Looking for help, trying to save my cat...please at least read

[Ptownkid]

First, let me immediately say that I am not looking for handouts...

Recently, my loving, affectionate, beautiful 7yr old male cat named Mats started acting very strange and  it made me very concerned. I immediately took him over to our vet and he quickly informed me that  his bladder was hard, and he definitely had some kind of urethral blockage and couldn't urinate. I was immediately sent to an emergency vet clinic and the vet there went over what could be done and the possible outcomes.

In order to remove the blockage and stabilize Mats, they had to insert a catheter and keep him on IV for a day or two, all for the low bargain price of about 2k. The wife an I discussed it briefly and decided that it was only money and that he was far too young to not at least try and save his life.  Turns out his urine is too alkaline and creating something called struvite crystals, apparently common in male cats.

He received treatment, was doing great and peeing freely once the catheter was out, and they let us bring him home Sunday morning. Right away I knew something wasn't quite right as he was spending 15-10 minutes at a time in his litter box and only peeing a little. I called the clinic and they had me come back in that same day and were kind enough to do a re-asses for free since they knew we were tapped. They manually expressed his bladder and reported that the stream was nice and thick so there was no blockage. They said that it was likely due to inflammation, muscle spasms and discomfort. I brought him back home and made sure he was eating and drinking and getting lots of love.

I had a gut feeling that he wasn't progressing as he should and last night I hardly slept. This morning I took him in for a follow up with our vet and his bladder was again firm. They manually expressed him but reported that the stream was thinned. They still believe it's due to inflammation and uped his meds.

At this point he may need a surgery that costs around 3k unless he makes a remarkable turn in the next 24-48 hours, but that is going to be difficult to come up with. We just fixed our car, replaced the washing machine that died and spewed all over our basement 2 weeks ago and i have been out of work since the new year. I have been trying to convince myself that it's ok to lay him to rest if we can't afford to keep treating him, but I seriously can't stomach the thought. Today has been one of the hardest days for me emotionally in a long time. I need to do all I can to at least try as he is important to our family and our young kids love him to death.

I'm not asking for something for nothing, but what I'm asking for here is that if you need a power supply kit or opamp kit, then PLEASE help me out by buying some from my  webstore. I am going to start digging out everything i can related to DIY tomorrow to get listed asap, but Mats does not have much time. I haven't been able to do electronics stuff for a bit so it's time for most things to go especially if it can save this loving creature who has given us so much.

For the record, I'm not so proud that I will refuse donations, but I completely understand that we all have our own problems in life.

Thanks for your time everyone. XO
Bryan

Here's my guy



and here he is with his best buddy of the same age

 

[okgb]

Yeah , I got a cat for my kids [ so I wouldn't have to get a dog ] now I have to worry about my kids [ in their 20's ] and be responsible  for another life, and eventually grand kids. It is a tough thing , how do you put a price on life ?
I feel for you, we all want to do the right thing. I'll head over to the white market and check your thread , best wishes.

 

[Ptownkid]

Thanks man...the part that makes it difficult is his age, he's too young to give up on. Ironically, I'm a dog guy and got the cat for my wife even though I'm allergic. Surprisingly I'm not allergic to Mats at all and he's got the best personality. Love him to bits.

 

[pvision]

Sorry to hear about Mats. These furry fleabags are such lovely things and it's awful to think of them suffering

Does the vet have an opinion on why he does OK when they keep him in vs when he's home with you?  And does he have an opinion of his long-term chances? If the condition is diet-dependent, what can you change?

If you look on Wikipedia this is a fairly well-known condition with cats, dogs & humans.  They say "Struvite stones are potentiated by bacterial infection that hydrolyzes urea to ammonium and raises urine pH to neutral or alkaline values. Urea-splitting organisms include Proteus, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Staphylococcus, and Mycoplasma." So does Mats have a bacterial infection and is it caused / made worse by his bedding / food / etc at home?

