Urgent blocked male cat dilemma, please help

shadowsrescue

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It is very very unusual for a cat to block again. My cat had some difficult circumstances that led to him blocking again. The new urethral opening was working just fine. My boy was having spasms and then there was lots of inflammation.

The original blockage is because of the too narrow opening. When the wider opening is made, urine will flow easily out of the opening. My cat had a different reason for the second blockage. He was given lots of medication to calm the inflammation. It has now been more than 2 years and he is doing great.
 

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F Fizzle52 You weren't selfish at all. The kitty probably would have blocked anyway but in true cat fashion would have hidden away to suffer unnoticed. No matter the outcome with you, he will have an easier time of it, where he gets love and vet care. As long as he has a private area to decompress and not be overstimulated, he should do well.
 

jefferd18

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Wait, a cat can get blocked again after they have the PU surgery?! So the blockage isn’t because of the build up of silt in the narrow opening, but the urethral spasms alone can cause an entire blockage even if the opening is now wider?! I just feel like he must have had a better life as a stray, maybe eating some grass and plants and roaming and feeling relaxed rather than confined. I really don’t want to remove his bits just because I was selfish and brought him home :(

Okay, first of all, he would not have been better off left as a stray. His quality of life would have been very poor because of injuries he suffered from fights, dogs and other predators that he would have to dodge on a daily basis, mean people, cars, not to mention diseases.
Most feral cats have a life expectancy of two years-at best.

You don't know that it you who is stressing him. He could very well have a low stress threshold and would have gotten just as stressed- out even if he had been left outdoors.

I have never heard of a cat who re-blocked after that surgery. It may very well happen but I am sure that those who do re-block are in the very small minority.

Have you brought up the muscle relaxer to your vet?
 
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Fizzle52

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Okay, first of all, he would not have been better off left as a stray. His quality of life would have been very poor because of injuries he suffered from fights, dogs and other predators that he would have to dodge on a daily basis, mean people, cars, not to mention diseases.
Most feral cats have a life expectancy of two years-at best.

You don't know that it you who is stressing him. He could very well have a low stress threshold and would have gotten just as stressed- out even if he had been left outdoors.

I have never heard of a cat who re-blocked after that surgery. It may very well happen but I am sure that those who do re-block are in the very small minority.

Have you brought up the muscle relaxer to your vet?
Yes he’s on prazosin, valium and prednisolone, along with buprenorphine, antibiotics and zylkene. Still not peeing great... Thanks for the reassurance. I’m hoping to try one last thing: a makeshift cat ladder so he can exit the apartment from the balcony and come and go as he pleases, in hopes that it’ll help him feel less confined.
 

jefferd18

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Yes he’s on prazosin, valium and prednisolone, along with buprenorphine, antibiotics and zylkene. Still not peeing great... Thanks for the reassurance. I’m hoping to try one last thing: a makeshift cat ladder so he can exit the apartment from the balcony and come and go as he pleases, in hopes that it’ll help him feel less confined.

May I please suggest something else? I honestly don't think it is confinement that he is finding so stressful- cats really do okay with small spaces. That is why they are perfect for apartments.

May I please suggest something else?
I do believe that he will become tremendously less stress and more relaxed after he gets neutered. I had two male cats who were a little over a year and they were bouncing off the walls because they were not fixed. They could smell the scent of a unfixed female cat and they could hear her cries and it really upset both of them. If you could measure a cat's stress level, I'm sure theirs was off the charts.
 

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jefferd18 jefferd18 - you are absolutely right! Until those hormones are in check, he will wander far & risk terrible attack from older, alpha toms who could pass on serious disease through deep bites. The life of unfixed outdoor kitties is about as rugged as it gets and my heart breaks for them.
 
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Fizzle52

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jefferd18 jefferd18 - you are absolutely right! Until those hormones are in check, he will wander far & risk terrible attack from older, alpha toms who could pass on serious disease through deep bites. The life of unfixed outdoor kitties is about as rugged as it gets and my heart breaks for them.
I was thinking that too! And I want to discuss neutering him with my vet. She was telling me that if we did the PU, they would neuter him at the same time, but I really do want to try neutering first (as it’s a much more routinely done, less risky and overall safer procedure) before resorting to PU. But I also did read that neutered cats are more at risk of developing cystitis... what do you guys think?
 

jefferd18

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I was thinking that too! And I want to discuss neutering him with my vet. She was telling me that if we did the PU, they would neuter him at the same time, but I really do want to try neutering first (as it’s a much more routinely done, less risky and overall safer procedure) before resorting to PU. But I also did read that neutered cats are more at risk of developing cystitis... what do you guys think?

