Licky's at the vet

Licky has urinary cystitis again, resulting in irritation of the
urinary tract and some blood in his urine, so he's at the vet's today
being checked for crystals. I was out of town last week and I think
he got stressed out because (1) I was gone, and someone he doesn't
trust was feeding him, and (2) Smudge was being kept indoors all week,
so he was stuck with her. Stress seems to cause the cystitis to flare
up. (Is this true for anyone else who has a male cat prone to cystitis
or crystals?) Last time this happened, it was while I was fostering
Everett. The two boys got along great, but I guess it was still stressful
for Licky.

Anyway, my catsitter came in one day and found that he'd peed on the
floor. It was her fault because she had accidentally put the top of
the litterbox on backwards, so the opening faced the wall. Oops! So they
all peed and pooped on the floor. (It was a sincere mistake, and other
than that, she did a stellar job, so no ragging on her!) Actually, the
fact that this happened enabled her to notice that the pee had blood in
it. Since Licky is the only one of my cats who's ever had urinary problems,
I figured it was his. My other two cats seem completely normal and healthy.
Actually, so does Licky, but I've been noticing little brown spots on the
bathroom floor, which is blood, and that's what happened last time.

I wanted the catsitter to bring him to the vet immediately because I
was afraid of blockage (this all happened 2 days before I was to come
back home). She tried, but she just couldn't catch him. Eventually it
was seriously stressing him out, so she had to give up. She didn't see
any evidence of him straining to pee, so I had to agree that it probably
wasn't a life-and-death emergency. But I worried about it until I got
home.

The vet was closed yesterday so I brought him in this morning. I had to
leave him there because his bladder was empty and they need to get urine
to test for crystals. The up side of the empty bladder: no blockage!

My poor boy. He's so skittish and nervous that it's not hard to get him
all stressed out and then he gets sick. But you should have seen him
yesterday. It was my first full day home (I got back Saturday evening),
and I was relaxing in front of the computer, drinking tea and having
breakfast, and Licky got up on the desk, curled up and shoved his head
under my chin, and purred his head off for an hour. He was **so** happy
to have me home!

Smudge is happy to be able to go in and out again. My catsitter is my
downstairs neighbor, and she can usually hear Smudge at my front door
when she wants to come in, so I told her she could let Smudge in and out
if she wanted to. But she didn't feel comfortable about that, so Smudge
had to stay in. Finally she and Licky are not cooped up together anymore!

Roxy was happy to see me, too, but she was also perfectly content with
visits from my neighbor for food and pets. That girl is unflappable.

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.

wrote in message
...
Licky has urinary cystitis again, resulting in irritation of the
urinary tract and some blood in his urine, so he's at the vet's today
being checked for crystals.

Do you feed him on dry food? If you do, put him on wet.

Tweed

wrote:
Licky has urinary cystitis again, resulting in irritation of the
urinary tract and some blood in his urine, so he's at the vet's today
being checked for crystals. I was out of town last week and I think
he got stressed out because (1) I was gone, and someone he doesn't
trust was feeding him, and (2) Smudge was being kept indoors all week,
so he was stuck with her. Stress seems to cause the cystitis to flare
up. (Is this true for anyone else who has a male cat prone to cystitis
or crystals?) Last time this happened, it was while I was fostering
Everett. The two boys got along great, but I guess it was still
stressful for Licky.
snip

Poor baby, lots of purrs for him to feel better soon.
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy, Bagheera & Shadow)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk

wrote in message
...
Licky has urinary cystitis again, resulting in irritation of the
urinary tract and some blood in his urine, so he's at the vet's today
being checked for crystals. I was out of town last week and I think
he got stressed out because (1) I was gone, and someone he doesn't
trust was feeding him, and (2) Smudge was being kept indoors all week,
so he was stuck with her. Stress seems to cause the cystitis to flare
up. (Is this true for anyone else who has a male cat prone to cystitis
or crystals?) Last time this happened, it was while I was fostering
Everett. The two boys got along great, but I guess it was still stressful
for Licky.

