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- Sep 28, 2023
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My 4-year-old cat Max was our perfect boy. We called him our love bug. He greeted us everyday when we got home from work, he hardly left my fiance’s side, and he used to sleep with us every night. All until he had his first urinary blockage a year ago.
We spent pretty much all of August 2022 in and out of multiple veterinary hospitals. Our first vet was negligent (long story) and sent Max home when he first took him and didn’t warn us of the potential and inevitable lethal dangers of urinary blockages in cats. We got a second opinion at a different vet, but they sent him to an emergency veterinary hospital with urologists available. The choice was either put him down or get Perineal Urethrostomy surgery. We couldn’t bring ourselves to put him down because we loved Max so much and we felt that he would never have gotten so bad if our first vet realized how serious his condition was.
It was touch and go for a while, but Max finally came home after almost a month in the hospital. Max did really well for the first six months after surgery. He was his normal self. But he got a UTI after six months, which did clear, but he hasn’t been the same since. He has a very hard time using the litter box now. We’ve tried what we think is everything. We’ve eliminated all stressors: strange people coming over, no changes in the household, giving him plenty of outside time, and he has a couple of cat trees and plenty of toys to keep him stimulated when we’re not at home. And we got him everything the vet recommended: dietary food, Feliway pheromones, multiple litter boxes, a water fountain, and more. We tried the collar, but he wasn’t a fan. The vet also prescribed him some anxiety medication, but giving the medicine to him seemed to be giving him even more anxiety so we stopped doing that.
We went from calling Max our perfect little angel to our perfect little piss-ant (we use it as a term of endearment!). He goes through periods where he uses the litter box for 3-4 days straight, then he won’t use a litter box hardly at all for days or even weeks at a time. It’s becoming a huge problem and is a strain on my relationship. I’ve kept a journal trying to track his incidents, but I haven’t been able to find a pattern or trigger. Has anyone else had a cat have these kinds of issues after getting the PU surgery? Or does anyone have any advice to help cats use the litter box, other than what I’ve already tried? I’d appreciate any help!
We spent pretty much all of August 2022 in and out of multiple veterinary hospitals. Our first vet was negligent (long story) and sent Max home when he first took him and didn’t warn us of the potential and inevitable lethal dangers of urinary blockages in cats. We got a second opinion at a different vet, but they sent him to an emergency veterinary hospital with urologists available. The choice was either put him down or get Perineal Urethrostomy surgery. We couldn’t bring ourselves to put him down because we loved Max so much and we felt that he would never have gotten so bad if our first vet realized how serious his condition was.
It was touch and go for a while, but Max finally came home after almost a month in the hospital. Max did really well for the first six months after surgery. He was his normal self. But he got a UTI after six months, which did clear, but he hasn’t been the same since. He has a very hard time using the litter box now. We’ve tried what we think is everything. We’ve eliminated all stressors: strange people coming over, no changes in the household, giving him plenty of outside time, and he has a couple of cat trees and plenty of toys to keep him stimulated when we’re not at home. And we got him everything the vet recommended: dietary food, Feliway pheromones, multiple litter boxes, a water fountain, and more. We tried the collar, but he wasn’t a fan. The vet also prescribed him some anxiety medication, but giving the medicine to him seemed to be giving him even more anxiety so we stopped doing that.
We went from calling Max our perfect little angel to our perfect little piss-ant (we use it as a term of endearment!). He goes through periods where he uses the litter box for 3-4 days straight, then he won’t use a litter box hardly at all for days or even weeks at a time. It’s becoming a huge problem and is a strain on my relationship. I’ve kept a journal trying to track his incidents, but I haven’t been able to find a pattern or trigger. Has anyone else had a cat have these kinds of issues after getting the PU surgery? Or does anyone have any advice to help cats use the litter box, other than what I’ve already tried? I’d appreciate any help!