Neutered cats are more at a risk for developing cystitis then their unfixed brothers but I don't know if the percentage is high enough to worry about.
Also that is more likely to happen if the cat is neutered too young, (like four months and younger) so your cat is safe in that regard.
And honestly, he is constantly getting blocked now, so what do you have to lose?
 

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I also don't know if the percentage difference is enough to worry about. This is only my experience, but I have had two outdoor ferals die from blockages. Both were untrappable no matter what even once I knew what was happening and it was awful. However, my point is one was already TNRed, in fact for several years, and one was not. The one who was not neutered actually died first and was the younger cat.
 

jefferd18

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I also don't know if the percentage difference is enough to worry about. This is only my experience, but I have had two outdoor ferals die from blockages. Both were untrappable no matter what even once I knew what was happening and it was awful. However, my point is one was already TNRed, in fact for several years, and one was not. The one who was not neutered actually died first and was the younger cat.
I am so sorry fionasmom fionasmom .

Had a similar experience last year. Somebody from Hoods came across a dying two month old male kitten who was lying on his side in the parking-lot. She rushed him to the Vet and that person did everything they could but they just couldn't save him. He died from being blocked and who knows how long he had been lying there in pain. It broke the hearts of everyone involved.

As you might know, Hoods is the place I was trapping cats and I was setting my sights on this little guy and his litter mates but I wasn't fast enough to save him. If I could do it over he would have been the first one on my list. Oh that 20/20 hindsight.
 

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fionasmom fionasmom and jefferd18 jefferd18 - I am so sorry that your little charges had to die like that. Outside, they are forced to drink contaminated water. I have had only one cat that had that happen & he was easily unblocked; we had moved into town and I had been letting him drink tap water. Coincidentally, I began having kidney issues & my old-school urologist told me to drink only well water or filtered water, not tap and not water bottled in plastic. Both the cat and I cleared up and any further UTI symptoms quickly abated with marshmallow root.
 

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10 months? Jesus... did he have to be catheterised each time? I switched vet because they were pressuring me to do the surgery but now even the second one is making me feel like I'm not doing the right thing by refusing surgery. I just feel like it's ethically not right, especially when there isn't a structural problem, and it's all caused by stress which has been brought on by me taking him in.
Totally agreed.
 

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fionasmom fionasmom and jefferd18 jefferd18 - I am so sorry that your little charges had to die like that. Outside, they are forced to drink contaminated water. I have had only one cat that had that happen & he was easily unblocked; we had moved into town and I had been letting him drink tap water. Coincidentally, I began having kidney issues & my old-school urologist told me to drink only well water or filtered water, not tap and not water bottled in plastic. Both the cat and I cleared up and any further UTI symptoms quickly abated with marshmallow root.
Honestly, I don’t trust ”provided” by any city. I’ve been to the web page of our city’s water dept and read the list of “ACCEPTABLE LEVELS OF WHAT THE BLOODY HECK IS THAT?” I know what some of it is. And a lot of it I don’t. I’ll take my chances with my well water. The “recycled potty water” that the city provides for watering the lawns terrifies me. People use it in their veggie gardens We have a reverse osmosis system that I use for my critters’ water.
 

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Yes he’s on prazosin, valium and prednisolone, along with buprenorphine, antibiotics and zylkene. Still not peeing great... Thanks for the reassurance. I’m hoping to try one last thing: a makeshift cat ladder so he can exit the apartment from the balcony and come and go as he pleases, in hopes that it’ll help him feel less confined.
Just so you know, it’s my humble opinion that to let him out while he’s still having this issue is still a very real risk of him getting blocked while he is out and not making it back to you. If they block, the toxins build up very quickly and if he ends up in a life threatening situation while he is out, it could end up all bad for him. Here is something to consider. I understand you’re trying your best for him but letting him make these decisions while he is still full of hormones and is not quite acclimated to his new home instead necessarily in his best interest. How is he doing today? The meds will take time to undo the trauma In his nether regions. How is the zylkene working for him?
Urinary Gold - for Canine Urinary Tract Health
 