Anyway, my catsitter came in one day and found that he'd peed on the
floor. It was her fault because she had accidentally put the top of
the litterbox on backwards, so the opening faced the wall. Oops! So they
all peed and pooped on the floor. (It was a sincere mistake, and other
than that, she did a stellar job, so no ragging on her!) Actually, the
fact that this happened enabled her to notice that the pee had blood in
it. Since Licky is the only one of my cats who's ever had urinary
problems,
I figured it was his. My other two cats seem completely normal and
healthy.
Actually, so does Licky, but I've been noticing little brown spots on the
bathroom floor, which is blood, and that's what happened last time.

I wanted the catsitter to bring him to the vet immediately because I
was afraid of blockage (this all happened 2 days before I was to come
back home). She tried, but she just couldn't catch him. Eventually it
was seriously stressing him out, so she had to give up. She didn't see
any evidence of him straining to pee, so I had to agree that it probably
wasn't a life-and-death emergency. But I worried about it until I got
home.

The vet was closed yesterday so I brought him in this morning. I had to
leave him there because his bladder was empty and they need to get urine
to test for crystals. The up side of the empty bladder: no blockage!

My poor boy. He's so skittish and nervous that it's not hard to get him
all stressed out and then he gets sick. But you should have seen him
yesterday. It was my first full day home (I got back Saturday evening),
and I was relaxing in front of the computer, drinking tea and having
breakfast, and Licky got up on the desk, curled up and shoved his head
under my chin, and purred his head off for an hour. He was **so** happy
to have me home!

Smudge is happy to be able to go in and out again. My catsitter is my
downstairs neighbor, and she can usually hear Smudge at my front door
when she wants to come in, so I told her she could let Smudge in and out
if she wanted to. But she didn't feel comfortable about that, so Smudge
had to stay in. Finally she and Licky are not cooped up together anymore!

Roxy was happy to see me, too, but she was also perfectly content with
visits from my neighbor for food and pets. That girl is unflappable.



Purrs for the little man to get well quickly.


--
Theresa and Dante

Stinky Forever: http://pets.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh

Joyce,

Fluffy also has the condition of crystals in the urine which my vet tells me
is something Persians are subject to, as also are male cats. Fluffy had
her first attack about two years ago, had blood in her urine and I had to
feed her on a special prescription diet Hills c/d Multicare biscuits and
nothing else! The mixture must be like caviar because she loves it.
Unfortunately Bonnie and Clyde adore it also and will gobble it down at
great speed. Vet said not to let the other cats have it as it puts on
weight and they don't need it.

Studies show that 1 -2 cats in every 200 develop this disease. The disease
can largely be prevented by diets which maintain acid urine because crystals
are more like to form in alkaline urine than in acid urine. Peak incidence
is between 2 and 6 years of age. Neutered or obese cats are more
susceptible if they have restricted access to outdoors. They pass urine
less frequently so do not flush out their urinary system. I have several
pages on this complaint given to me by the vet so if you need to know more
about it let me know.

Fluff was fine on the diet for a long time and eventually I started giving
her other food to vary her diet. Lately she has had another attack, no
blockage or anything like that but blood in the urine and endlessly trying
to urinate. Vet gave her an injection which would last two weeks and save
having to dose her daily,(not an easy job with a Persian with a small,
clenched mouth!)

Unfortunately, the condition is an ongoing diet problem and you might have
to look at getting your vet to prescribe the c/d biscuit diet. Fluff is
now back on the diet biscuits and is OK at the moment.

It was funny when I had her at the vet, he said he would have to keep her
overnight to collect a urine specimen. Fluffy must have heard him and
promptly jumped down on the floor and proceeded to do a tiny spot of urine
in the corner of the room. Problem solved and a quick diagnosis. When
you have a cat with this condition it probably pays to take a specimen of
urine to the vet for him to test as it saves the extra cost of having the
animal stay overnight.

