Gatsby is home again. 8/31 update #27.

I had to rush Gatsby to the vet this morning with a urinary tract blockage. He's never even had a UTI before, but last night I noticed he was spending longer than usual in the litter box, and by early this morning he couldn't go at all. Needless to say, Gatsby and I were waiting at the door when the vet clinic opened.

They got him unblocked right away, but he'll be staying there at least through the weekend to make sure he doesn't block right up again. And then I'll have to figure out how to get him to drink more water and eat a special diet. Fortunately, because he has his own room (my home office), I won't have to worry about keeping him away from the other cats' food.

Thank goodness I knew from reading PT that I was dealing with a very serious issue! I really hope we can keep things under control by some means short of surgery.

Aww, poor guy! I hope he feels better, and they figure out why it happened!

have you got one of those bubbling or flowing water dishes? I tell ya my two drank so much water that I ended up putting it away, 'cuz I got tired of refilling it all of the time. Needless to say lots of water going IN meant lots of water coming back OUT too.

If you dont have one and would be interested I'll send you mine. I'm not using it.

What kind of food is he eating? If it's dry try adding water to it. I do that in Pinot's food; she drinks that liquid first, then eats the food. Well, your vet will tell you what to do, too. Glad it was caught early!

Don't worry yourself too much, it's common for a cat to block and never block again throughout a long life as happened to two of my male cats. I found out from research after Teddy blocked years ago that eating his favorite treats - raw oats soaked in water and cashew nuts that he stole from a bag if I accidentally left it on the sofa, actually made blockages more common. From then on there were no more oats and the nut treats were very, very rare. I didn't even have to switch him to mostly wet food, which he didn't want anyway, just to a better dry food - Royal Canin.

I know how frightening it is, though. When the first cat blocked, My Artful Dodger, I spent years checking on him and making a few panic rushes to the vet.

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Originally Posted by Karen

Aww, poor guy! I hope he feels better, and they figure out why it happened!

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Thanks! I just got back from visiting him, and he's still pretty much out of it from the anesthetic. I'm afraid he'll be plenty perturbed when he wakes up enough to realize that he's not at home in his room. He's a total sweetheart around people he likes, but if circumstances are not to his liking he gets very, very cranky.

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Originally Posted by aTailOf2Kitties

have you got one of those bubbling or flowing water dishes? I tell ya my two drank so much water that I ended up putting it away, 'cuz I got tired of refilling it all of the time. Needless to say lots of water going IN meant lots of water coming back OUT too.

If you dont have one and would be interested I'll send you mine. I'm not using it.

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Thank you! I've got a fountain that I tried to get Gatsby to use, but he seemed to prefer a stainless steel dish. I think I'll set the fountain up again and set the dish alongside--maybe the flowing water will at least inspire him to drink from something. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Pinot's Mom

What kind of food is he eating? If it's dry try adding water to it. I do that in Pinot's food; she drinks that liquid first, then eats the food. Well, your vet will tell you what to do, too. Glad it was caught early!

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I've always fed him half canned/half dry. I did switch my dry food brand very recently, though, from Artemis Senior to Evanger's, so I wonder whether that could be the culprit.

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Originally Posted by Lizzie

Don't worry yourself too much, it's common for a cat to block and never block again throughout a long life as happened to two of my male cats. I found out from research after Teddy blocked years ago that eating his favorite treats - raw oats soaked in water and cashew nuts that he stole from a bag if I accidentally left it on the sofa, actually made blockages more common. From then on there were no more oats and the nut treats were very, very rare. I didn't even have to switch him to mostly wet food, which he didn't want anyway, just to a better dry food - Royal Canin.

I know how frightening it is, though. When the first cat blocked, My Artful Dodger, I spent years checking on him and making a few panic rushes to the vet.

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I'll check the Evanger's for oats. It's good quality food, but there might be oats in there.

It was definitely a scare. I've never had a kitty get blocked before and would just as soon not have it happen again!

My office is very empty right now. I hope Gats recovers according to schedule and is back where he belongs on Monday.

My boy Ming used to get routine blockages until my vet advised me to put him on amitryptiline, one pill per day. This is an anti-anxiety meds that seems to work very well for cats with blockages. Ming kept having repeat blockages until I tried this med (it's very inexpensive, $10 for 100 pills from Pet Meds). As far as diet goes, I feed both my boys Purina One for Urinary Tract Health dry food. Both my cats love this, so I don't have to feed them seperately. I give them a mix of Friskies Special Diet canned food for urinary tract health and Fancy Feast Elegant Medleys. My vet likes both these foods, especially the Elegant Medleys because they have a high liquid content. Ming has not had any problems in over six months (a record!) since I started him on the meds and diet. What's nice is this diet is a healthy one for any cat, so they can all eat the same. Good luck with Gatsby!:D I used to stress out about this but now I know it can be successfully treated for very little cost or fuss.

