My poor 6 y.o female has had 7 UTI's in 8 months

[zendora]

Hello everyone, I'm brand new here and signed up to get some of your opinions about idiopathic cystitis in female cats.

My 6 year old Siamese mix had never had any health problems until last November. Whoops, better mention in advance: her sister and she are fed high-quality dry and wet food, given distilled water, and their humans spend tons of time building them wall ramps/perches and cat trees, and are played with constantly. We worship them, pretty much, my husband and I.

Now. Back in November poor Pandora started getting quite clingy, way more vocal, and blatantly wanted me to accompany her to the litterbox. She was straining, and I realized the urine contained blood - so off to the vet we go.

This is no easy feat for her; Pandora is EXTREMELY sensitive and likely to bite anyone outside of my husband and I in the BEST of circumstances...but thank God, our vet is amazing and patient and familiar with fractious kitty antics. We did antibiotics after no crystals were found and bacteria was assumed. Next month, the infection was back; the vet prescribed more antibiotics without seeing her to avoid stressing her out.

When it happened for the third time, I took her back to the vet. They found nothing and we got the diagnosis of IC. More meds, Metacam and Zenequin this time. One month later, the fourth infection: Zenequin prescribed. Fifth infection: Clavamox. Last month, Clavamox again.

Bringing us up to this morning, when I sat on my floor and sobbed when I noticed my poor kid licking herself again obsessively in between litterbox trips. I can not bear to see her so uncomfortable, and it is having a HUGE effect on her personality. She's just not the same jubilant, cuddly cat when she feels ill and mom has to wrangle pills down her throat twice a day on top of it.

I have an appointment first thing Monday morning at 9:15 am. They want to do more tests, and I'm assuming this time it'll be an ultrasound or possibly an x-ray? Even though I'm pretty low-income (my husband drives a cab, I train dogs at a doggy daycare), I will not give up throwing every last dime at this problem if it helps Pandora. Money isn't a real problem. The REAL problem is that I'm starting to feel like a monster for having to put her through all of this crap (why can't I suffer in her place? sigh), and I'm wondering if its even humane to keep her in this constant state of pain. She isn't playful because her bladder probably feels full, used to sprawl out in bed with us but is now way less cuddly, and stays glued to my side all day when she used to have quite an independent routine. Pilling her sends her storming off for the next hour or two. Its devastating to see these changes in my once spirited cat.

What I thought was a small, treatable problem is morphing in to a very serious disease for my sweetheart. I don't even know what her chances of recovery are; if there are none, I can't possibly keep her in this state of misery. I'm scared at the amount of drugs she's taken in the last 8 months, having taken virtually none before.

I'm hoping to hear your stories about recurring IC bouts; did they stop eventually? I'm doing absolutely everything I can and I feel like its dumb luck now as to whether or not she gets over it. Thank you for reading!

 

[nerdrock]

I haven't had this in a cat before, but one of my dogs would get a UTI every 2-4 months like clockwork. When we switched vets, they immediately wanted to do an xray and we found out she had bladder stones that needed to be surgically removed. Since her surgery, she has not had one UTI (knock on wood), it's been 8 months now.

If you haven't had a urine culture done on her, I would have that done tomorrow. It will tell your vet specifically what type of bacteria you're looking at and s/he can then provide the most effective antibiotic.

Do have her bladder xrayed - even if nothing is showing up in her urine indicating crystals or stones. There could be something else going on that you aren't aware of.

If she isn't drinking much, you can try adding a little bit of low sodium beef or chicken broth to her water to get her to drink more, or water down wet food for her. It's important that she drinks a lot to help flush out her system.

Hopefully you get this figured out tomorrow, having a sick pet is no fun.

 

[zendora]

Wow, I'm so glad they found out what was ailing your pup - and I do hope those awful infections stay away from now on for him.

I definitely offer her a can of watered-down wet food once a day in addition to her grain-free dry. She won't touch the dry if I try to moisten it (even with tuna water, surprisingly) nor will she drink any tampered-with water. Matter of fact, I have 5 water bowls in my apartment that I change at least four times a day to keep pleasantly cool and fresh - which did improve her intake! She was suddenly walking by a water bowl everywhere, and would just pull over for a sip.

I have to add - Leiki Kiki is drop-dead gorgeous and I think I may have squealed out loud when I saw the picture.

