Hello everyone!
I’ve been lurking here since I got my two ragdoll kitties almost 2 years ago. The abundance of information shared here has been incredible support but today I need to share my specific story, as I feel completely lost.
So I have two ragdoll cats that turned 2 on Valentine’s Day just passed.
Today I’ll be talking to you about my boy Apollo. I got him when he was 10 weeks old, along with his sister Artemis. Apollo has been a healthy kitten, gaining weight steadily. Early on we noticed some odd behaviours, such as he was suckling on his paw before his nap and at one point, when he was about 6 months old, we noticed he had chewed off the end of the fur on his tail. He was investigated for skin conditions but nothing came up. The vet at the time said he is a “stressy cat”. We started using Feliway pheromone diffusers and has since stopped chewing his fur. Suckling persists to this day.
When he turned 1 year old, we moved to a different part of the country and I went from being a student to having a full-time job. He adjusted as well as can be expected during those huge changes, seemingly at least.
End of August last year, I started noticing dark brown-ish spots on the kitchen floor, near where the litter box is. I thought they were food stains or something. Neither of my cats seemed unwell at all. Neither was going to the litter box more often than usual, no urine puddles anywhere in the house. But one evening, he went to the litter box and when he came out, I could see a slightly pink-tinted urine on his white fur. Rushed to the vets. He was examined and found that his bladder was empty, he didn’t seem uncomfortable even though his abdominal area was squeezed extensively. The vet says he ticks all the boxes for idiopathic cystitis, aka he is male, neutered, pedigree, indoor, multi-cat household and overweight. Plus, prone to stress. Sent home with Metacam. Metacam made him worse. He was nauseous and had diarrhoea. I stopped it and the visible blood in his urine stopped after 5 days.
2 months later, he was in the litter box and as if something startled him, he jumped out and left a trail of pink urine on the floor. Vets again, Metacam and so on. I kept telling the vet that he is not in any pain but she didn’t believe me. We followed her advice, used more Feliway diffusers, switched him to urinary food, wet only, got 2 more litter boxes (both cats still use the same one), started him on Cystease capsules.
3 months later, tinted urine again. Phoned the vets and said I don’t want Metacam again, I want investigations. So I took him in and they did an x-ray, an ultrasound and a full urinalysis of sterile urine (from cystocentesis). When I went to pick him up, the vet said there was nothing out of the ordinary that came up in any of the examinations, except his urine was dilute. Being completely ignorant at that point, I said “Isn’t that a good thing?” and the vet said yes, it might be because he’s on wet food and because urinary food aims to make the urine more dilute to help with bladder issues. 2 days later when the laboratory analysis results came back, the vet phoned me and said again no concerning findings, no protein in his urine, no bacteria, no crystals. But the urine was found to be dilute so she suggested to bring him back in for a blood test. She said because he gets so stressed, it’s perfectly fine to give him time to recover from last vet visit and bring him in some time in the next couple of months. She reassured me that it’s unlikely to be kidney disease because he’d have other symptoms. She didn’t give me any specific numbers for his results and I beat myself up for not asking.
(If you’re still reading, you’re a hero and thank you from the bottom of my heart)
Of course I committed the cardinal sin and Googled “cat dilute urine” and now I’m paralysed with fear. First of all, apart from bloody urine, he has no other symptoms of cystitis. No pain, no frequent urination, no straining to urinate (as far as I can see at least). And wouldn’t the ultrasound show thickened bladder wall if this was cystitis? Especially since the tests were done while he was presenting with blood in his urine? On the other hand, if he had lost his ability to concentrate urine, wouldn’t he be dehydrated and drinking and peeing more? I have noticed neither of these signs. If anything, since switching him to wet food exclusively, I have never seen him drinking and the water bowls barely have any water missing at the end of each day. And while I’m at work 9 hours a day, I spend a couple of hours at home before work and 6 hours after I come back and before I go to bed, and during these times he consistently visits his box twice: one in the morning for number 1 and one in the evening for a 2 and presumably an 1. I know that the blood tests will give us a better idea, but I read that they are not accurate until most of the kidney function is lost. So I fear I’m looking at months and months of uncertainty without a definitive diagnosis.
Being fully aware that without specific numbers, you can’t give me any valuable insight, I would appreciate any opinions on this. Even if just to prepare me for what might be coming. Or inform me on what to ask for/talk about during the next vet visit.
Thank you so much and obligatory sorry for the long post.
Apollo says hi too!
