Cat Urinary Tract Obstruction

Question

I feel so awful...my sweet kitty is right now having emergency surgery to fix a urinary tract obstruction. I love my vet and trust them but I'm still worried. He's 7 years old and the way he was screaming this morning while we were waiting for the vet to come in and get him some meds made my heart break. He has to stay there for 3 days so they can keep flushing it out and giving him IV fluids. I'm worried he'll be so scared. :-( Was there some way we could have seen this coming...he seemed fine until this morning (at which point we rushed him in to the vet)...he eats Innova which I thought was a pretty quality food. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Answer 1

Hi

I am sorry you are going through this but happy you acted so quickly.

Innova is a great food but the problem is you are feeding dry food. The system needs water and dry food dehydrates, it is that simple.

Your vet is going to recommend CD or some other horrible prescription food so you are going to have to make a choice. I would recommend grain free canned food like wellness or even a raw diet that you can buy or prepare yourself, Best of luck

Answer 2

Other than using a urinary tract friendly food you couldn't have stopped it.  now you know and can do everything you can to keep him healthy.  He'll be fine once the crystals are under control.

Answer 3

Nothing you could have done, some cats are just prone to crystals.  My male cat (about 2yrs old) developed them as we were driving cross country to a new home.  His brother, who was on the same trip, was fine.  One vet recommended special food for the rest of his life (low magnesium, I think), but with 2 cats, special food would get real expensive real quick.  He ate Friskies, 9 lives or similar for the rest of his life, never had any more problems with crystals and lived until he developed cancer at 14.  Go visit your kitty, he'll appreciate it!

Answer 4

Take a shirt or other clothing piece that you have worn all day and take it to the vet, and have it put in his cage.  Your scent will reassure him.  It is hard on you, and hard on him since you cannot explain to him what is going on.  But it is for the best, as blockage in a male is a true vet emergency.

Some male cats become really prone to blockages, and it is not necessarily the food.  If you can find out what type of crystals were doing the blockage, you have an approach to treatment.  Two types of crystals are struvite and oxalate, and there are distinct approaches to managing each problem.  Struvite is the easiest.

You may have to put him on a special diet, which he will probably resist.  Changing the food, if suggested, should be done slowly over a week or so, to avoid tummy upsets.

Answer 5

Usually no one can tell until it happens.

There usually 2 kinds of ways cats can get blocked by inflammation and infection (FLUTD) or by a build up of crystals/stones in the bladder.

If he had crystals/stones, they would usually clear them out of the bladder and sometimes at that point might (depending on the need or serverity of condition) also do a PU (perianalurethrostomy) surgery where they make a new urinary opening so the urine can bypass the p***s and not get blocked again. In a way he would pee like a girl instead.

They keep him a few days not only to flush out his bladder but his kidneys as well. When animals are blocked, chemicals excreted by the kidneys like urea and others back up into the kidneys and build-up in the bloodstream making their whole body sick and ultimately if left untreated they can possibly die from a blockage. The IV fluids and if they gave him an indwelling urinary catheter will help him feel better, flush out his system, make sure he is peeing normally, and making a good amount of urine. The bladder can also become inflammed and distended, so they want to make sure there isn't any blood in his urine too. They probably have him on antibiotics to guard against infection.

They may give you a new prescription urinary diet. These change the pH of the urine (depending on the kind of crystals), making it hard for crystals to form in the future. If they do give him a Rx diet, make sure you don't mix it with another type of food. This can make the special diet ineffective if something different is added to it.

You did the right thing getting to the vet as fast as you did.

Most vets try to keep their patients as quiet and as comfortable as they can and try to have a calm atmosphere. If he does have a special bed or little blanket, you might want to drop it by so he can rest in something familiar.

Answer 6

idk

Answer 7

I had the same thing happen to my 10 year old male.  Urinary blockages in male cats are a very serious problem and without surgery/treatment they will die.  There probably wasn't anything you could of done to prevent it except to feed him different food.  I now feed my cats "Royal Canin SO" which is a prescription cat food that you can only get from your vet.  They do not sell it at petco or petsmart or any place like that.  I'm sure your vet will suggest the proper food change for you...   Good luck, I feel for you cause I have been thru it too.  

-tony  

Answer 8

You may want to check out the website called "ww.thedogfoodconspiracy.com" it actually applies to pet food in general.

Answer 9

Does he eat dried or canned Innova? Innova is definitely a quality food, but, if your feeding dry you could still have a problem. The more water and fluid a cat takes in, the more diluted their urine and the less likely it is for them to get an obstruction.. I feed just canned or raw to my cats because half of them were surrendered as adults and have had prior problems with urinary obstruction.

You'll want to buy clumping litter from now on and scoop it every day so you can make sure the clumped urine is a normal size. A normal amount of urine will create an almost golfball sized clump. If there are lots of tinier marble sized clumps, then you've got a problem coming on. But, if you catch it early, your vet can test for the kind of crystals and give your cat something to modify his urinary PH..

I've fostered cats for years and almost missed a urinary tract problem with a new foster. I remember thinking he'd went into the litterbox often, but, I almost didn't notice it and I KNEW to watch for that. SO, missing it isn't unusual. Of course though, now you'll know it's a problem and will probably know how to watch for it..

Answer 10

Sometimes cats are just prone to urinary crystals.  Sometimes it's because they don't drink enough water, but sometimes it's something that can't really be prevented.  Cats usually start to have these problems around age 7.

My cat had surgery to prevent future blockages after recurring issues with crystals.  He looked like he was straining to urintate, trying often, and only producing a small amount, if any at all.  He was peeing in strange places (like the bathtub or the kitchen floor).  That's how we knew there was a problem.

If they are just removing the crystals, you'll want to monitor him closely to make sure he's urinating without problems.  If he's having the narrow part of his urethra removed, this should prevent blockages from recurring.

Your kitty will be a little sluggish and ouchy for a few days.  It's normal to worry, but if it helps, my kitty is back to his normal, happy self, and is jumping and running around like nothing happened.  He did very well, though he hated the antibiotics.  

Good luck!