Cat Utis - What To Do And How To Prevent

[wolfmanwes]

About a month ago, our 1.5 year old male cat (Hans) urinated blood, and so we took him immediately to the vet. The vet got a urine sample and diagnosed him with a severe UTI. The vet then gave him a shot of Convenia (which I will never give him again after reading about horror stories after trying to find out why he was so lethargic), and after a few days, he returned back to his normal self. The vet, then did a re-check on him 10 days after his shot by doing another urine sample, and the urine came back clean.

Yesterday (Sunday), in the middle of the night, Hans scratched at the door and meowed. He's never done this, so I let him in and he jumped on the bed and slept beside us for the rest of the night - which he's never done. When I got up, I found 6-7 drops of blood on the carpet near his kitty litter and even found a drop of blood on our bed where he slept.

That morning, I called the vet and we decided to take Hans to the vet, knowing it would be an emergency charge since it was a Sunday. The vet took an x-ray and then kept our cat overnight to get a urine sample, and he finally gave a urine sample 24 hours after being at the vet. Anyway, we found out late today (Monday) that he has another severe UTI. The vet decided it was best to send his urine to be cultured so that she knows what bacteria he has, and in the meantime she gave him pain killers, steroids, and another antibiotic - Clavamox. After discussing with the vet, we decided to keep him at the vet so that he can be watched. I asked the vet why he has another UTI and she just said that it could be a new UTI or it could be the same infection that needs a different antibiotic.

We, or course, feel sorry for our cat, but when he returns, what should we do to help him from getting another UTI? We currently scoop his litter box every other day, and then clean his litter box every 3-4 weeks. Should we being scooping and cleaning his litter box more? Should we also buy a new litter box since this one is 1.5 years old?

Also, we feed him 1/4 of a large can of grain free wet food in the morning and also 1/4 in the evening. We always keep fresh water out and we keep out a little dry food as well. Should we move to a complete wet food diet?

I am hoping that the Clavamox will work and that he will return back to his normal self again soon. We're certainly concerned about Hans.

 

[maggiedemi]

When my male cat got a UTI, the vet gave him an antibiotic shot and then I had to give him antibiotics for 10 days. I had to limit him to half a cup of dry food, I've recently switched to Purina Urinary dry food, and the rest has to be wet canned food for the moisture. I use half a large can, then another quarter can. You can also give tuna juice diluted with water or add water to their wet food. Keeping the litter clean helps too. I would scoop every day and add more litter so it stays at 3 inches deep so it stays clean. Yes, 3-4 weeks is fine for changing clumping litter. Non-clumping litter has to be changed about once a week. What are you using for dry food? How much? You could try an all wet food diet for a while.

 

[LTS3]

An all canned food diet helps for many cats who are prone to urinary issues. Give it a try for at least a couple of weeks. Adding water to canned food will help ensure that the cat is well hydrated and the urine isn't too concentrated.

There are tips on how to increase water drinking here: Tips To Increase Your Cat’s Water Intake

These may also be helpful:

Feline Idiopathic Cystitis - How To Improve Your Cat's Quality Of Life
Cat Urinary Tract Diseases: Cystitis, Urethral Obstruction, Urinary Tract Infection

 

[oyster]

One of my male cats suffered from this and we switched to an all-wet diet (grain free). It helped but the UTIs kept recurring after 2-3 months. We were at the vet about 6 times a year and then, I started researching other methods to get him UTI free. We found a holistic vet who practiced homeopathy and we tried it out. At this point, we had already spent thousands on vet visits and medication that we were desperate. Three years since he had his treatment (which was one dose of homeopathic medicine) and he has not had a single UTI. Of course, I share this anecdote with great caution because you can never be certain of the credentials and reputation of a holistic vet. We went by reviews from other people and we were completely satisfied.
Also, we scoop non-clay litter every night. That helps. We also use bottled water since the water in our area is hard which can lead to calcification and more problems that we don't really want to deal with.