Bev

Hope your boy gets better soon.
"Adrian" wrote in message
...
wrote:
Licky has urinary cystitis again, resulting in irritation of the
urinary tract and some blood in his urine, so he's at the vet's today
being checked for crystals. I was out of town last week and I think
he got stressed out because (1) I was gone, and someone he doesn't
trust was feeding him, and (2) Smudge was being kept indoors all week,
so he was stuck with her. Stress seems to cause the cystitis to flare
up. (Is this true for anyone else who has a male cat prone to cystitis
or crystals?) Last time this happened, it was while I was fostering
Everett. The two boys got along great, but I guess it was still
stressful for Licky.
snip

Poor baby, lots of purrs for him to feel better soon.
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy, Bagheera & Shadow)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk

wrote:
Licky has urinary cystitis again, resulting in irritation of the
urinary tract and some blood in his urine, so he's at the vet's today
being checked for crystals. I was out of town last week and I think
he got stressed out because (1) I was gone, and someone he doesn't
trust was feeding him, and (2) Smudge was being kept indoors all week,
so he was stuck with her. Stress seems to cause the cystitis to flare
up. (Is this true for anyone else who has a male cat prone to cystitis
or crystals?) Last time this happened, it was while I was fostering
Everett. The two boys got along great, but I guess it was still stressful
for Licky.

Anyway, my catsitter came in one day and found that he'd peed on the
floor. It was her fault because she had accidentally put the top of
the litterbox on backwards, so the opening faced the wall. Oops! So they
all peed and pooped on the floor. (It was a sincere mistake, and other
than that, she did a stellar job, so no ragging on her!) Actually, the
fact that this happened enabled her to notice that the pee had blood in
it. Since Licky is the only one of my cats who's ever had urinary problems,
I figured it was his. My other two cats seem completely normal and healthy.
Actually, so does Licky, but I've been noticing little brown spots on the
bathroom floor, which is blood, and that's what happened last time.

I wanted the catsitter to bring him to the vet immediately because I
was afraid of blockage (this all happened 2 days before I was to come
back home). She tried, but she just couldn't catch him. Eventually it
was seriously stressing him out, so she had to give up. She didn't see
any evidence of him straining to pee, so I had to agree that it probably
wasn't a life-and-death emergency. But I worried about it until I got
home.

The vet was closed yesterday so I brought him in this morning. I had to
leave him there because his bladder was empty and they need to get urine
to test for crystals. The up side of the empty bladder: no blockage!

My poor boy. He's so skittish and nervous that it's not hard to get him
all stressed out and then he gets sick. But you should have seen him
yesterday. It was my first full day home (I got back Saturday evening),
and I was relaxing in front of the computer, drinking tea and having
breakfast, and Licky got up on the desk, curled up and shoved his head
under my chin, and purred his head off for an hour. He was **so** happy
to have me home!

Smudge is happy to be able to go in and out again. My catsitter is my
downstairs neighbor, and she can usually hear Smudge at my front door
when she wants to come in, so I told her she could let Smudge in and out
if she wanted to. But she didn't feel comfortable about that, so Smudge
had to stay in. Finally she and Licky are not cooped up together anymore!

Roxy was happy to see me, too, but she was also perfectly content with
visits from my neighbor for food and pets. That girl is unflappable.


Hi Joyce,

When my Marble had a blockage 2 years ago, the vet put him on Cosequin,
and said that they had found that it helped prevent further attacks. I
had him on it for 3 months, and he hasn't had another attack. Praise Bast!

Hope your boy feels better soon!
Mishi

ollie2 wrote:

Studies show that 1 -2 cats in every 200 develop this disease. The disease
can largely be prevented by diets which maintain acid urine because crystals
are more like to form in alkaline urine than in acid urine. Peak incidence
is between 2 and 6 years of age. Neutered or obese cats are more
susceptible if they have restricted access to outdoors. They pass urine
less frequently so do not flush out their urinary system. I have several
pages on this complaint given to me by the vet so if you need to know more
about it let me know.

