervous cat.

Am sure the vet warned you that if he stops weeing it is an emergency and he needs the vet straight away.

In the meantime I would stick Feliway diffusers all over the house, try to up his fluid intake, get a load of catnip if he responds to it and increase your number of litter bins.

If you can get him calm again it should settle.

I agree trying to calm his nerves will be the key. We’ve found zylkene to be good for this, as well as lots of quiet time and yes tbh I wd let him outside but call him back in and supervise if you can

That said, changing my nervous cat’s food to a urinary support one worked well and helped us avoid vet trips that were more stressful than anything

My male cat is the same - got stressed out when neighbours had people in with chainsaws to trim their trees.... Got more stressed by taking him to the vet and him having to have an MRI, poor thing....

Keep him calm, urinary support food (as a PP has suggested), try to keep his fluid intake up (including moist food e.g. cat soup rather than dry food) etc.

And - as advised - take him to the vet if you see he can't pee, my vet told me it's really serious for male cats.

Agree that it may be stress, my cat has had it. My vet called it idiopathic cystitis but it seemed to be either due to stress or when I fed him dry food. One time I had to rush him to the vet as they said it could have been a blocked urethra/bladder which is fatal if untreated.

I was given Cystaid to help the inflamed lining grow back or something, I'm not sure if it works or was just an upsell, but he came right in the end.

Wet food only, hydrating treats like Licky Lix and relaxation would be my recommendations.

Thais everyone, he’s much better today and improved the minute I stopped keeping him in. I have some of the cystaid which may have helped but it only arrived yesterday so he’s only had one dose.

Next question - how on earth do I try to keep his weight under control. Keeping him in overnight definitely helped but I can’t do that if he’s going to get so anxious he gets cystitis! Do I give it a while until he’s fully over this, eg a couple of months, and then try again? Any other suggestions?

Sorry meant to say, thanks for the info about no weeing at all being an emergency, the vet did tell me that but my poor DH had an episode of that last year, it was a major emergency. I’ve never seen A&E staff move so fast, they were literally running, so I was aware of how dangerous it is.