18 Year Old Cat Will Not Empty Bladder

Our 18 1/2 year old cat, Trixie, has been in kidney failure for the
past 7 months. I administer lactated ringers twice a day. She is
eating, drinking, grooming, but will not has not used the litter box in
over a week. I had her urine expressed last week at the vet's. He said
it could be arthritis in her spine, causing her to hold her urine. He
said she is not blocked and her urine will eventually leak out (which
is does, on whatever she is lying on). He gave her a prednisone shot
last week also. He said an old injury may be acting up (see below)

When she was a year old, she broke her tail and the nerve that
transmits to her brain that the bladder is full, was damaged. After my
vet consulted my alma mater's vet school (Auburn) she put her on two
human drugs, which corrected the problem within about three months.(She
suffered through three times weekly visits to have her bladder
expressed.) Since then, she holds her urine for a longer period than a
normal cat, but eventually empties her bladder in the litter box.

Has anyone out there had experience with this? Hopefully, her quality
of life will remain good until the end. We hand-raised her from the age
of one week and she is the only "child" we have ever had.

"cat76" wrote in message
oups.com...
Our 18 1/2 year old cat, Trixie, has been in kidney failure for the
past 7 months. I administer lactated ringers twice a day. She is
eating, drinking, grooming, but will not has not used the litter box in
over a week. I had her urine expressed last week at the vet's. He said
it could be arthritis in her spine, causing her to hold her urine. He
said she is not blocked and her urine will eventually leak out (which
is does, on whatever she is lying on). He gave her a prednisone shot
last week also. He said an old injury may be acting up (see below)

When she was a year old, she broke her tail and the nerve that
transmits to her brain that the bladder is full, was damaged. After my
vet consulted my alma mater's vet school (Auburn) she put her on two
human drugs, which corrected the problem within about three months.(She
suffered through three times weekly visits to have her bladder
expressed.) Since then, she holds her urine for a longer period than a
normal cat, but eventually empties her bladder in the litter box.

Has anyone out there had experience with this? Hopefully, her quality
of life will remain good until the end. We hand-raised her from the age
of one week and she is the only "child" we have ever had.

Perhaps if you post in alt.med.veterinary someone there can be of
assistance.

Though I know our cats are our babies forever, cats age at a much faster
rate than us humans do. At 18 1/2, she is about 92 years old in our years.

Try to take this into consideration and do what's best for her, as much as
this might hurt you.

A homeopathic remedy called Arnica 30x, 3-5 pellets or one crushed tablet
given once a day may help for urine retention due to damaged nerves in
the tail or spine . Usually it's dissolved on the tongue or in about
1/4 teaspoon of water and given using an eyedropper. Also Silicea 6x(
same amount given 3-4 times a day) If giving both, alternate leaving
an hour or more between the two. Don't give any food or water for about
an hour afterward because it weakens the effect. Health food stores sell
them. Acupuncture has worked wonders too for stimulating and promoting
repair of damaged nerves and severe arthritis. One vet used it on a dog
who had severe arthritis and after only a few treatments the dog fully
recovered. www.ivas.org

Thanks so much. I will definitely try this.

"doby" wrote in message
lkaboutpets.com...
A homeopathic remedy called Arnica 30x, 3-5 pellets or one crushed tablet
given once a day may help for urine retention due to damaged nerves in
the tail or spine . Usually it's dissolved on the tongue or in about
1/4 teaspoon of water and given using an eyedropper. Also Silicea 6x(
same amount given 3-4 times a day) If giving both, alternate leaving
an hour or more between the two. Don't give any food or water for about
an hour afterward because it weakens the effect. Health food stores sell
them. Acupuncture has worked wonders too for stimulating and promoting
repair of damaged nerves and severe arthritis. One vet used it on a dog
who had severe arthritis and after only a few treatments the dog fully
recovered. www.ivas.org

Thank you for posting this. I have an older dog that won't urinate on his
own. I manually express the urine out of his bladder 3 times a day. I'm
going to give these homeopathic Rxs a try.

Brigitte

"cat76" wrote in message
oups.com...
Our 18 1/2 year old cat, Trixie, has been in kidney failure for the
past 7 months. I administer lactated ringers twice a day. She is
eating, drinking, grooming, but will not has not used the litter box in
over a week. I had her urine expressed last week at the vet's. He said
it could be arthritis in her spine, causing her to hold her urine. He
said she is not blocked and her urine will eventually leak out (which
is does, on whatever she is lying on). He gave her a prednisone shot
last week also. He said an old injury may be acting up (see below)

When she was a year old, she broke her tail and the nerve that
transmits to her brain that the bladder is full, was damaged. After my
vet consulted my alma mater's vet school (Auburn) she put her on two
human drugs, which corrected the problem within about three months.(She
suffered through three times weekly visits to have her bladder
expressed.) Since then, she holds her urine for a longer period than a
normal cat, but eventually empties her bladder in the litter box.

Has anyone out there had experience with this? Hopefully, her quality
of life will remain good until the end. We hand-raised her from the age
of one week and she is the only "child" we have ever had.

I have a female cat, Tiger, who will be 16 in April. We originally got her
at my job when she was around 1 1/2 years old. From the time we got her,
she would only urinate, at most, once a day. She's been home with me for
the past 8+ years. I've mentioned it to various vets over the years and
none of them seemed to think it was anything bad or unusual. She has held
her urine for as much as 3 days when stressed. She's had periods of
inappropriate elimination (peed in my bed, while I was sleeping in it -
several times) but every test that was done showed nothing wrong. She just
won't go more than once every 24 hours. She was at the vet just about a
month ago, and I was told that she's in the very early stages of kidney
failure. I brought her because she was peeing everywhere but her box.
After that visit, she's been going in the box on a regular basis every
morning. This morning there was nothing in the box when I woke up and I put
her in to see if she'd go, but she didn't want to. Still nothing in the box
when I got home from work so I put her in again and she peed. 36 hours is
not unusual for her but I try to encourage to go before that.

--
Liz

Thanks Liz.
Trixie is letting her urine go, but it's when she is sleeping ( I guess
her muscles must be relaxed). I am going to talk with the vet tomorrow
about putting her back on the meds she was on when she broke her tail
in 1988 (or on the natural remedy recommended in earlier posts).

As long as she is getting the urine out (even if it's every 36 hrs. or
more like your Tiger), she's not in danger. I'll just have a huge water
bill from washing all the old sheets/blankets she is peeing on!

"cat76" wrote in message
oups.com...
Thanks Liz.
Trixie is letting her urine go, but it's when she is sleeping ( I guess
her muscles must be relaxed). I am going to talk with the vet tomorrow
about putting her back on the meds she was on when she broke her tail
in 1988 (or on the natural remedy recommended in earlier posts).

As long as she is getting the urine out (even if it's every 36 hrs. or
more like your Tiger), she's not in danger. I'll just have a huge water
bill from washing all the old sheets/blankets she is peeing on!

You can get some of those Wee Wee Pads meant for training puppies. I bought
a package and put one in the bottom of Tiger's bed and I have one in front
of the litter box as well. They're disposable and will protect anything
underneath. You can put them in her favorite sleeping spots so if she
leaks, cleanup is easy. My other cat Otto enjoys sleeping on them.

--
Liz

Thanks again, Liz. They will be cheaper than all the washing I have to
do.

I could probably find them pretty cheap at Big Lots or Walmart.