Blood In Urine

[Hugospal]

I have posted before about Hugo's issues, but today a new thing happened. I noticed some blood around his back end and it appeared to be bloody urine. Add this to the heart disease, vomiting, asthma, a dozen missing teeth, and only at 8 years old. I wonder where I'm going wrong with this cat.

The vet saw us right away. She couldn't feel his bladder which means they couldn't get any urine, but that also means that he isn't blocked or anything. She sent us home with that fake litter to see if I could collect a sample tonight. He's otherwise been acting completely normal.

I wonder if it's a stress condition from all the vet visits lately. He's also terrified of thunder and heavy rain and that's all it's been doing lately. I wonder what it could be this time?

 

[duckpond]

Hopefully you can get a sample and they can figure out what is going on.. Could be an infection, or inflammation, i dont know. Hopefully an easy fix, bless his heart i think he needs something easy.

I will keep you guys in my thoughts and prayers. Do keep us updated with him.

 

[Hugospal]

Thank you! Right now he's just angry about being locked in the bathroom for the sample (since I have multiple cats).

Oh! Does anyone have a litter they can recommend that would be easy to monitor blood in the urine? The clumping litter I use now is pretty impossible to tell. He very clearly had blood at the opening to his urethra but I was unable to see it in the litter box.

 

[duckpond]

i use a grass based litter, either abound that i get from Kroger,or pioneer smart cat grass litter. or dr elseys respiratory relief crystal litter. they are both quite light in color, im betting you could see blood, if there was much.
I have never used it, but i have read about pretty litter, changes color with blood, high ph, that kind of thing. It looks a lot like the Dr. Elseys crystal litter that i like.

PrettyLitter FAQs

 

[maggiedemi]

Hi. What's his diet like? Enough canned food?

 

[Hugospal]

i use a grass based litter, either abound that i get from Kroger,or pioneer smart cat grass litter. or dr elseys respiratory relief crystal litter. they are both quite light in color, im betting you could see blood, if there was much.
I have never used it, but i have read about pretty litter, changes color with blood, high ph, that kind of thing. It looks a lot like the Dr. Elseys crystal litter that i like.

PrettyLitter FAQs

I googled and read about the pretty litter. It's an idea I'll consider, but I'm honestly afraid it will just turn rainbows all the time and I'd get nothing done but running to and from the vet...all this stress can't be good for the stuff he's got going on. I'll look into those other lighter litters. We've used Arm n hammer Clump n Seal for a long time but I can't see anything, even if I smash the clumps.

 

[Hugospal]

Hi. What's his diet like? Enough canned food?

Unfortunately not as much canned as I would like. They get Fancy Feast/Wellness/Solid Gold. I don't have a lot of money so if I see a good premium brand on clearance I buy it all up, but Hugo turns his nose up to a lot of it. there's a few flavors of the mentioned brands that he eats regularly but not reliably. I bought a cat water fountain to compensate. The dry food they eat is Simply Nourish Source. Normally they eat the Indoor Chicken formula but I recently bought a bag of Fish and Chicken because they seemed to be getting tired of the former, which may have been a mistake because fish, as I have heard, can be bad for cats with urinary issues. I have stopped feeding it immediately and gone back to Indoor Chicken. This food combo/brand works out for us based on a vomiting problem he's had for some time and he does well on it in that regard...I'm leary to change it...he has not had a urinary issue in the 8 years I've had him. I hope it isn't food related.

As a side story, when I got him from the shelter years ago, I went out and bought a case of a nice good brand of wet food, only to find out he wouldn't touch it. He refused wet food for the longest time, the shelter had him on some kind of Science Diet dry. After all this time, yes he eats some, at least 1 wet meal per day but kind of still will hunger strike for kibble.

 

[maggiedemi]

My cats are the same way, they won't eat the expensive brands. They will eat Fancy Feast though.

 

[Hugospal]

My cats are the same way, they won't eat the expensive brands. They will eat Fancy Feast though.

The worst brand to feed is a brand they won't eat! At least with FF they're getting the moisture and a lower carb content than dry, and then if they hate it you've wasted maybe 50 cents and not two bucks per can like some of the higher end brands.

 

[maggiedemi]

I completely agree with you! We do our best to get moisture into our picky cats.

 

[Hugospal]

Update: He pooped in the medical litter but no urine, seems healthy and happy this morning still. He ate but didn't drink anything over night, no pee in 12 hours or more. I work as a groomer in the same building as my vet so he's coming back to work with me to see if they can get some urine today.I didn't want to have to leave him at the vet all day but looks like it's the best option.

My bathroom is now a total wreck with pellets and items from off the shelves all over the floor.

 

[maggiedemi]

Good luck at the vet! Let us know what happens okay?

 

[Hugospal]

We got back from the vet and she said he does have bacteria in his urine, but surprisingly they didn't find any blood (when taking a direct draw from the bladder). The urinalysis otherwise was pretty normal, so the blood must have been coming from somewhere else as it was not present in the bladder. We are on a course of antibiotics and anti-inflammatory. Hugo squatted in the litterbox for a solid minute after we got home and peed a lake from holding it at the vet all day. it's kind of put my mind at ease a bit, even though we couldn't really explain the blood from yesterday, at least no major organs down there are involved.

 

[maggiedemi]

I hope the antibiotics work.

 

[Hugospal]

Today I kinda dabbed down there because I saw a piece of wet hair and got the same old bloody discharge looking stuff again. I noticed the hair was loose ish and coming out of the opening so heck, I just grabbed it and pulled it out. it had kind of a weird clump on the end. I broke it up and it just seemed like pieces of hair but it was full of the discharge and only this clump had discharge on it. Not sure if the penis could be irritated by hair getting up there like that...would explain why she didn't find blood in the bladder. Took a pic to show doc later.

 

[maggiedemi]

Are the antibiotics helping at all? Is he peeing okay?

 

[Hugospal]

He seems to be peeing okay. Doc still hasn't gotten back to me since I emailed the pics. It's only the second full day of the antibiotics so I don't think they've had a chance to work yet.

 

[Hugospal]

Today a little bit of discharge but it wasn't noticeable unless I went looking for it (of course I did).

Sent the results of the urinalysis to another vet who seems pretty sure it's some kind of relatively sterile cystitis and she recommended some supplements; a urine acidifier since his ph is a little high, and l-lysine. She thought the blood was coming from the urethra and not necessarily originating in the bladder. I was off today so the cats got brushed which he loves and some de-stress playing and pets, catnip and treats.