Urinary tract blocked for the second time in two weeks

[downton ali]

Hi, my 5-year-old cat is at the vet now. His urinary tract is blocked for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. The first time I went to an emergency hospital, however this time my vet squeezed him in as an emergency. The vet couldn't get a catheter all the way into his bladder, because the opening in his urethra is too tiny. My cat (male and neutered) will have surgery tomorrow. The vet will try to widen the opening a bit to prevent future blockages, unless there's too much damage to it. I wonder whether removing his penis is what he means, which is alarming!! Does anyone have any experience with this?

Also, is Prazosin a good or bad medicine, per your experience? That's what the vet hospital sent him home with .

 

[iPappy]

Hi, my 5-year-old cat is at the vet now. His urinary tract is blocked for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. The first time I went to an emergency hospital, however this time my vet squeezed him in as an emergency. The vet couldn't get a catheter all the way into his bladder, because the opening in his urethra is too tiny. My cat (male and neutered) will have surgery tomorrow. The vet will try to widen the opening a bit to prevent future blockages, unless there's too much damage to it. I wonder whether removing his penis is what he means, which is alarming!! Does anyone have any experience with this?

Also, is Prazosin a good or bad medicine, per your experience? That's what the vet hospital sent him home with .

I don't have any suggestions on Prazosin, or the possible outcome of the surgery, but I wanted you to know I hope his surgery goes well and he's back home soon. Does he prefer dry, or wet food?

 

[downton ali]

Thanks very much. He prefers wet food by far, however he now eats both wet and dry as he hates the wet urinary food out there (Hills specifically). Before that I fed him Instinct and Weruva wet food.

 

[fionasmom]

Prazosin is a bladder relaxer which I have used in a female cat with FIC, but not with a bladder obstruction. I was very happy with it and a compounded chicken flavored formula was amazingly easy to administer, but I don't see it being curative in the case of an emergency.

What is going on now?

 

[downton ali]

The emergency vet unblocked him 2 weeks ago and sent him home with Prazosin and Gapapentin. I saw someone make a negative comment about Prazosin somewhere and asked about it as a precautionary measure.

My guy is coming home today, and his urethra (?) is wider, however he's not sure whether his bladder is too damaged (may have lost his flexibility, but he's fairly confident it will be all right).

 

[fionasmom]

I was very happy with Prazosin, but that is only my opinion and certainly there can be reactions to medications. It is a blood vessel relaxant, not exactly a urinary tract medication, and the side effects have to do with low blood pressure like weakness or dizziness. It can cause gastro side effects, such as constipation, but I used it with a cat who is on life long treatment for constipation and it did not cause anything to become worse.

Let us know how your boy is doing as he recovers.

 

[downton ali]

Thanks for the info. He is home and very agitated. He seem to need a lot more care than seems reasonable.

More urgently, his bladder looks oversize. he looks enormous, I'm taking him back to very shortly. I'm worried his bladder isn't working at all.

 

[fionasmom]

You are right to take him back if you have any suspicions about the bladder as this can turn serious so quickly.

What did you find out?

 

[downton ali]

That was my main concern too. It turns out that it was gas. The vet checked his bladder and found that it wasn't swollen. He gave Luigi some fluids as he was dehydrated.

He is making small trips to the bathroom, but no poo's yet. I also added some fiber to his wet food to help things along. It must be painful for him to go after having PU surgery.

Luigi is sleeping now (thanks Gabapentin!) and I'm relieved and believe the vet took my concerns seriously.

Thank you for your note. it's a relief to have other cat lovers to talk to about this.

 

[fionasmom]

That is a relief! He is probably in discomfort from the PU surgery, so continue to monitor him and stay in touch with your vet as needed. If he is not eating a lot, there may be a lag with poop.

Let us know how Luigi does!

 

[downton ali]

There are ups and downs for sure, however the past 12 hours have been mostly (wonderfully) quiet. We've both finally gotten some decent sleep. He's pooped a few times, thankfully, though he still has some gas.

I do wish I had been prepared for the level of care he would require upon discharge. I would've set-up my room by lining everything with old sheets or towels and made sure I had a large cage ready for him. I've been cleaning up a lot of blood, poop and litter from my rug, my furniture, my bedding and from all over him!