I’ve been lurking here since I got my two ragdoll kitties almost 2 years ago. The abundance of information shared here has been incredible support but today I need to share my specific story, as I feel completely lost.
So I have two ragdoll cats that turned 2 on Valentine’s Day just passed.
Today I’ll be talking to you about my boy Apollo. I got him when he was 10 weeks old, along with his sister Artemis. Apollo has been a healthy kitten, gaining weight steadily. Early on we noticed some odd behaviours, such as he was suckling on his paw before his nap and at one point, when he was about 6 months old, we noticed he had chewed off the end of the fur on his tail. He was investigated for skin conditions but nothing came up. The vet at the time said he is a “stressy cat”. We started using Feliway pheromone diffusers and has since stopped chewing his fur. Suckling persists to this day.
When he turned 1 year old, we moved to a different part of the country and I went from being a student to having a full-time job. He adjusted as well as can be expected during those huge changes, seemingly at least.
End of August last year, I started noticing dark brown-ish spots on the kitchen floor, near where the litter box is. I thought they were food stains or something. Neither of my cats seemed unwell at all. Neither was going to the litter box more often than usual, no urine puddles anywhere in the house. But one evening, he went to the litter box and when he came out, I could see a slightly pink-tinted urine on his white fur. Rushed to the vets. He was examined and found that his bladder was empty, he didn’t seem uncomfortable even though his abdominal area was squeezed extensively. The vet says he ticks all the boxes for idiopathic cystitis, aka he is male, neutered, pedigree, indoor, multi-cat household and overweight. Plus, prone to stress. Sent home with Metacam. Metacam made him worse. He was nauseous and had diarrhoea. I stopped it and the visible blood in his urine stopped after 5 days.
2 months later, he was in the litter box and as if something startled him, he jumped out and left a trail of pink urine on the floor. Vets again, Metacam and so on. I kept telling the vet that he is not in any pain but she didn’t believe me. We followed her advice, used more Feliway diffusers, switched him to urinary food, wet only, got 2 more litter boxes (both cats still use the same one), started him on Cystease capsules.
3 months later, tinted urine again. Phoned the vets and said I don’t want Metacam again, I want investigations. So I took him in and they did an x-ray, an ultrasound and a full urinalysis of sterile urine (from cystocentesis). When I went to pick him up, the vet said there was nothing out of the ordinary that came up in any of the examinations, except his urine was dilute. Being completely ignorant at that point, I said “Isn’t that a good thing?” and the vet said yes, it might be because he’s on wet food and because urinary food aims to make the urine more dilute to help with bladder issues. 2 days later when the laboratory analysis results came back, the vet phoned me and said again no concerning findings, no protein in his urine, no bacteria, no crystals. But the urine was found to be dilute so she suggested to bring him back in for a blood test. She said because he gets so stressed, it’s perfectly fine to give him time to recover from last vet visit and bring him in some time in the next couple of months. She reassured me that it’s unlikely to be kidney disease because he’d have other symptoms. She didn’t give me any specific numbers for his results and I beat myself up for not asking.
(If you’re still reading, you’re a hero and thank you from the bottom of my heart)
Of course I committed the cardinal sin and Googled “cat dilute urine” and now I’m paralysed with fear. First of all, apart from bloody urine, he has no other symptoms of cystitis. No pain, no frequent urination, no straining to urinate (as far as I can see at least). And wouldn’t the ultrasound show thickened bladder wall if this was cystitis? Especially since the tests were done while he was presenting with blood in his urine? On the other hand, if he had lost his ability to concentrate urine, wouldn’t he be dehydrated and drinking and peeing more? I have noticed neither of these signs. If anything, since switching him to wet food exclusively, I have never seen him drinking and the water bowls barely have any water missing at the end of each day. And while I’m at work 9 hours a day, I spend a couple of hours at home before work and 6 hours after I come back and before I go to bed, and during these times he consistently visits his box twice: one in the morning for number 1 and one in the evening for a 2 and presumably an 1. I know that the blood tests will give us a better idea, but I read that they are not accurate until most of the kidney function is lost. So I fear I’m looking at months and months of uncertainty without a definitive diagnosis.
Being fully aware that without specific numbers, you can’t give me any valuable insight, I would appreciate any opinions on this. Even if just to prepare me for what might be coming. Or inform me on what to ask for/talk about during the next vet visit.
Thank you so much and obligatory sorry for the long post.
Apollo says hi too!