Struvite is "readily soluble in acids" so your cat's alkaline urine is preventing him from dissolving the stones.  Is there a simple remedy to make his urine more acid?

Have a look here for more info
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+2142&aid=2729

Over here there are veterinary surgeries run by charities that offer free treatment. Are there any near you, perhaps run by the humane society?

Best of luck for the furry Mats

Nick Froome

 

[zebra50]

Let's help Bryan to help Mats!

I have suggested that he could sell gift vouchers for Diypartssupply.com.  I'm buying some.

So if you don't need parts now, you certainly will in the future, and it would help out with some cash flow to help Mats.

Stewart

 

[Ptownkid]

Sorry to hear about Mats. These furry fleabags are such lovely things and it's awful to think of them suffering

Does the vet have an opinion on why he does OK when they keep him in vs when he's home with you?  And does he have an opinion of his long-term chances? If the condition is diet-dependent, what can you change?

If you look on Wikipedia this is a fairly well-known condition with cats, dogs & humans.  They say "Struvite stones are potentiated by bacterial infection that hydrolyzes urea to ammonium and raises urine pH to neutral or alkaline values. Urea-splitting organisms include Proteus, Pseudomonas, Klebsiella, Staphylococcus, and Mycoplasma." So does Mats have a bacterial infection and is it caused / made worse by his bedding / food / etc at home?

Struvite is "readily soluble in acids" so your cat's alkaline urine is preventing him from dissolving the stones.  Is there a simple remedy to make his urine more acid?

Have a look here for more info
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+2142&aid=2729

Over here there are veterinary surgeries run by charities that offer free treatment. Are there any near you, perhaps run by the humane society?

Best of luck for the furry Mats

Nick Froome

I have been reading a ton about this since Friday, and there seems to be  a lot of varying views on the topic. He specifically has struvite crystals, so his urine is indeed too alkaline. They don't think he has any stones, at least none that they saw on the x-rays. He had no signs of infection on any of his tests. The vet is really not sure why he took a weird turn when he came home, she said that the way he is progressing is abnormal and she's hoping a little more time is going to help.  The only thought was maybe stress, but one would think home life is more relaxing than the clinic and today he had a sedative and he peed even less. He is eating a prescription food that is supposed to help dissolve crystals, but it takes time. Not sure what to think right now...

His long term chances are good if he starts peeing normally, except he will be prone to reblocking no matter what diet he gets and most cats that block usually block again. We certainly can't afford to keep spending 2k each time this happens. However, the surgery has a very high success rate of around 90% and while they are prone to UTIs after they've had it, that is usually taken care of with antibiotics.

Been trying to find some charitable type surgeons to no real avail. To be honest, if we need o go down this road, and it's likely, I am most comfortable using someone highly experienced for something like this. Near as I can tell, the price difference between high end clinics and lower end clinic around here is negligible.

Thanks for your kind words

 

[Ethan]

The same condition happened to my cat. We were feeding him Wellness dry and canned food and our vet said she's seen an unusually high occurrence of crystals forming with some cats being fed Wellness brand food (perhaps due to higher protein and their kidneys not being able to properly break it down).  He went through an overnight procedure to have the blockage removed and his bladder flushed/purged.  $700 and a few days of recovery later, he's back to good health (i.e., annoying the piss out of me).
Since then he's been on prescription Royal Canin Urinary SO.
It's been about a year, so far no reoccurrence--although we were told that it's likely to happen again in the future. 
I hope Mats makes a full recovery!

 

[Ptownkid]

Thanks Ethan

Ironically, the higher protein is good for cats with struvite crystals (which are the most common) as meat is acidic. Most people seem to believe that the biggest culprits of alkaline urine are dry diets (not enough water) and grains, but there's a lot of contradicting information. Which form of crystals did he have?

We are feeding him Urinary SO right now, and while I'd love to feed him the canned long term, it will run about $120 cad or more a month to do so. We'll have to see.

They do say that cats who have blocked (fully or partially) are very prone to re-occurrence, That is the part that really scares me...

