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Male cat FLUTD UTI problems



 
 
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  #1  
Old March 2nd 10, 06:10 PM posted to alt.med.veterinary,alt.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.community,rec.pets.cats.health+behav
jamina1
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Posts: 21
Default Male cat FLUTD UTI problems

I have a male cat, neutered - probably about 3-5 years old. He's been
happy and healthy these 8 months that I have owned him, but suddenly
two weeks ago he started peeing much more frequently and then taking
forever at the box. I knew this was a UTI so I took him in.

Vet did urinalysis and determined that there were crystals in the
urine. Vet also gave me 10 days of Baytril to administer. Vet provided
24 cans of Royal Canin urine health food. My cat refused to touch the
stuff.

As a bit of a back story, cat has been eating holistic food the whole
time he's been with me - mainly Eagle Pack chicken dry kibble. I have
now switched to Wysong Uretic formula as of 2 weeks ago to hopefully
replace the prescribed food he will not eat.

The cat greatly improved with the antibiotics but the administration
of them was irregular. I'd come home from work and find that he had
spit out the morning pill sometime during the day, so I'm not sure
exactly how much of the 20 pills he kept down. I know that the last
3-4 days were 100% though because I got pill pockets.

2 days after the antibiotics are gone, symptoms reoccur and there is
blood in the urine. I go to emergency vet who performs blood work and
says its clean. They confirm crystals in urine and give him a shot of
antibiotics and painkiller. They give me painkillers to be given
orally for the next few days. Vet says that he thinks its just the
crystals causing issues and the diet change will fix it.

My problem is that I've already spent close to $600 on kitty and I
can't afford much more. He won't eat the prescribed food but is the
Wysong good for this problem? I don't want to have to go back to the
vet, I want this problem to go away without stressing the cat more
than he already is. I've heard Apple Cider Vinegar is good to acidify
the urine. I'm also giving cranberry powder with wet food once a day.
I have a stash of Doxycycline pills left over from a cat who passed
away recently - could I safely administer this to prevent further
infection?

My regular vet is sort of gung-ho on all sorts of procedures and is
extremely expensive. I took my cat in liver failure to him last year
and spent $800 for a day of care + euthanasia. You can see why I'm
worried about cost.
  #2  
Old March 2nd 10, 10:33 PM posted to alt.med.veterinary,alt.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.community,rec.pets.cats.health+behav
jmc
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 610
Default Male cat FLUTD UTI problems

Suddenly, without warning, jamina1 exclaimed (3/2/2010 12:10 PM):
I have a male cat, neutered - probably about 3-5 years old. He's been
happy and healthy these 8 months that I have owned him, but suddenly
two weeks ago he started peeing much more frequently and then taking
forever at the box. I knew this was a UTI so I took him in.

Vet did urinalysis and determined that there were crystals in the
urine. Vet also gave me 10 days of Baytril to administer. Vet provided
24 cans of Royal Canin urine health food. My cat refused to touch the
stuff.

As a bit of a back story, cat has been eating holistic food the whole
time he's been with me - mainly Eagle Pack chicken dry kibble. I have
now switched to Wysong Uretic formula as of 2 weeks ago to hopefully
replace the prescribed food he will not eat.

The cat greatly improved with the antibiotics but the administration
of them was irregular. I'd come home from work and find that he had
spit out the morning pill sometime during the day, so I'm not sure
exactly how much of the 20 pills he kept down. I know that the last
3-4 days were 100% though because I got pill pockets.

2 days after the antibiotics are gone, symptoms reoccur and there is
blood in the urine. I go to emergency vet who performs blood work and
says its clean. They confirm crystals in urine and give him a shot of
antibiotics and painkiller. They give me painkillers to be given
orally for the next few days. Vet says that he thinks its just the
crystals causing issues and the diet change will fix it.

My problem is that I've already spent close to $600 on kitty and I
can't afford much more. He won't eat the prescribed food but is the
Wysong good for this problem? I don't want to have to go back to the
vet, I want this problem to go away without stressing the cat more
than he already is. I've heard Apple Cider Vinegar is good to acidify
the urine. I'm also giving cranberry powder with wet food once a day.
I have a stash of Doxycycline pills left over from a cat who passed
away recently - could I safely administer this to prevent further
infection?