Sure, I'd love to hear more, thanks. You can email it to me at this
address, but take out the XXX in my address first, or it'll bounce.

Licky is 6 years old and neutered, and he's indoor-only. He is of an
average weight for his build - kind of a large cat, but not particularly
fat. So he mostly fits the "demographic". I didn't know that about
acid vs alkaline.

I do free-feed all the cats on dry food, in addition to their twice-a-day
canned meals. It's high-quality dry, but not c/d. For the next few weeks,
while Licky's on antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory, there won't be any
free-feeding. I'll put down some kibble for R & S while Licky's in a
separate room eating his food, but then it will have to come up. That's
what I did last year when he had the first attack. But after a while he
seemed OK, so I started putting down the kibble all the time.

This vet is going to give me c/d dry, so I can put that down once he's
better. She said it was OK for the girls to eat, too. All of them will
still get the same canned food. I told the vet they all eat high-quality
canned food (Wellness) twice a day, and I always mix a little water into
Licky's portion, and feed him in a separate room. The vet said this would
be fine. Licky didn't like the c/d canned food when I gave it to him
before (but naturally, Roxy and Smudge loved it). So they'll all stick
with the Wellness canned and get c/d dry, unless that also causes Licky
to have problems.

to look at getting your vet to prescribe the c/d biscuit diet. Fluff is
now back on the diet biscuits and is OK at the moment.

I'm not sure what "biscuits" are (in terms of the cat food). Last year I
got cans of c/d food, which looked like any other canned food, and wasn't
especially biscuit-like. (But it certainly didn't smell like any other
canned food - whew, that was vile-smelling stuff! I couldn't blame Licky
for not wanting it!).

It was funny when I had her at the vet, he said he would have to keep her
overnight to collect a urine specimen. Fluffy must have heard him and
promptly jumped down on the floor and proceeded to do a tiny spot of urine
in the corner of the room. Problem solved and a quick diagnosis. When
you have a cat with this condition it probably pays to take a specimen of
urine to the vet for him to test as it saves the extra cost of having the
animal stay overnight.

Luckily, I only had to leave him there for the day. A friend of mine is
going to pick him up and take him to my house.

Hope your boy gets better soon.

Thank you!

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.

On 30 Mar 2009 20:58:34 GMT, wrote:

Licky has urinary cystitis again, resulting in irritation of the
urinary tract and some blood in his urine, so he's at the vet's today
being checked for crystals. I was out of town last week and I think
he got stressed out because (1) I was gone, and someone he doesn't
trust was feeding him, and (2) Smudge was being kept indoors all week,
so he was stuck with her. Stress seems to cause the cystitis to flare
up. (Is this true for anyone else who has a male cat prone to cystitis
or crystals?) Last time this happened, it was while I was fostering
Everett. The two boys got along great, but I guess it was still stressful
for Licky.

Anyway, my catsitter came in one day and found that he'd peed on the
floor. It was her fault because she had accidentally put the top of
the litterbox on backwards, so the opening faced the wall. Oops! So they
all peed and pooped on the floor. (It was a sincere mistake, and other
than that, she did a stellar job, so no ragging on her!) Actually, the
fact that this happened enabled her to notice that the pee had blood in
it. Since Licky is the only one of my cats who's ever had urinary problems,
I figured it was his. My other two cats seem completely normal and healthy.
Actually, so does Licky, but I've been noticing little brown spots on the
bathroom floor, which is blood, and that's what happened last time.

I wanted the catsitter to bring him to the vet immediately because I
was afraid of blockage (this all happened 2 days before I was to come
back home). She tried, but she just couldn't catch him. Eventually it
was seriously stressing him out, so she had to give up. She didn't see
any evidence of him straining to pee, so I had to agree that it probably
wasn't a life-and-death emergency. But I worried about it until I got
home.