Thankfully, I'm cautiously optimistic today, this morning he peed more than he did in the previous 36 hours combined, and they were the biggest clumps of litter so far. Fingers so incredibly crossed. The ER vet was on the fence last night about whether he needed to come in or not. Cats are way too tough for their own good sometimes.

 

[Ethan]

Most people seem to believe that the biggest culprits of alkaline urine are dry diets (not enough water) and grains, but there's a lot of contradicting information. Which form of crystals did he have?

The same, struvite.

We are feeding him Urinary SO right now, and while I'd love to feed him the canned long term, it will run about $120 cad or more a month to do so. We'll have to see.

Yeah, it's pricey. We pay $250 USD/month 3 cats--my wife is a crazy cat lady.
Since we couldn't risk cats "sharing" the wrong food, we just had to put them all on it.
I think my human food costs less.

Thankfully, I'm cautiously optimistic today, this morning he peed more than he did in the previous 36 hours combined, and they were the biggest clumps of litter so far.

That's a good sign. When he was released did the vet give you a week's supply of oral antibiotics to prevent UTI?

 

[Ptownkid]

Yeah, our family food bill for four is around $600 cad a month...

The did not give antibiotics at first as he had zero signs of infection (all tests came back negative), but after a day home they decided to add it to his medication protocol that I am following as a precaution since he was urinating abnormally.

 

[MicDaddy]

Hey Bryan, sorry to hear about your buddy... gonna swing past your shop.

Hope he's to feeling better soon.

 

[zebra50]

>Thankfully, I'm cautiously optimistic today, this morning he peed more than he did in the previous 36 hours combined, and they were the biggest clumps of litter so far.

That's a good sign. Have you ever been so delighted to see cat pee!

 

[Ptownkid]

Oh man...that's exactly what I thought after I let out a "YEAAAA buddy" this morning. I've waited days to feel hopeful for a few moments.

 

[Ptownkid]

He seems to be acting more and more like himself  everyday and he's FINALLY peeing what I think is a normal daily volume and individual size. He's still at a high risk of reblocking, in the coming weeks but we're seeing definite progress each day.

I'm still not entirely sure what the long term looks like, and there are definitely still some unanswered questions. If he can get through the next month we should be able to avoid surgery, but there's always a risk of re-occurrence. Once we pay his current bill we are going to start a savings account to be ready this time.

Feeling a lot of relief as each day passes.

Thanks to those who offered their kind words and big thanks to anyone who has helped out so far. Your kindness is very much appreciated!

 

[zebra50]

Hey Bryan

Thanks for the update.  Really great to hear he is making good progress and peeing like a tomcat should!

And hello from our cat Tula, who helps with the washing up…

S.

 

[Ptownkid]

I would love if it was the first in a series of great updates...but he seems to be again having some kind of issue. Around lunch he stopped being able to jump properly, and seems to have some kind of pain going on. I hope, so, so much, that he pulled a muscle or something and it's merely coincidence...

He's still eating small amounts, and he has been peeing, but it's really hard to know what to think.

Waiting to get a call back from the emergency vet.

 

[Davo]

Hi Ptownkid,
For years I've been a proponent of holistic remedies...  The only problem is sifting through all the nonsense out there to find what works.  I've seen people on the web recommending vitamin c, uva ursi and coconut oil for cats with urinary tract blockage.  I don't have any experience with cats, but maybe this is something that you could find more info on that I.

Cheers,
d

 

[Ptownkid]

Well, this one is all good news.

He regained his ability to jump, is playful, purring and eating and most important of all, peeing lots.

We won't have any real idea of how well he is doing at avoiding another event until his next appointment at the end of the month, but he's doing great at the moment.

Thanks to anyone who helped out by buying some items, and a huge thanks for the kind words from those who messaged me. We are almost halfway there to covering his current bill.

Cheers

 

[zebra50]

Good to hear that! I have my fingers crossed for the little fellow. Keep us posted.