My regular vet is sort of gung-ho on all sorts of procedures and is
extremely expensive. I took my cat in liver failure to him last year
and spent $800 for a day of care + euthanasia. You can see why I'm
worried about cost.


Did your vet talk about convincing your cat to drink more water, and to
get him off of dry food? You need to do both. I've been fighting
Meep's cystitis (crystals) problem for years.

I've posted this many times, but in short this is what I do, and it's
been very successful:

1. Add water bowls all over the house. Monitor their use. Keep bowls
in places where he's drinking. Get a pet fountain, that helps a lot.

2. WET FOOD. Doesn't matter at first if it's good quality or bad, just
get him eating wet. May be a hard slog - took me FOUR YEARS to get Meep
100% on wet. Now we're working on getting her off the junk food and
eating higher quality stuff. Wellness Chicken and Herring is usually
acceptable. She's still getting a good bit of Fancy Feast though.

3. Glucosamine supplement - it coats the bladder. Cosequin is fine if
you can afford it, but with the blessing of my vet, I use a joint
supplement from Dr. Fosters and Smith instead. She has arthritis too,
so that works.

During times of high stress, like when we move, I've also had her on
Amitryptyline (sp) which works well to reduce her anxiety levels.

Get him off the dry food though. Meep continued to have cystitis
attacks even on the Royal Canin Urinary. A diet of 100% Fancy Feast
cans, and she's been Cystitis free for years now. One time I gave in
and tried adding dry - within a month she had another attack.

Good luck. Cystitis is so much more serious in male cats. If you
cannot control it, there is an operation that essentially turns him into
a girl. There's folks here who've had it done, and are better able to
speak to the effectiveness of that treatment.

jmc
  #3  
Old March 3rd 10, 12:51 AM posted to alt.med.veterinary,alt.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.community,rec.pets.cats.health+behav
jamina1
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 21
Default Male cat FLUTD UTI problems

Vet said pet fountain - both my cats drink copious amounts of water,
I'm not concerned about that by any means.

Wet food would be one hell of a slog - he won't touch the stuff.
Additionally I work all day and I hate leaving wet food down because
they won't eat it all and it dries out and its a waste. I work 9-5 and
I purchased an automatic feeder so I could feed them smaller portions
less often - can't do that with wet food. The boy with the urine
problems currently weighs 20 pounds. Needs to be closer to 10.

Royal Canin and Science diet are CRAP. I refuse to feed it to him. I
have to find a natural alternative - he needs meat, not chemically
processed stuff flavored to taste like meat. I know Wellness makes
urinary formula and I currently have him eating Wysong. I know the dry
isn't helping but he drinks plenty.

I'm going to try apple cider vinegar and cranberry supplement. I'll
try the glucosamine - I remember that I tried that with my girl cat
who had frequent problems, she just refused to eat the treats.

My parents had a cat that had a penilectomy, so I'm familiar with it.
I hope it doesn't get that far because I can't afford a surgery. And
it would be such a STUPID thing to lose a cat over something as
trivial as this, and not fair at all. Its almost a year to the day I
had to let Sylvanas go because of liver failure and I couldn't afford
to save her.
  #4  
Old March 3rd 10, 03:47 AM posted to alt.med.veterinary,alt.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.community,rec.pets.cats.health+behav
jmc
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 610
Default Male cat FLUTD UTI problems

Suddenly, without warning, jamina1 exclaimed (3/2/2010 6:51 PM):
Vet said pet fountain - both my cats drink copious amounts of water,
I'm not concerned about that by any means.

Wet food would be one hell of a slog - he won't touch the stuff.
Additionally I work all day and I hate leaving wet food down because
they won't eat it all and it dries out and its a waste. I work 9-5 and
I purchased an automatic feeder so I could feed them smaller portions
less often - can't do that with wet food. The boy with the urine
problems currently weighs 20 pounds. Needs to be closer to 10.