Xena44

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Just so you know, it’s my humble opinion that to let him out while he’s still having this issue is still a very real risk of him getting blocked while he is out and not making it back to you. If they block, the toxins build up very quickly and if he ends up in a life threatening situation while he is out, it could end up all bad for him. Here is something to consider. I understand you’re trying your best for him but letting him make these decisions while he is still full of hormones and is not quite acclimated to his new home instead necessarily in his best interest. How is he doing today? The meds will take time to undo the trauma In his nether regions. How is the zylkene working for him?
Urinary Gold - for Canine Urinary Tract Health
The feline and canine urinary gold remedy is the same.
 
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Fizzle52

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Just so you know, it’s my humble opinion that to let him out while he’s still having this issue is still a very real risk of him getting blocked while he is out and not making it back to you. If they block, the toxins build up very quickly and if he ends up in a life threatening situation while he is out, it could end up all bad for him. Here is something to consider. I understand you’re trying your best for him but letting him make these decisions while he is still full of hormones and is not quite acclimated to his new home instead necessarily in his best interest. How is he doing today? The meds will take time to undo the trauma In his nether regions. How is the zylkene working for him?
Urinary Gold - for Canine Urinary Tract Health
I know what you mean... I've scheduled an appointment with the vet this weekend to have him neutered (if she thinks it's advisable, after consultation). I figure that there's just not much else we can do, barring PU surgery, and either we neuter him and he loses the urge to roam, which might make him less stressed, or else he continues wanting to go out and neutering will help him be safer anyway. He's still not peeing well, despite being on zylkene, prazosin, buprenorphine, and just now, prednisolone and diazepam (valium). I'm really hoping the diazepam does something to relax his spasms.

I took him in to express his bladder last night, and he could pee a proper stream (even though it was thin and small). So there isn't a physical blockage, but I guess his spasms are just so strong that they can cause blockages in and of itself?! It's so frustrating. He's on Uromaxx, I'm waiting on some Cystease tablets that won't get here til a week later, and I have the Feliway diffuser on. Will try Urinary Gold if neither of these work.

It's all just draining me, emotionally and financially – the helpful admin staff at the vet reached out to a senior vet they knew who said she was willing to help me do the PU surgery for half price. She's had some experience and has done it before, but she's ultimately not a specialist. It's the extent of what I can afford (and even then, barely), but then I really feel so horrible about not giving him the best shot with a proper specialist, and the surgery itself isn't even really an end to our problems if it's his spasms that are causing it, and not crystals or actual obstructions. I just want to explore all options before I resort to that, but it's an impossible situation because if the confinement is making him stressed, the solution is to let him out, but if I let him out, I won't be able to check on him, and I don't want him to die alone in this kind of pain.
 
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Fizzle52

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I also don't know if the percentage difference is enough to worry about. This is only my experience, but I have had two outdoor ferals die from blockages. Both were untrappable no matter what even once I knew what was happening and it was awful. However, my point is one was already TNRed, in fact for several years, and one was not. The one who was not neutered actually died first and was the younger cat.
I'm so sorry... that's horrible. I tend to have the impression that cats sort themselves out and do the "natural thing" when they're out on their own terms, but I guess it's just because we don't see all the horrible ways in which they can just contract a problem for no reason and die. I feel so sad for all of them.
 

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You are doing a superb job of lining up options. Urethral spasms can be so baffling. He certainly is on a lot of meds. Is there anyway that a teaching hospital like UC Davis or Tufts might be willing to give an opinion for a nominal price?
 

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I am so sorry fionasmom fionasmom .

Had a similar experience last year. Somebody from Hoods came across a dying two month old male kitten who was lying on his side in the parking-lot. She rushed him to the Vet and that person did everything they could but they just couldn't save him. He died from being blocked and who knows how long he had been lying there in pain. It broke the hearts of everyone involved.

As you might know, Hoods is the place I was trapping cats and I was setting my sights on this little guy and his litter mates but I wasn't fast enough to save him. If I could do it over he would have been the first one on my list. Oh that 20/20 hindsight.
I’m so sorry. That’s a heavy burden to carry. Folks typically say that you did your best. And then thank you for all you do. I know. Very cliche’. But ya know what? You did and do your best. And thank you for all you do. You really do make a difference. Peace sister.
 
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