Our cat Larry is blocked

[Sterling]

He's been at the vets since Saturday for a blockage. Hubby noticed he was not pee-peeing normally (he does the litterbox) and for me he wasn't eating. So I called the vet and took him in and his kidney was enlarged. Two years ago he was diagnosed with kidney disease and his numbers were high. He was put on antibiotics and sub-Q fluids for a few weeks and he was good to go. This time he's blocked. Right now they've had a catheter on him, took it off of him Tuesday, he still would not pee-pee normally and they put it back on him yesterday. In our conversations with the vet he has talked about a surgery (forget what it's called) where they change the male cat into a female. Re-route the plumming in other words. Larry is an 11 year old, neutered, male cat. Have any of you here had any experiences with blockage in your cats. Has anyone ever had the surgery done? If so I would love to hear about it. Right now we don't know what the prognosis is. We're kind of up in the air until I talk to the vet today.

 

[Maxi'sMinis]

I have seen this in many neutered male cats. It can become a chronic problem. At 11 your boy still has many years left and could do quite well with the surgery. My understanding is that the surgery called perineal urethrostomy, is the removal of the tip of the penis (urethra). This allows the obstructive particles to pass freely. It is a very common surgery. I have had 2 cats that had chronic cystitis. I feed these cats the specially formulated urinary cat foods produced by many companies and it resolved the problem. I have also found that many cheap cat foods can add to the problem, I think it is the ash content of the food. I know that if I avoided those feeds I didn't have the issues with my boys. Hope that helps.

 

[Miniv]

We had a male neutered cat who developed crystals. He would cry every time he tried to urinate.

The vet did surgery and we changed his diet. I still buy the Purina special diet for urinary track problems, even though our fellow has now passed. He lived a good 5 years after the surgery and never had another problem......in that department.

Talk to your vet about changing your little guy's diet. There are also canned foods that would be better for him, as well as kibble.

 

[Hosscrazy]

I have no experience with this, but just letting you know that I'm sending good thoughts over your way for your Larry!

Liz R.

 

[REO]

You know I'm waiting along with you to hear about Larry.

I said crystals yesterday! I guess I knew more than I thought!

I didn't know that could happen to fixed boy kitties. The 11 yr old fixed boy kitty we had, we lost from being poisoned by that flea med stuff you put on them (bioSpot stuff)

I'm still praying for Larry!

 

[Sterling]

Thank you all for your input and well wishes. I spoke with the vet this evening. Seems like this is becoming a difficult thing. Each time they take the catheter off he goes right back to blocking. The vet wants to try a couple more days to see if he can get him to go on his own. I also found out tonight that he's on an IV too. He's a very picky eater and he even went off his food here at home before we took him in. They can't get him to eat moist or dry....they are offering him both but nothing doing.

 

[Holly at WhiteTailsMinis]

My dog who is not fixed did this. We wouldnt pee. He would stand there with his leg cocked and nothing. And the littlest drip that came out was brown. He wouldnt eat or drink. He was lethargic.

I took him to the vets and they flushed his bladder out and gave him some meds to dissolve the crystals.

The vet said it was caused by the diet. They put him on antibiotic and also told me to give him Cranberry tablets. You know the human ones for UTI's. Yep and it helped.

Maybe talk to your vet about the cranberry tablets also.

Hope and praying for your cat. It just breaks your heart to see your animals and children in such discomfort.

 

[Mona]

Oh no Cheyenne, I hope Larry will be OK! I have not even heard of such a surgery...pretty interesting stuff. We did have problems with our old neutered male cat...he got crystals in his urine a couple of times and would become blocked, but as long as I kept him on a low ash diet he was OK. He lived to be just 3 months less of 16 years. Sending hugs and best wishes for you and Larry.

 

[Crabby-Chicken]

Oh no Dunk. Hope Larry is doing better!!! Had to come and see if there were any updates.