Royal Canin and Science diet are CRAP. I refuse to feed it to him. I
have to find a natural alternative - he needs meat, not chemically
processed stuff flavored to taste like meat. I know Wellness makes
urinary formula and I currently have him eating Wysong. I know the dry
isn't helping but he drinks plenty.

I'm going to try apple cider vinegar and cranberry supplement. I'll
try the glucosamine - I remember that I tried that with my girl cat
who had frequent problems, she just refused to eat the treats.

My parents had a cat that had a penilectomy, so I'm familiar with it.
I hope it doesn't get that far because I can't afford a surgery. And
it would be such a STUPID thing to lose a cat over something as
trivial as this, and not fair at all. Its almost a year to the day I
had to let Sylvanas go because of liver failure and I couldn't afford
to save her.


It was a hard slog going to wet for Meep as well, but necessary for her
continued health. Like I said it took close to four years to convince
her I wasn't going to give up. Adding a little water keeps the wet
stuff fresh for quite a while. I'm out of the house for 12 hours
(compressed sched) and I still manage to feed her wet. I was never able
to convince her to eat it when I set it down, so the added water keeps
it fresh enough for her to nibble throughout the day.

I have a two-meal feeder that has a tray for ice underneath, so if I
leave her overnight she can still get her wet food. It works well.
She's being fed a mix of brands, including Wellness, Max Cat and others.

It was not easy changing her diet, but for me and Meep, well worth the
effort. She's 14 now and very healthy for her age. Her coat went from
staring and flakey on the dry to shiny and soft.

The glucosamine I use for Meep is a liver-flavored powder, she loves it.

Good luck with your cat!

jmc
  #5  
Old March 3rd 10, 11:46 AM posted to alt.med.veterinary,alt.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.community,rec.pets.cats.health+behav
Stormmee
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 12,281
Default Male cat FLUTD UTI problems

agree with all of this except the wet food part, my cat had this in a
hidious way, never a symptom until after i started them on dry wellness, now
they are all on dry c/d and doing well... but that water bit is most
important, Soft
"jmc" wrote in message
...
Suddenly, without warning, jamina1 exclaimed (3/2/2010 12:10 PM):
I have a male cat, neutered - probably about 3-5 years old. He's been
happy and healthy these 8 months that I have owned him, but suddenly
two weeks ago he started peeing much more frequently and then taking
forever at the box. I knew this was a UTI so I took him in.

Vet did urinalysis and determined that there were crystals in the
urine. Vet also gave me 10 days of Baytril to administer. Vet provided
24 cans of Royal Canin urine health food. My cat refused to touch the
stuff.

As a bit of a back story, cat has been eating holistic food the whole
time he's been with me - mainly Eagle Pack chicken dry kibble. I have
now switched to Wysong Uretic formula as of 2 weeks ago to hopefully
replace the prescribed food he will not eat.

The cat greatly improved with the antibiotics but the administration
of them was irregular. I'd come home from work and find that he had
spit out the morning pill sometime during the day, so I'm not sure
exactly how much of the 20 pills he kept down. I know that the last
3-4 days were 100% though because I got pill pockets.

2 days after the antibiotics are gone, symptoms reoccur and there is
blood in the urine. I go to emergency vet who performs blood work and
says its clean. They confirm crystals in urine and give him a shot of
antibiotics and painkiller. They give me painkillers to be given
orally for the next few days. Vet says that he thinks its just the
crystals causing issues and the diet change will fix it.

My problem is that I've already spent close to $600 on kitty and I
can't afford much more. He won't eat the prescribed food but is the
Wysong good for this problem? I don't want to have to go back to the
vet, I want this problem to go away without stressing the cat more
than he already is. I've heard Apple Cider Vinegar is good to acidify
the urine. I'm also giving cranberry powder with wet food once a day.
I have a stash of Doxycycline pills left over from a cat who passed
away recently - could I safely administer this to prevent further
infection?

My regular vet is sort of gung-ho on all sorts of procedures and is
extremely expensive. I took my cat in liver failure to him last year
and spent $800 for a day of care + euthanasia. You can see why I'm
worried about cost.


Did your vet talk about convincing your cat to drink more water, and to
get him off of dry food? You need to do both. I've been fighting Meep's
cystitis (crystals) problem for years.

