Cat Dripping Urine! HELP!

[squince]

Alright, I need any sort of advice. My cat is about 4.5 and here's basically her story in a nutshell..
About 4 years ago when I adopted her, I noticed right away that she was dripping urine around the house. She'd be laying on my bed, move and there'd be a urine spot. She'd jump up on a window sill and there'd be a wet spot.
I took her to the vet and we started on a cycle of trying all kinds of medications to treat her for a UTI, bladder infection, etc. During that time, she started dripping blood, straining to go and then ended up having to take her to the ER twice because she was in so much pain. She was tested and had no blockage or crystals, she was just so inflamed she couldn't go and had to have a catheter.
At some point, the vet decided to try a steroid to see if it would work.
It did work, to a point, but it didn't ever fix the problem. For the past 4 years, she's been on a near constant dose of steroid, prednisolone. The longest she's gone without dripping urine is about 6 weeks. Other than that, she'll go a few days or a few weeks and have to go back on. But as of late, she can't catch a break. She's been on this steroid nearly nonstop for months now. I'll start to wean her off and she just starts dripping again. Even when she's ON the medication, she's dripping.
Just recently, the vet tried an incontinence med used for dogs on her, called Proin. It made her so lethargic that I refuse to give her anymore and am now skeptical of trying any more medication.
She's otherwise healthy. Still uses the litter box, eats and drinks as well as I think she can! I feed her wet food every morning but she's super picky so she'll mostly just pick around it for the day. So I mean she's rather healthy. Occasionally, I wonder if she's expressing discomfort because of her situation, or if she's just being a wild cat. But she'll howl and run around the house. Either way, again, she's otherwise very healthy.
The vet is stumped as to what the cause is and how to solve it and I just worry that she could get really sick again. I want to find a solution for her, even if it means giving her something for the rest of her life. I just want something that will work! I see some bladder strengtheners on Amazon, also thinking of trying Feliway and a product called Leaks No More. I just hate spending more money on products that won't work for her. Obviously, I will give almost anything a try at this point, so want to see if anyone has heard of this before or has any suggestions!

[Karen]

Oh, dear, what a conundrum. You don't want to have to diaper her, then she cannot use the letterbox when she wants ... hopefully some other kitty folks will weigh in. I have not heard of this happening with a young, otherwise healthy kitty!

[squince]

Well and I can even live with the dripping. I love her enough that years of cleaning it up doesn't matter, but it's just I don't want her to get sick(er) or to be in pain at all. It's hard to tell if she is!

[Freedom]

Do you have a veterinary medical school near you? If so, take her in there for a check up.

Is there a vet near you who treats ONLY cats? (We have 2 in RI). This may also be worth a visit.

You wrote: "she was just so inflamed she couldn't go and had to have a catheter." WHAT is inflamed? Bladder? You need to know specifically. If you don't know, you should be able to find out with a phone call to the vet office. Then include that here.

What are you feeding this cat? Dry kibble? Canned food? Do you always have food out and available, or do you put it down then pick up half an hour later. Please be specific, include brand AND FORMULA.

Doing a Google search, this is the ONLY page I could find which may give you some ideas, either with your current vet, or a specialist cat vet, or a vet at the medical school.
http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/03/01/causes-and-treatment-for-urinary-incontinence-in-pets.aspx

That site means you need to determine the cause more specifically. Is it hormone, birth defect, etc.

I hope this helps! And I'll watch for you to post answers to the questions I posed.

[Miss Z]

This certainly is a tricky one! Firstly I want to say well done you for being such a saint of an owner and doing whatever it takes to care for a cat with such a condition - you are a minority amongst pet owners and a breath of fresh air for most vets!!

Has she been spayed, and if so, when? There is a link between incontinence and spaying, however as you have said that the incontinence meds make her so lethargic then this would be a difficult avenue to pursue.

You don't appear to have been winning with the steroids so I would advise against going with prednisolone or similar steroids again. Prolonged use is likely to induce other hormonal problems and since she's so young it would be awful to cause another problem for her. See what your vet says regarding this, of course.

I'd also be really careful of what you can order from Amazon - again this is something to speak to your vet about. The homeopathic products in particular, whist they certainly do provide relief in some cases, have no evidence base behind them, plus the dilution values have probably not been calculated and confirmed by vets. I spoke to a homeopath (not a vet or remotely medical person) recently who claimed her 'veterinary' product was effective in all species, including reptiles, birds, etc - unfortunately this is the kind of twaddle that well-intentioned but ultimately ignorant people will use to sell an untested product. I don't know much about the 'Leaks no more' product, but if you do go ahead with it I think it would be best to take a bottle in to your vet and ask him/her to check the ingredients, just to ensure that nothing is going to work in conflict with anything prescribed for your cat.

The thoughts I had whilst reading your post with regards to the problem were interstitial cystitis (your vet may also call it idiopathic cystitis) or potentially a bladder polyp or tumour. Has she had an ultrasound on her bladder? A tumour is relatively unlikely in a cat of her age and as she seems to have been suffering from these symptoms for a long time it makes me doubt myself, but it would be worth checking out if it hasn't already. Interstitial cystitis is more of a problem as the cause is very difficult to identify in both veterinary and human medicine so unfortunately trial and error is often the only way of stumbling across something that works. A congenital defect is possible, but I would have thought that this may have become apparent when her catheter was placed last time.

I wish you the best of luck with her, she is lucky to have someone so caring. Do let us all know how she gets on.

[Catty1]

Feliway may be the least expensive thing to try. I have used a stretchy collar, and sprayed a small amount directly into the collar twice a day (or whatever your vet prescribes). I press the sprayer slowly, so that it goes right into the collar and not on the fur.

I wish more pet owners were like you - you are willing to help your kitty in any way possible. HUGS! :love:

[Cataholic]

I have a cat with urinary incontinence. She is leaky. :)

I did the proin for about 6 months. I applied it to her ear flap. It is fairly expensive to compound, and I didn't notice enough relief, so I stopped it.

The easiest thing for me was to buy the true mattress protectors (where you can pour a glass of water on it and nothing leaks through) and cut them up into throws. I put them where she likes to lay, and wash frequently. Totally eases my mind.

But, my girl never had any other symptoms, just urinary incontinence.

[emily_the_spoiled]

One of my guys was hit by a car when he was a kitten so he doesn't have any control over his back end (and sometimes he has seizures). I took Frankie to a veterinary neurologist to see if there was anything that might be able done to help him. The neurologist prescribed a product called Bethanechol (http://www.drugs.com/pro/bethanechol.html). Basically it helps provide him with a more control over his bladder. Now he doesn't "drip" per se (he still doesn't know when he is peeing but at least it is a puddle now :rolleyes:). If you have any specialists in your area it might be worthwhile to have a talk with them about this.