 

[ducman69]

A cat is more predisposed to urinary issues after experiencing an episode, hence a diet change is often suggested. Quality of the diet is not always the issue, as much as ensuring that it is low in heavy metals and phosphorous/magnesium. Some very high quality ultra-premium foods do not meet that requirement, especially fish flavor (which should be cut out entirely for cats w/ urinary issues IMO). In fact, most of the prescription food is what most would consider low quality, but its formulated for low ash/phos/mag and may also have an acidifier added to it, which helps dissolve crystals (assuming the urine was too alkaline which is more common). While I feed a quality mixed diet as well, I would recommend for now switching to a prescription wet only diet and nix the dry food altogether.

I agree on getting the Xray and urine culture, which don't be alarmed if they do with a syringe directly into the bladder. And the culture may show that it isn't a UTI at all, but rather cystitis. I forget the name of the medication, I believe it was something with an A, but its a anti-anxiety medication that is sometimes helpful dealing with that. There was another here on the forum though BTW where the Xray turned up nothing, but there was actually a crystal stuck in the bladder causing irritation, which was only found by exploratory surgery.

There is nothing more stressful than piling a cat IMO, and it puts them off their mood and as we all know stress is best avoided in cats. Instead, I would recommend coating the pill in butter and doing a quick pop in, or even better yet grabbing some chicken pill pockets from the manufacturers of Greenies. Unless the pill is unusually large or the kitty is very finicky gentle nibbler, they should nom down the whole thing and in fact look forward to it as its very tasty.

Also, not a big issue either way, but distilled water isn't really healthier than regular filtered water. The ions certainly aren't bad and, unlike people, cats get no other fluoride supplementation so the very low levels in most country's tap water can help dental health which the Siamese as a breed can definitely benefit from.

 

[zendora]

I used to be a vet assistant and am very familiar with the testing procedures, and realize that they'll probably stick her. Daw! My vet assisting career lasted six months...until a border collie died in my arms when I opened the clinic one morning to check patients. I quit that day to move on to dog training (ten years and I love it, woo!).

Your information on food is very helpful and I'll take a bunch of questions to the vet and see if a veterinary diet is in order. I'm a little curious how I'll feed two different foods at once to both cats, but I suppose a feeding time can be implemented instead of free feeding.

The bottled water was suggested by my vet, in an attempt to avoid any bacteria that could be present. As for her teeth, they are brushed regularly and she does get dental check ups. I hear what you're saying about fluoride, but I'll ask the doc what she thinks.

Hide the pill in butter? Hee hee, all that will get me is a "yeah...right" stare. She knows what I'm holding and I've tried a LOT of different hidey methods. I'm a dog trainer by profession and very in tune with behaviorism (this cat in question used to perform in a cat circus with me as her trainer/handler and is whip smart), and I've exhausted all ways of "tricking" her into taking a pill. She sees something once and remembers it in detail, so repeating any method has failed. For now, I've found that the best approach for her is to just DO it and play immediately afterwards. At times I can get a half-hearted swing at a ribbon outta her, and she generally relaxes faster if distracted with fun.

But yeah, definitely thank you so much for taking the time to write, I really appreciate all of your ideas.

Oh - what are your thoughts on Feliway? Is that something I should be looking in to, or is it moot when dealing with these kinds of health issues?

 

[nerdrock]

Also remember that any fruits and veggies that are fed will make the PH alkaline, check the food bag - a lot of grain free foods still contain a fair amount of fruits and veggies.

Thanks for the comments about Leiki - everyone comments on her

We even have people stop at our apartment window when she's in it and talk to her, lol.

 

[auntie crazy]

Hi, Zendora. Welcome to TCS!

With cats who are prone to UTI issues, dropping kibble from their diet is almost mandatory (it would be healthier for both cats to be on a wet diet, anyway). You can find some good info on this here: catinfo.org=urinarytracthealth.

I absolutely agree about getting a culture and, frankly, I'm surprised your vet didn't do so after the first two or three bouts. If you don't know which infection you're fighting, you can throw antibiotics at it all day long and have barely any effect at all.

Feliway reduces stress levels and it's clear your little sweetie is in pain and stressed. I think it certainly couldn't hurt and may help her at least feel calmer. You'll need one plugin per average-sized room (amazon.com has a sale on multiple-pack purchases).

I hope your vet finds the source of these issues and corrects them ASAP!!! <<<Hugs>>> for everything you and your kitty are going through.

AC