The vet was closed yesterday so I brought him in this morning. I had to
leave him there because his bladder was empty and they need to get urine
to test for crystals. The up side of the empty bladder: no blockage!

My poor boy. He's so skittish and nervous that it's not hard to get him
all stressed out and then he gets sick. But you should have seen him
yesterday. It was my first full day home (I got back Saturday evening),
and I was relaxing in front of the computer, drinking tea and having
breakfast, and Licky got up on the desk, curled up and shoved his head
under my chin, and purred his head off for an hour. He was **so** happy
to have me home!

Smudge is happy to be able to go in and out again. My catsitter is my
downstairs neighbor, and she can usually hear Smudge at my front door
when she wants to come in, so I told her she could let Smudge in and out
if she wanted to. But she didn't feel comfortable about that, so Smudge
had to stay in. Finally she and Licky are not cooped up together anymore!

Roxy was happy to see me, too, but she was also perfectly content with
visits from my neighbor for food and pets. That girl is unflappable.


Purrs for Licky to make a quick, complete recovery.

I assume he is on an Rx diet for crystals(?) I know there is one; and
it's expensive, of course. But cheaper than a trip to TED.

~~~~~~~~~~~~ ^..^

"Life without cats would be only marginally worth living."
-TC, and the unmercifully, relentlessly, sweet calico kitty, Kenzie.

Every day is a treasure with Kenzie; I try to treat them that way. There
will only be so many, and then there will never, ever, be any more.

How you behave towards cats here below determines your status in Heaven.
- Robert Heinlein

I'm a bit late to the thread, but I only just saw your post about Licky,
and the update that he doesn't have crystals (yay!). I just wanted to
share my experience with my little monster Kotyo, who also has cystitis.
He has flare-ups where he pees blood and goes to the litterbox every few
minutes, but he's never had any crystals.

He first had a flare-up when he was 5 years old. He's a large kitty (6
kg, all muscle), and he's a nervous and skittish cat like your Licky. It
does seem that his flare-ups are stress-related. The first one happened
while I was in the middle of dealing with a fried hard drive with a lot
of important stuff on it, and my freaking out about it stressed him out
so much that he started peeing blood, poor baby. His last flare-up was
almost 8 months ago, a month after we had gotten a new kitten, and was
probably caused by all the stress of adjusting to the kitten. You can
read about it on google groups here
http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.pe...dca48e0 1b275
There's some good advice about cats with cystitis in the thread.

One thing you might want to do is to ask your vet about giving Licky a
glucosamine supplement. That was advice I was given on the
health&behavior group last year, and it seems to really have made a
difference - Kotyo hasn't had another attack since I started giving him
the supplement (he used to get attacks every 4-6 months, and now he's
gone 8 months without one). This is what they told me about glucosamine
on the health&behavior group:

Glucosamine is a glycosaminoglycan (GAG) which should help
repair and strengthen the GAG layer that coats the bladder wall.
Interstitial cystitis in cats is believed to be caused by a defect in
the GAG
layer which can allow urine to penetrate the bladder mucosa
(urothelium) and
cause inflammation. The GAG supplement might take a few weeks to start
working. If you notice a decrease in the severity and recurrence of
symptoms while he taking it, you should probably give it to him
indefinitely.

Cosequin, which another poster mentioned giving to their cat, contains
glucosamine. After Kotyo's last flare-up I started giving him a
glucosamine supplement called CystAid, which is a UK brand, but I'm sure
your vet knows of a similar supplement in the US.

Another thing that seems to help prevent cystitis flare-ups is to get
him to drink lots of water so that he pees more often. Switching him to
wet food might help, but it might not be enough. Kotyo had been eating
all wet food when he got his first attack. But being a big kitty he has
a big bladder, so he was holding it in and only peeing once a day. As a
result his bladder was full of very concentrated urine for long periods
of time, which was irritating the bladder wall. After his first attack I
