- Joined
- Jul 31, 2014
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- 11
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I am rather flummoxed by a set of seemingly disparate illnesses of my cat. He just turned five and was perfectly healthy until last December. His urethra blocked three times in a single week with no history of urinary issues. At the end of the week it was a choice to put him through pu surgery (which is pretty major surgery where they alter the male urethra to resemble the shorter, more open female urethra) or to let him go...letting go was not an option so $3K later he was starved but home and on the mend.
It is now seven months later and he has the same symptoms...cannot seem to urinate, excessive licking...but the chances of him reblocking are crazy rare so I think maybe its just a uti...they often get chronic uti's after pu surgery...so back to the vet where they sedate and get a urine sample...they say its a uti and send him home with antibiotics...he gets better within days and all seems well until they call to tell me the urine culture is back and he has a highly resistant strain of staph infection in his bladder...
After researching I have realized it is highly, highly rare for this strain to be in the bladder and to top it off they say he appears to have signs of liver and kidney failure...clearly my hope for a simple uti was for naught...they changed his antibiotic and now he is not urinating and has massive diarrhea plus is barely eating so I have stopped the antibiotics. The vets have yelled at me and told me I'm basically killing him because this bacterial staph is highly aggressive but I can't rationalize leaving him on meds when they are making him sicker. If he has kidney damage (as they are saying) won't a lack or urination make this worse?
I keep trying to rationalize a perfectly healthy cat blocking three times in a week resulting in surgery and then months later getting a super rare type of infection and oh, by the way, there is kidney failure that was previously fine (I say this based on his lab results from the time of the surgery 7 months prior).
I know much of this is fear ...terror really...I was so near losing him months ago and to watch him fight back and be finally okay only to have this new challenge seems so unfair to him...
Has anyone experienced or heard of anything like this...to this degree?
I've found cases of pu surgery...and of chronic uti...and of kidney failure...but not all this severe and combined so I'm at a loss as to what to expect or how to help him...he has none of the symptoms of kidney failure except for the lab results and I'm clueless how he got this rare staph in his bladder...
Any ideas/help/advice/hugs would be greatly appreciated!
It is now seven months later and he has the same symptoms...cannot seem to urinate, excessive licking...but the chances of him reblocking are crazy rare so I think maybe its just a uti...they often get chronic uti's after pu surgery...so back to the vet where they sedate and get a urine sample...they say its a uti and send him home with antibiotics...he gets better within days and all seems well until they call to tell me the urine culture is back and he has a highly resistant strain of staph infection in his bladder...
After researching I have realized it is highly, highly rare for this strain to be in the bladder and to top it off they say he appears to have signs of liver and kidney failure...clearly my hope for a simple uti was for naught...they changed his antibiotic and now he is not urinating and has massive diarrhea plus is barely eating so I have stopped the antibiotics. The vets have yelled at me and told me I'm basically killing him because this bacterial staph is highly aggressive but I can't rationalize leaving him on meds when they are making him sicker. If he has kidney damage (as they are saying) won't a lack or urination make this worse?
I keep trying to rationalize a perfectly healthy cat blocking three times in a week resulting in surgery and then months later getting a super rare type of infection and oh, by the way, there is kidney failure that was previously fine (I say this based on his lab results from the time of the surgery 7 months prior).
I know much of this is fear ...terror really...I was so near losing him months ago and to watch him fight back and be finally okay only to have this new challenge seems so unfair to him...
Has anyone experienced or heard of anything like this...to this degree?
I've found cases of pu surgery...and of chronic uti...and of kidney failure...but not all this severe and combined so I'm at a loss as to what to expect or how to help him...he has none of the symptoms of kidney failure except for the lab results and I'm clueless how he got this rare staph in his bladder...
Any ideas/help/advice/hugs would be greatly appreciated!