Glad you knew the signs and caught it right away.
Hope he's feeling better soon.

the little pumps in the fountains are self-contained. You can remove them and put the pump in whatever bowl you want. I got tired of having to refill the fountain and just stuck the pump in a big bowl, but Toby kept yanking it out.

Apparently he's feeling more like himself. I called the vet to check on him, and they said he's hissing at everybody. Can't say I blame him much, given the circumstances.

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Originally Posted by Prairie Purrs

Apparently he's feeling more like himself. I called the vet to check on him, and they said he's hissing at everybody. Can't say I blame him much, given the circumstances.

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Aw, poor boy. Well, he's on the mend now and that's what's important. Hopefully, he'll drink more water now.

When Ashes got put on the UT food we just decided to have all the cats eat the same food. We never had any UT issues since with Ashes or any of the cats.

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Originally Posted by DriftyAlison0

When Ashes got put on the UT food we just decided to have all the cats eat the same food. We never had any UT issues since with Ashes or any of the cats.

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Gatsby eats separately from the other cats, so it's no problem to feed him a different diet. He has his own room because he hates other cats (any and all of them) with an unrelenting passion. I'm just hoping I can convince him to eat a UT diet.

As for the others, I've got some horribly picky eaters and the UT food would probably be a tough sell. I haven't been able to get Hagrid to eat anything other than Fancy Feast since his allergy attack flared up. :rolleyes:

I'm sorry to hear about Gatsby.:( Hopefully he'll recover quickly and you won't have any more blockage problems with him. Did your vet tell you if he had crystals in his urine?

My Storm blocked 2 times and before the second time he was already eating a special veterinary diet. He had to have PU surgery because he had scar tissue and they couldn't even get a cather in him the second time. He was then put on Royal Canin Urinary S/O canned and dry food for quite a while but he'd still have UTI's some times. His urine would also some times be very concentrated and would some times still have some struvite crystals in it.

Now all of my cats are on a grain free diet and they eat Innova Evo dry and canned food. Storm gets 2 helpings of canned food mixed with some water every day and I know that this is helping him a lot. He hasn't had any problems since. A bigger plus is that all of my cats love this food.:) I'll keep Gatsby in my thoughts and prayers.

Gats is back home and extremely pleased about it. He's on prednisolone and orbax for awhile, and the vet wants him eating s/d prescription dry food for now. I think I'll look into the Innova Evo, though.

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and the good suggestions!

Gatsby was doing well all month--eating his prescription food, using the litter box a bit more frequently than usual, but nothing to be alarmed about.

He had a checkup on Wednesday, and when the vet expressed some urine there was quite a lot of blood in it. The vet prescribed another course of antibiotics.

This morning Gatsby was in and out of the litter box about five times in a half hour, and it didn't appear to me that anything was coming out. So it was off to a clinic (as my vet will be out of town for the weekend) to find out what's going on.

The vet couldn't tell whether he was blocked again because there wasn't much urine in his bladder. So they're going to give him some fluids and keep an eye on him. X-rays didn't show any bladder stones, so that's good.

I really hope that my poor guy doesn't have ongoing problems with this. It's odd that he was in and out of the litter box so much with so little in his bladder. Maybe constipation this time? I don't know.

What a horrible month this has been! I just want to crawl in a hole.

Unfortunately, some cats like my Ming, will block repeatedly until they either have surgery or are put on meds. Ming's last chance before surgery was meds, which he will take for the rest of his life. They keep the pipes clear, though, with no side effects! It's been almost a year since he has had a blockage and I do think that's a record! Just follow whatever your vet tells you to do. After two or three blockages, vets consider them predisposed to blockages and that means meds or surgery. Good luck and I hope Gatsby feels better quickly and can go home!

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Originally Posted by Prairie Purrs

What a horrible month this has been! I just want to crawl in a hole.

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Who can blame you? First Hagrid, now this. If it's any comfort to you, though, when my Puddy went to the Bridge last September, 3 weeks later Pidge was diagnosed w/cardiomyopathy. Dr. Lee felt that she could go at any time but she's still here and doing well. So we'll send up more prayers that all will be well for Gatsby and for you, too. Keep the faythe. :love:

Well, he's not blocked, but he's a bit anemic. The vet was asking scary questions about whether he might have gotten into rat poison (zero chance of that) or whether he's been tested for feline leukemia. I don't think he's ever been tested, but he came indoors as a little kitten and his mama was negative.

They're going to keep him overnight. Even though he's passing some urine, they haven't gotten a sample for testing yet.

