Quote Originally Posted by Glacier
Unfortunately, I have tons of experience with this problem. My vet recommends the surgery after the third blockage. He told me that 30% of all male cats will block at some point in their lives. Of those cats, it happens to 10% more than once and about 5% of them will eventually need a PU surgery.

Pete blocked five times in four months. By the time I sent him for the surgery, he was blocking every 36 hours. My vet flat out told me, "you put him on a plane tonight, or bring him back tomorrow tonight and I"ll end this for both of you." My vet can't do the surgery and Pete had to travel to Saskatoon where it was done at the UofS vet school clinic.

The surgery does not solve the underlying problem. Whatever is causing the blockage will still be there. It does solve the lifethreatening problem though. A blockage is painful and can be fatal in a hurry. The surgery stops that entirely.

However, it does leave the cat more vunerable to infections. Pete gets on average 2 UTI infections a year. As he gets older, they seem to get less frequent. Twicket had the same surgery and lived to be almost 15. He had one infection in the 2 years I had him. Pete still has litterbox issues. He associates it with pain so sometimes he pees in the wrong spots(like the laundry basket!) He also still eats a special diet(Royal Canin Urinary formula).

If you have a teaching hospital or a vet school near you, contact them about doing the procedure. Pete got truly exceptional care and the bill was about half of what it would have been at a private clinic. It was still very expensive, but at least is wasn't as pricey as it could have been.

I was very nervous about doing the surgery, but now I wouldn't hesitate. If my other boys develop the same problems, they are off to the surgeon! Pete came home happy, affectionate and his life expectancy is the same as any other indoor cat now. Worth every dime of the bill and the interest Visa charged me!

I hope you don't have to deal with any of that though and that Butter is back to health very soon!

The problem is, I cannot afford to do it again, THEN do the surgery. It's way to much money.

We have a very good vet collage here, which is where I took him. A lot of people come from different places to come to our vet collage.