I've posted this many times, but in short this is what I do, and it's been
very successful:

1. Add water bowls all over the house. Monitor their use. Keep bowls in
places where he's drinking. Get a pet fountain, that helps a lot.

2. WET FOOD. Doesn't matter at first if it's good quality or bad, just
get him eating wet. May be a hard slog - took me FOUR YEARS to get Meep
100% on wet. Now we're working on getting her off the junk food and
eating higher quality stuff. Wellness Chicken and Herring is usually
acceptable. She's still getting a good bit of Fancy Feast though.

3. Glucosamine supplement - it coats the bladder. Cosequin is fine if
you can afford it, but with the blessing of my vet, I use a joint
supplement from Dr. Fosters and Smith instead. She has arthritis too, so
that works.

During times of high stress, like when we move, I've also had her on
Amitryptyline (sp) which works well to reduce her anxiety levels.

Get him off the dry food though. Meep continued to have cystitis attacks
even on the Royal Canin Urinary. A diet of 100% Fancy Feast cans, and
she's been Cystitis free for years now. One time I gave in and tried
adding dry - within a month she had another attack.

Good luck. Cystitis is so much more serious in male cats. If you cannot
control it, there is an operation that essentially turns him into a girl.
There's folks here who've had it done, and are better able to speak to the
effectiveness of that treatment.

jmc



  #6  
Old March 3rd 10, 11:48 AM posted to alt.med.veterinary,alt.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.community,rec.pets.cats.health+behav
Stormmee
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 12,281
Default Male cat FLUTD UTI problems

since you know it all why did you bother writing, just for the record, the
dry c/d from science diet, has kept him from reoccuring, soft
"jamina1" wrote in message
...
Vet said pet fountain - both my cats drink copious amounts of water,
I'm not concerned about that by any means.

Wet food would be one hell of a slog - he won't touch the stuff.
Additionally I work all day and I hate leaving wet food down because
they won't eat it all and it dries out and its a waste. I work 9-5 and
I purchased an automatic feeder so I could feed them smaller portions
less often - can't do that with wet food. The boy with the urine
problems currently weighs 20 pounds. Needs to be closer to 10.

Royal Canin and Science diet are CRAP. I refuse to feed it to him. I
have to find a natural alternative - he needs meat, not chemically
processed stuff flavored to taste like meat. I know Wellness makes
urinary formula and I currently have him eating Wysong. I know the dry
isn't helping but he drinks plenty.

I'm going to try apple cider vinegar and cranberry supplement. I'll
try the glucosamine - I remember that I tried that with my girl cat
who had frequent problems, she just refused to eat the treats.

My parents had a cat that had a penilectomy, so I'm familiar with it.
I hope it doesn't get that far because I can't afford a surgery. And
it would be such a STUPID thing to lose a cat over something as
trivial as this, and not fair at all. Its almost a year to the day I
had to let Sylvanas go because of liver failure and I couldn't afford
to save her.



  #7  
Old March 3rd 10, 07:04 PM posted to alt.med.veterinary,alt.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.community,rec.pets.cats.health+behav
Rene
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 117
Default Male cat FLUTD UTI problems

1. Please don't give old medication to this cat. It's not safe.
Doxycycline especially is known to cause esophogial erosion. You may
end up spending more money in the long run just to save some money
now.

2. If you want to prevent further urinary problems, this cat NEEDS to
be on wet food. No other solution. You CAN transition this cat. I did
it myself with a former dry addict myself. It will take some patience
and a commitment on your part, but it is in the best interest of your
cat to do this. Here are some tips: http://www.catinfo.org/#Transitionin...o_Canned_Food_

As for brands, there are several good options. Some have mentioned
Wellness and that's a great food. Nature's Variety and Innova Evo are
other excellent choices. You can also try a commercially made raw
diet. Again, lots of good choices there including Nature's Variety and
Stella & Chewy's (I have fed/feed both).

No dry food, prescription or otherwise, is going to help. This cat
needs more moisture, and cats just can't drink enough to make up what
they don't get in their diet.