started adding water to his wet food, so that his bladder would become
full faster and he'd pee more often. The combination of added water and
glucosamine supplement seems to be working so far.

I hope this can be of some help to you and Licky. My kitties are purring
for him.

Nadia (and Kotyo and Sweety)



wrote:
Licky has urinary cystitis again, resulting in irritation of the
urinary tract and some blood in his urine, so he's at the vet's today
being checked for crystals. I was out of town last week and I think
he got stressed out because (1) I was gone, and someone he doesn't
trust was feeding him, and (2) Smudge was being kept indoors all week,
so he was stuck with her. Stress seems to cause the cystitis to flare
up. (Is this true for anyone else who has a male cat prone to cystitis
or crystals?) Last time this happened, it was while I was fostering
Everett. The two boys got along great, but I guess it was still stressful
for Licky.


My poor boy. He's so skittish and nervous that it's not hard to get him
all stressed out and then he gets sick. But you should have seen him
yesterday. It was my first full day home (I got back Saturday evening),
and I was relaxing in front of the computer, drinking tea and having
breakfast, and Licky got up on the desk, curled up and shoved his head
under my chin, and purred his head off for an hour. He was **so** happy
to have me home!



--
Little Monster pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Kotyo
Sweety pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/Sweety
Kotyo and Sweety together:
http://picasaweb.google.com/nnakova/KotyoAndSweety

Nadia N. wrote:

I'm a bit late to the thread, but I only just saw your post about Licky,
and the update that he doesn't have crystals (yay!).

Thanks.

He first had a flare-up when he was 5 years old. He's a large kitty (6
kg, all muscle), and he's a nervous and skittish cat like your Licky. It
does seem that his flare-ups are stress-related. The first one happened
while I was in the middle of dealing with a fried hard drive with a lot
of important stuff on it, and my freaking out about it stressed him out
so much that he started peeing blood, poor baby. His last flare-up was
almost 8 months ago, a month after we had gotten a new kitten, and was
probably caused by all the stress of adjusting to the kitten.

That sounds very familiar! Licky's first flare-up happened while I was
fostering a kitten - an older kitten with strong opinions about everything.
He and Licky got along well and played together a lot, but I imagine it
was stressful for him anyway.

You can
read about it on google groups here
http://groups.google.ca/group/rec.pe...dca48e0 1b275
There's some good advice about cats with cystitis in the thread.

Thanks for that. I'll save the link and read it when I have more time.

One thing you might want to do is to ask your vet about giving Licky a
glucosamine supplement. That was advice I was given on the
health&behavior group last year, and it seems to really have made a
difference - Kotyo hasn't had another attack since I started giving him
the supplement (he used to get attacks every 4-6 months, and now he's
gone 8 months without one).

I didn't even know about this. I will call the vet to ask about that.

Another thing that seems to help prevent cystitis flare-ups is to get
him to drink lots of water so that he pees more often. Switching him to
wet food might help, but it might not be enough.

He has been eating wet food all along. I feed my cats wet food twice
a day, and they also free-feed on dry. I'm not leaving out any dry food
now, not until Licky's over this episode. The vet sent me home with some
c/d dry food, so once he's better, I'll try that.

After his first attack I
started adding water to his wet food, so that his bladder would become
full faster and he'd pee more often.

I do exactly the same thing (and have been doing this since he had his
first attack last year). I have a question, though - how much water do
you add to a serving of food? He gets about two tablespoons of the food
at one feeding. (I just looked it up and discovered that US and UK
tablespoons are more or less equivalent.) I add about 1/3 that amount
of water to it, and mix it in. He eats this in a separate room, at least
until he's ingested most of the liquid. Then I let him out so that he,
Roxy and Smudge can all eat the incredibly exciting food in each other's
bowls.

I hope this can be of some help to you and Licky. My kitties are purring
for him.

Thanks again!

Joyce