I'm pretty much terrified at this point. Why are my cats suddenly coming down with horrible mystery diseases? Kacey last year, Hagrid last week. Please just let Gatsby get better.

Prayers for Gatsby. Just remember how my Jim was blocked....better....WORSE......and now much better.

Hopefully this will pass. And don't worry about the vet asking about FELV, whenever there is a mystery, they always start there.

PS, the anemia could be from losing blood in the urine. We did not test Jim's blood, but with the amount of blood he was peeing, I would not be surprized if he was also anemic.

Thank you, Jen. There was a lot of blood in Gatsby's urine on Wednesday, so hopefully that's the problem.

I wish that I could have brought him home tonight. I don't sleep well when my kitties are at the vet's.

I'm so sorry to hear that Gatsby is still having problems.:( Sometimes diet alone just doesn't help. He may have Feline Idiopathic Cystitis. Several years ago my Sunny had this and even though his bladder was empty he would keep jumping in and out of the litter boxes. He was given antibiotics at first which didn't work and then later he was given a muscle relaxant that's used for people and this did the trick.

I kept on trying to think what may have caused this and it turns out that the collar that I made him wear was stressing him out so much that it caused his bladder to become inflamed. So now he's the only one of my cats that doesn't wear a collar. Luckily he hasn't had another episode since. He does eat both canned and dry Innova Evo which may also help him. Here's a good link about cat's with FLUTD: http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/urinary.html. Lot's of prayers and positive thoughts are being sent Gatsby's way. Please take care.

Don't let your vet's questions frighten you. When my Puddy developed anemia as a result of her CRF, Dr. Lee asked me those same questions. I started her on injections of erythropoietin, they were simple to administer, and I did notice a slight improvement in her. I say "slight" because, sadly, Puddy had so many other physical challenges that she had to deal with that I never got to see the full effect of the med. Try not to worry too much about your kitties all getting sick one after the other. We all know that it's programmed into their DNA to do that and usually on a weekend or holiday when our regular vet isn't available plus it costs us more money. ;) We'll say extra prayers for Gatsby and you. Keep the faythe.

A candle for Gatsby: http://www.gratefulness.org/candles/...ng&cid=9063636

Thank you very much for the well-wishes and the information. KAK, the website was very useful. Gatsby certainly fits the profile of a FLUTD-prone cat.

The vet needed to use a catheter after all. Apparently I got him there just before he blocked. But she's not finding crystals, so it sounds like it's a matter of finding the right antibiotic to take care of whatever sort of infection he has. The procedure went well, and he's doing fine so far.

Poor fellow will have to spend the weekend there, and they're not open tomorrow so I can't visit. They'll have vets and techs keeping an eye on him, but no public access. I just hope he can come home Monday and gets over this once and for all.

Apparently everyone at the clinic has fallen in love with him. The vet was amazed that she could poke and prod without needing anyone else to hold onto him--he just puts up with it. She said that everyone has been spending time with him because he's just the sweetest cat ever. As long as he's nowhere near another cat, that is.

My thoughts and prayers are with you and Gatsby. It's no fun to go through this. Hang in there, you are a good cat mom and got him in there in time, so he will be just fine! FLUTD is such a frightening and nerve-wracking condition! Give Gatsby a big hug and kiss from me when he gets home!:love:

Prayers and hugs for Gatsby from here! Get yourself better, sweetie, Mom's so worried!! :love:

Gatsby is back home after causing the vet a little concern overnight, as it took him awhile to get "going" again after the catheter was removed. But by late morning (after a little Valium), he had created quite a swamp in the litter box. :)

He's having a nice snooze right now in his box right alongside the keyboard. Many thanks for the prayers!

I'm glad he's home.

Jim was on Torbutol to reduce the sensation of pain in the bladder AND reduce inflamation to allow the urine to flow better.

Ask about it, if you think he is still uncomfortable.

Oh, good news, Penny! I'm glad that Gatsby is doing better. :)

Yay Gatsby! You know that old song - Cry Me A River??? - glad you were able to sing your own version - Pee Me A River. :eek: :D
Penny - so glad to hear that he's doing better!

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Originally Posted by pomtzu

Yay Gatsby! You know that old song - Cry Me A River??? - glad you were able to sing your own version - Pee Me A River. :eek: :D

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LOL! It's a strange state of affairs when you want the litter box to require scooping.

And Jen, I'll make a note about Torbutol. Gats seems OK for now, but if he shows any sign of discomfort I'll ask the vet about it. Thanks for the info!

There are quite a few meds for cats that get chronic blockages. The good news is that they really seem to work! I no longer follow Ming around the house waiting and watching to see if he pees. That alone is worth the price of the meds!:) I'm sending Gatsby good thoughts.