You asked us here to both (a) help your cat and (b) save money
overall. Switching to wet food will do this. No, it's not easy (I've
been there), but you CAN do it.
  #8  
Old March 4th 10, 12:38 AM posted to alt.med.veterinary,alt.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.community,rec.pets.cats.health+behav
jamina1
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 21
Default Male cat FLUTD UTI problems

On Mar 3, 12:03*am, "Kelly Greene" wrote:
"jamina1" wrote in message


Feed only as much wet food as he'll eat in 20 minutes or so. *Refrigerate
the rest.



What do I do when I have to leave for work? I have two cats - one will
eat anything I put in front of her, and Wallace, the one who is ill is
the one who will only eat dry. If I leave wet food out all day, Pagan,
my other cat will eat ALL of it and Wallace will die from Liver
failure because he isn't eating the wet. I understand the need to get
more water into the cat, but I don't know how it will work out when
one cat will chow down through any wet food I leave down.
  #9  
Old March 4th 10, 12:40 AM posted to alt.med.veterinary,alt.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.community,rec.pets.cats.health+behav
jamina1
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 21
Default Male cat FLUTD UTI problems

On Mar 3, 12:03*am, "Kelly Greene" wrote:
"jamina1" wrote in message

*Your cat is already
obese from a dry free-fed diet and suffering from UTI's. *Give it up and
switch to wet food for the sake of the cat.


To be fair, the cat was obese when I got him 6 months ago, and I've
only ever fed him regimented feeding times and natural food. Free
feeding is bad, but please don't blame me for that.
  #10  
Old March 4th 10, 12:53 AM posted to alt.med.veterinary,alt.pets.cats,rec.pets.cats.community,rec.pets.cats.health+behav
jmc
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 610
Default Male cat FLUTD UTI problems

Suddenly, without warning, jamina1 exclaimed (3/3/2010 6:38 PM):
On Mar 3, 12:03 am, "Kelly Greene" wrote:
"jamina1" wrote in message


Feed only as much wet food as he'll eat in 20 minutes or so. Refrigerate
the rest.



What do I do when I have to leave for work? I have two cats - one will
eat anything I put in front of her, and Wallace, the one who is ill is
the one who will only eat dry. If I leave wet food out all day, Pagan,
my other cat will eat ALL of it and Wallace will die from Liver
failure because he isn't eating the wet. I understand the need to get
more water into the cat, but I don't know how it will work out when
one cat will chow down through any wet food I leave down.


If you're only giving them food for 20 minutes at a time... feed them
first, separated. Go about your morning routine. Pick up any leftover
food and refrigerate it. Go to work.

I understand where you're coming from - I was in denial and made excuses
for a while too - but truly, wet food is the best thing for your cats.
You're going to need to make some changes, but with time and patience it
can be done.

Is your convenience more important than your cat's health? I expect not.

The methods in the link provided:

http://www.catinfo.org/#Transitionin...o_Canned_Food_

Worked for Meep. She's *still* a dedicated carbivore, constantly hopes
for dry food, but she eats her wet food every night, and every day now,
cleans it up. We went through a period of time where she was a bit
underweight and would eat little or none of the food, but over time this
changed.

One trick I used was to sprinkle just a couple kibbles on top of the wet
food, especially if she hadn't eaten the previous batch - she'd eat the
kibble then because she was hungry, couldn't stop herself and would
start eating the wet food.

You may have to try a lot of different brands of wet food. To start, it
doesn't matter if it's "good" or not. If the only thing he'll it is
Whiskas to start, then so be it. Try Fancy Feast - Meep will eat any
variety that has liver or giblets in it.

I do hope you'll think about the advice you're getting here, and commit
to changing your cat's diet. It really will improve his health, and is
very likely to lessen, or eliminate, his UTI episodes.

You're getting advice from folks who've been through this - Meep had her
first cystitis attach at 7, continued to have them every 2-4 months
while I made excuses why I couldn't switch her to wet, then the
frequency increased as she went more and more to a wet diet. She's been
cystitis free (except for 1 episode where I'd added dry back to her
diet, for less than a month) for nearly 4 years now.

jmc
 




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