 

[Jill]

Cheyenne --

I don't know if there are many similarities but in case there are and it's helpful -- Winston, our dog we lost a couple of years ago (my golden child, you probably know the story), had kidney / bladder stones. He had two surgeries for this about 2 years apart w/ the 2nd one being a couple years before we lost him (not to the same issue). What the surgeon had to do was open his bladder and remove the stones, as well as any that were in his urethra. He needed to be on a special diet (the type was determined based on analysis of the stones). The first surgery had to be done at a fancy emergency clinic and was around $6,000, but the second surgery, if I remember right, was about $1,400 and it was done at his regular vets w/ actually a MUCH easier recovery and just better experience all around.

Good luck with Larry. I know how upsetting it is to have a pet not feeling well.

Jill

PS the reason Winston's first surgery had to be at an emergency / higher level clinic was that there was a stone stuck in his urethra that the vet could not get out with the tools he had. When he was needing his 2nd surgery, we took him to another emergency place because (of course) he started having issues on Saturday night and our vet is closed on Sunday. He'd have been fine until Monday, but I was beside myself and wanted someone to look at him. The vet at that emergency place helped him some until surgery was done the following week but I do remember talking to him and he told me he had a cat of his own that he had needed to do this same surgery on 2 or 3 times.

In that first case with Winston, if the surgeon could not have gotten the stone out of his urethra, then he did mention that surgery that would let Winston pee like a girl... to be honest, when he needed the second surgery, I did wonder if that would have been the best to have done then since I think the hole to pee from is bigger and allows larger stones to pass (don't know this for sure, but it was one thing I kicked myself some wondering about).

 

[Sterling]

Jill....I do remember little Winston and the heartbreak when you lost him. Thank you for going into details about the surgeries he had....I know that must've been hard to relive again. ((Hugss))

My vet clinic is open on Saturday only till noontime, and thankfully even tho they aren't open past that and evenings, there is always someone there caring for the animals. So I left Larry there on Saturday (he's still there btw) because Doc told me I could do that or pay $1500.00 per day to take him to the ER. Last night when I spoke with Doc, he told me that Larry is having trouble still with the actual push reflex. I'm wondering if it's because the catheter has been doing all the work for him? But when he expressed him, a good stream did come out. He did finally eat for him yesterday so that is good news. I'm to call later on this morning to see if he can come home. If he does I'm sure he'll be coming home with plenty of meds I'm sure. My fear is that he'll get blocked again.

Holly thank you for the cranberry tabs idea. I will talk to Doc today about it.

Kimmie...thank you....I'm sorry I had not updated earlier. But I will let you all know when I find something out today.

Mona.....I'm a dog person but I love my kitties too. I've not much experience with cat issues, and altho I've "heard" things once you actually go thru one, it's a whole different ball game. Years ago my sister's mother-in-law had a cat they did that surgery on. And I'm not sure that the surgery will even keep them from reblocking afterwards...I may be wrong about that, maybe someone who knows this issue more can chime in? I know that I'll be putting him on a new diet. It will be a challenge because Doc is recommending wet food.....when I've tried it with him in the past he's vomited it up or won't touch it. So I go back to his favorite dry. It was either that or watching him starve I thought. But THIS time, he's going to have no choice...he's going to have to eat what the dr. recommends. It's for his own good.

 

[Minimor]

Our Himalayan Puddy got blocked the one year--he was 8 years old at the time. Initially the vet drained his bladder and then sent him home with the special food which was supposed to cure the problem. Puddy wouldn't eat the special food...we had a total of 4 trips to the vet to get his bladder drained--usually after hours calls, because he'd be good through the day, and then in the evening would start trying to pee & then couldn't & would start crying. Vet was annoyed with the late night calls, I was annoyed with the growing vet bill and by the fact that I kept telling them to do the surgery and they kept refusing. They (two young lady vets at the clinic we used) kept insisting that the surgery had side effects too, and shouldn't be done just willy - nilly.

Finally the one day I lost my temper and told them that either they were to do the surgery or put the cat to sleep. I pointed out that all they do is drain his bladder and insist that the special food will fix him up--only he won't eat the special food and so it cannot help him, plus he was getting very thin...so operate, or else. They did the surgery and he was perfectly fine after that. If they'd operated in the first place my bill would have been $300 instead of the $1000+ that it was!! I have not taken an animal to that clinic since, and will not as long as either one of those vets is running the place.