What really helped Luigi relax was adding another dose of gabapentin to the routine. He is much calmer, he tolerates the cone much better, his wound is drying up, and he even lets me put a warm compress on his bum! I hope the past several hours is a sign of things to come and that he recovers well from this point on!

 

[fionasmom]

I am glad to hear that Luigi is comfortable and appears to be healing. It would have been helpful if someone had a talk with you about home care. It is hard to tell why this happens...to the vet staff this is routine, so they misjudge that it won't be for the owner? No one thought to do it? You seem to be on top of things to them, so they figured it was not necessary?

 

[downton ali]

The vet spoke to me about how to care for him, however I wasn’t expecting him to be in such bad shape.

Luigi is a wild child, and I now know that the vet thought he’d do better at home. He said he normally keeps cats in the hospital for 3 days after this surgery. But because he has to sedate Lou each time he wants to examine him (he’s “fractious”), he thought he’d do better with me.


I’m now using the trazadole the vet gave me once a day, otherwise Luigi will constantly try to remove his cone and lick the sutures. It’s been draining however if I can prevent him from licking and therefore facilitating scar tissue it will be a win for him.

i just want him to be well and for this to work. He’s a good cat with a challenging start in life and a tough temperament, but I love him madly and want him to go on to live his best kitty life ever.

 

[Jim1960]

YES. My cat had the same problem. You have a choice to make because it will continue to happen. Have your cat put down or have PU surgery. PU surgery cost around $2000 at K-State in Kansas, but so far it helped my cat. Its going on 3 years now and my cat is doing good. Pees a lot but hanging in there. PU surgery is cutting of most the the cats penis making the opening larger.

 

[Jim1960]

Hi, my 5-year-old cat is at the vet now. His urinary tract is blocked for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. The first time I went to an emergency hospital, however this time my vet squeezed him in as an emergency. The vet couldn't get a catheter all the way into his bladder, because the opening in his urethra is too tiny. My cat (male and neutered) will have surgery tomorrow. The vet will try to widen the opening a bit to prevent future blockages, unless there's too much damage to it. I wonder whether removing his penis is what he means, which is alarming!! Does anyone have any experience with this?

Also, is Prazosin a good or bad medicine, per your experience? That's what the vet hospital sent him home with .

 

[Jim1960]

YES. My cat had the same problem. You have a choice to make because it will continue to happen. Have your cat put down or have PU surgery. PU surgery cost around $2000 at K-State in Kansas, but so far it helped my cat. Its going on 3 years now and my cat is doing good. Pees a lot but hanging in there. PU surgery is cutting of most the the cats penis making the opening larger.

 

[downton ali]

It's encouraging to hear that your cat is now doing well for 3 years. How old is he? My guy just turned five. I'd hate to put him down with so much life to live.

 

[fionasmom]

Five is not that old. As for the "fractious" term, that must be the officially politically correct term for difficult cats as it is always applied to my flame point boy, Rikki, when he is at the vet. He was sent home with a condition which was no where as serious as Luigi's for the same reason; the vet did not want to sedate him every time he got near him.

It sounds like you are doing everything the right way for Luigi.

 

[sparkle801]

My kitty (age 2) had the same problem.....blocked and then blocked again a couple weeks later. They said if it happened again that they would have to cut off his penis or put him down. I started him on probiotic from theholistichorse.com and he went on to live 11 more years with no more problem. My chiropractor said it was good for people with bladder infections.so I took a chance it would work for my kitty's problem. You need to use one made for cats. It is a powder that you mix into their wet food ....or sprinkle on dry but wet is better. If you go to theholistichorse.com they have it listed under dogs, but it is for cats also. I tried others but he wouldn't eat the food......too strong a smell I guess. I give it to all my cats ever since. Saying a prayer for Luigi......and for you. It is very stressful. When one of my kitties has a problem I cannot concentrate on anything till he is better.

 

[reba]

I’ll just add my experience. My cat had blocked there times and then had PU surgery (over 7K here in upstate NY). It was a lot to put him through, especially given that he started blocking again and only survived about 18 months. From what I understand the research puts survival rates at about 2.5-3 years. I bottle fed him from 1 day old, he meant th world to me, but we couldn’t go a month without an infection or blocking. People here have different tolerances for the stress of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

He was terrible at the vet. They had to sedate him to even examine him. I think that was because he was in pain a lot, as well as the fact that these cats are typically anxious. He was only 7 years old. I wish things had turned out differently.