Hi, my friends on Instagram said I should get some advice here for our 5 year old male tuxedo cat, Neo.
He was having trouble peeing and was trying to go in locations other than his litter box so we took him into our local vet ER at 3:00 am last Saturday morning.
They found that his urethra was blocked due to struvite crystals & grit and that he needed to be put in the ICU with a urinary catheter and IV fluids to flush out his bladder and unblock him. He stayed for 3 overnights and we brought him home this past Monday afternoon when it seemed liked he was mostly successfully unblocked ($2000 later).
They had us put him on a "prescription diet" of Royal Canin SO Urinary (dry food) and gave us a sample bag of another similar urinary food. It's supposed to help dissolve the crystals in the bladder.
When we first brought him home he had two decent urinations, but after that has struggled quite often and has been in and out of our two litter boxes a lot, only to squirt out a little bit of pee most times. My husband said it looked like he was a little swollen and red down in his penis area, I'm sure due to the urinary catheter. My husband even helped massage Neo's abdomen a few times to help him relax and pee more, which helped a few of times.
Neo is on a pain medicine & another pill to help relax the urethra, both administered every 8 hrs. Sidenote: he came home with a pretty heavy limp with his back right leg...almost seems like a muscle spasm but the doc wasn't sure.
We are trying to get fluids in him as much as possible because that is what's going to help dissolve and flush the crystals now and in the future. However, he doesn't like canned food (yet) and we want to try some with him because he needs to eat and he definitely NEEDS more fluids and the acidity in the meat will help dissolve the crystals.
I'm not completely sold on this "prescription diet" they want him on...seems like glorified salty food with grains and by-products to help them drink more water, but he's still not drinking much. We've tried adding some chicken broth & water to the dry food and he's eaten a little bit of that. We also bought a fountain water bowl and he's taken a little of that as well. We even tried syringe feeding him some water and dipped his paw in water to get him to lick if off. We also tried an apple cider vinegar mixture to help flush his system so I've dipped his paw a few times to have him lick it off.
1st question: does anyone have suggestions for getting a "kibble-addict kitty" to eat some canned food for more liquids? Our long-term goal is to try to wean him onto a really healthy natural high protein grain-free canned food (or make our own), but for now we are willing to try anything to get more fluids in him.
2nd question: any suggestions for getting more fluids in a kitty who definitely needs more?
3rd question: does anyone have any suggestions or tips on how to better flush and dissolve the struvite crystals?
Any other suggestions and advice is welcome! We want to try to do anything we can to alleviate his situation and not have to go the catheter route a second time! Thank you!!
He was having trouble peeing and was trying to go in locations other than his litter box so we took him into our local vet ER at 3:00 am last Saturday morning.
They found that his urethra was blocked due to struvite crystals & grit and that he needed to be put in the ICU with a urinary catheter and IV fluids to flush out his bladder and unblock him. He stayed for 3 overnights and we brought him home this past Monday afternoon when it seemed liked he was mostly successfully unblocked ($2000 later).
They had us put him on a "prescription diet" of Royal Canin SO Urinary (dry food) and gave us a sample bag of another similar urinary food. It's supposed to help dissolve the crystals in the bladder.
When we first brought him home he had two decent urinations, but after that has struggled quite often and has been in and out of our two litter boxes a lot, only to squirt out a little bit of pee most times. My husband said it looked like he was a little swollen and red down in his penis area, I'm sure due to the urinary catheter. My husband even helped massage Neo's abdomen a few times to help him relax and pee more, which helped a few of times.
Neo is on a pain medicine & another pill to help relax the urethra, both administered every 8 hrs. Sidenote: he came home with a pretty heavy limp with his back right leg...almost seems like a muscle spasm but the doc wasn't sure.
We are trying to get fluids in him as much as possible because that is what's going to help dissolve and flush the crystals now and in the future. However, he doesn't like canned food (yet) and we want to try some with him because he needs to eat and he definitely NEEDS more fluids and the acidity in the meat will help dissolve the crystals.
I'm not completely sold on this "prescription diet" they want him on...seems like glorified salty food with grains and by-products to help them drink more water, but he's still not drinking much. We've tried adding some chicken broth & water to the dry food and he's eaten a little bit of that. We also bought a fountain water bowl and he's taken a little of that as well. We even tried syringe feeding him some water and dipped his paw in water to get him to lick if off. We also tried an apple cider vinegar mixture to help flush his system so I've dipped his paw a few times to have him lick it off.
1st question: does anyone have suggestions for getting a "kibble-addict kitty" to eat some canned food for more liquids? Our long-term goal is to try to wean him onto a really healthy natural high protein grain-free canned food (or make our own), but for now we are willing to try anything to get more fluids in him.
2nd question: any suggestions for getting more fluids in a kitty who definitely needs more?
3rd question: does anyone have any suggestions or tips on how to better flush and dissolve the struvite crystals?
Any other suggestions and advice is welcome! We want to try to do anything we can to alleviate his situation and not have to go the catheter route a second time! Thank you!!