Sadly, Puddy lived only 6 months after that. He became ill with the dry form of FIP and had to be euthanized. In hindsight, I believe that it was FIP that caused him to start blocking up--FIP can cause that. Many cats that block up start doing it at a young age--and most times it is indoor cats that have the problem. Puddy, in spite of being a fancy Himalayan, was outdoors more than he was indoors--he loved being outside. Possibly the stress of the repeated blockages could have triggered the FIP to become active--another reason to support doing the surgery early, as the surgery would have been less traumatic than the repeated blockages were--but I truly believe it was the FIP that caused his problems in the first place, and at the time he first blocked up he was already on borrowed time.

So, in view of my experience with Puddy, if we ever have another cat that blocks up, I will insist on having the surgery done ASAP--I am not going to mess around with special foods and hoping they work, and I'm not paying for having a bladder drained--I will have the surgery done & be finished with it.

 

[Sterling]

Minimor.....thank you for sharing your experience. I feel the frustration you mentioned about going back and forth and no end to what ailed Puddy. That is kind of where we are today with Larry. Granted not as intense as this is Larry's first bout with blockage and his first trip to the vet for it, and having to stay there.

In talking to the vet he told me that Larry can become blocked again, and we'd have to do this all over. We picked him up yesterday late morning. He seemed in very good spirits and he evidently had become part of the office staff....lol.... I fed him last night his dinner and he didn't eat much. We brought home some wet cat food for him and I'll have to keep him on it for the rest of his life. I guess at this point we will be taking it one day at a time. For now we have Larry home...poor little boy has been thru a lot this week. Again I thank all of you for your good wishes and replies. Evidently this is not an uncommon occurance in males cats.

 

[Jill]

Cheyenne --

I am happy Larry is home!

Winston had to stay on a prescription diet, too. He liked it a lot at first (he normally didn't get canned food so then he liked it), but then it got harder and harder to get him to eat it and we'd spoon feed it to him and coax him. This was Hill's Prescription U/D for dogs. Then I found that Purina also has a line of prescription diets including one formulated to help prevent the type of stone that Winston got and they make a cat version. Just in case you want an alternative and want to look into it. Winston did prefer the Purina prescription version over the Hills. If Larry is on the Purina, he may like the Hills as a change, or vice versa. There may also be other prescription brands now of this sort of food.

http://www.purinaveterinarydiets.com/

http://www.hillspet.com/products/prescription-diet.html

Take care,

Jill

 

[Maxi'sMinis]

So glad that Larry is home and doing better. They didn't do the surgery? Treating this problem can be very stressful. With my 2 boys that have cystitis I varie their food. My cats wouldn't eat the vets diet. I have several brands of the urinary diets that you can get at Petco and change up for them often. I know its cheap food but Friskies Special Diet canned white ocean fish is their favorite. They eat it up. My one kitty was getting cystitis once a month the last time he was treated. I started him on the urinary diets and he has not had it since and been several years. I just make sure he gets his wet food daily and dry ad lib, it has made a huge difference. I have about 6 different diets I offer.Good luck with Larry I hope he stays clear, gets healthy and eats well.

 

[Hosscrazy]

I am so glad that Larry is home!!!!

Liz R.

 

[Sterling]

Thank you ladies. Larry's weekend went ok. He's not eating much so I'm watching him like a hawk. We're watching the litterbox and altho it's not little spots here and there of urine, it's better than it was before, but still not normal. I will be getting with the vet today to talk to him about that. I need to know how he was urinating for them on his own. Not too sure he's drinking plenty of water to build up the urine either. But he sure is not liking the wet food.

Thanks Jill....I'll look into those diets. I had given him Science Diet before, and he liked the cans ok...but then he stopped eating them and demanded his dry food again. Frustrating ....

 

[Mona]

Awww, it sounds like Larry is having a hard time of things, which in turn doesn't make it any easier for his "mommy". Hoping the best for Larry Cheyenne.

 

[Sterling]

Thank you Mona, I appreciate that...and so does Larry.

 

[Valerie]

ahhh....poor Larry....gosh Cheyenne, sure do feel for ya....hope it all turns around quickly.

I wish I had some better advice, got nothing, so sorry this happening to you guys.......just know I am thinking about you and hope you find a good diet for Larry that will help him out.