PU surgery and FIC

[RooneyBrown]

Hello! I am having trouble finding any first hand experience and am hoping someone has dealt with something similar!

background
- Rooney is male , 7 years old, 16lbs indoor cat
- in the house is also a 5 year old cat and 2 year old dog
-Rooney is a mean cat to every other person besides us

in December 2022 we noticed he was peeing outside of the box in small amounts. Didn’t seem to be in pain - at the time we thought he was doing it out of spite.He continued to squat around the house small amounts of pee which we then brought him to the ER and they said he was partially blocked. They expressed him at the vet and we were sent home.

added prescription wet food in addition to his normal dry food (at this time we didn’t know he had to be strictly on the prescription food)

march 2023 we noticed him doing the same thing - small pees around the house outside of the box. Took him to the ER he was fully blocked and had a catheter placed for 3 days

he is secluded in his own room with toys, litter box, water & perches and eating exclusively prescription food.

since December his pee stream has not been back to normal , he will make multiple multiple coin size pees instead of one large pee.

5/11/2023 we noticed he seems to be blocked. He spent 4 days at the er with catheter and fluids.

He is back home now and we have PU surgery scheduled for Monday but I am very anxious over going through with it. I believe he has FIC and the blockages are stress related since there were no crystals found. Will PU surgery help with stress induced flare ups? I would hate for him to go through the surgery if that’s not what he needs. Any advice is appreciated if you have dealt with FIC and PU surgery.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi, if you don't mind, may I asked a few questions?
This is too late probably, but is his regular vet a cat only vet? I'm wondering why, other than prescription food, they haven't tried to address anything more such as the possible stress factor.

Is he a large-framed big breed cat? If not, has the vet talked about having him lose weight?

I'm confused why you mentioned he's mean to everyone but your family. Most cats don't appreciate or like strangers so that doesn't seem strange to me.

at the time we thought he was doing it out of spite

I imagine that you know now that cats don't think/behave in this way.
What happened to change his world in December?

I'm not a vet, but my point in all of this is that if the situation that caused, and I'm assuming is still causing him such stress isn't better managed, even though you have him in his own room now I'm not convinced the surgery will take care of his kidney and bladder issues. He needs a more rounded, complete treatment plan IMHO.

 

[posiepurrs]

Stress can cause cystitis but needs to be treated before it gets this far. At this point if he doesn’t have the surgery he could die. My boy, Jack just had this surgery a couple of weeks ago. He was seen by the vet and catherized. I was told he was okay to come home after a few days only to have him totally block again- twice after the first time. One thing to remember, once he has the surgery there is a possibility of future urinary tract infections. Jack has one right now.

 

[RooneyBrown]

Hi, if you don't mind, may I asked a few questions?
This is too late probably, but is his regular vet a cat only vet? I'm wondering why, other than prescription food, they haven't tried to address anything more such as the possible stress factor.

Is he a large-framed big breed cat? If not, has the vet talked about having him lose weight?

I'm confused why you mentioned he's mean to everyone but your family. Most cats don't appreciate or like strangers so that doesn't seem strange to me.


I imagine that you know now that cats don't think/behave in this way.
What happened to change his world in December?

I'm not a vet, but my point in all of this is that if the situation that caused, and I'm assuming is still causing him such stress isn't better managed, even though you have him in his own room now I'm not convinced the surgery will take care of his kidney and bladder issues. He needs a more rounded, complete treatment plan IMHO.

Hello! his vet is not a cat specific vet. They did prescribe him gabapentin to help ease his anxiety and stress as well. When I said he’s mean I guess I should have said he is hard to examine at the vet. They can not do/check much for him unless he is sedated and just being at the vet stresses him out.

he is a bigger cat, the vet said to watch his weight but wasn't too concerned about it.

we can’t figure out what started this. In December we were traveling for the holidays and gone a couple days but that is normal for us and rooney has never reacted poorly to us traveling.

I completely understand what you are saying - my worry is he gets blocked again and has to go thru staying days at the ER again. My thinking is that with the PU surgery ,if/when he does have a stress flare up the new urethra will not get blocked as easy. In addition to managing his stress via gabapentin.

 

[RooneyBrown]

Stress can cause cystitis but needs to be treated before it gets this far. At this point if he doesn’t have the surgery he could die. My boy, Jack just had this surgery a couple of weeks ago. He was seen by the vet and catherized. I was told he was okay to come home after a few days only to have him totally block again- twice after the first time. One thing to remember, once he has the surgery there is a possibility of future urinary tract infections. Jack has one right now.

did Jack have any type of crystals when he blocked or was it stress related also? Did Jack have an easy recovery from the surgery? I have read that after PU surgery UTIs are more likely but I would rather treat a UTI with some antibiotics then go through him getting blocked again.

 

[downton ali]

Stress can cause cystitis but needs to be treated before it gets this far. At this point if he doesn’t have the surgery he could die. My boy, Jack just had this surgery a couple of weeks ago. He was seen by the vet and catherized. I was told he was okay to come home after a few days only to have him totally block again- twice after the first time. One thing to remember, once he has the surgery there is a possibility of future urinary tract infections. Jack has one right now.

My guy blocked twice in two weeks; however, he has a history of struvite crystals. His urinary opening was tiny and the vet thought the best chance for survival was PU surgery. I think we're about 6 weeks out from it, and he's healing wonderfully (after a rough go of it), however he now has urinary cystitis and a possible UTI. The urine culture looked clear, however the smell is pungent. The vet put him on medication to clear the infection and he's on anxiety meds (Amitriptyline) to help with stress.

Is the gabapentin a long term med for him?

We're here for you

 

[posiepurrs]

did Jack have any type of crystals when he blocked or was it stress related also? Did Jack have an easy recovery from the surgery? I have read that after PU surgery UTIs are more likely but I would rather treat a UTI with some antibiotics then go through him getting blocked again.

No crystals. I believe it is stress related. Our house has been a stressful place the last couple of years due to my husbands health problems and me stressing about everything. In addition to that Jack developed a seizure disorder of unknown origin so he is on 2 medications for that. Today we found out he is diabetic so that may have played a role.