Grady has FLUTD - UPDATE #9

[Grace]

Idiopathic cystitis.

We have to segregate him from the other 5 tonight - to make sure he is still peeing. He's on Clavamox - only because he has a metal insert in his leg, Valium (to relax him) and Buprenex for pain. May start him on Prednisone tomorrow - depends on how he is tonight.

We gave him the antibiotic and Valium when we got home. So far the Valium hasn't touched him!

[krazyaboutkatz]

I'm sorry to hear this. I hope he'll start feeling better soon.

[Medusa]

Oh my, Grady! I'm sorry that you're feeling poorly. Sure hope you feel better real soon.

[Catty1]

Oscar, being formerly wild, got idiopathic cystitis several months after Cole arrived. The vet explained it was from stress - even though Oscar was settled and loving, even 'good' stress could cause a reaction.

He wanted Oscar on Elavil - but I asked about Feliway, and he agreed to try it. It has worked great! I shake it, and put a wee shot into his stretchy collar every morning.

Oscar had just a very few crystals which disappeared in the first week with a food change...but even after the infection was gone a month later he still had blood in his urine. 30 days on 50mg cranberry powder a day in his plain yogurt (he loves it!).

Just things you might want to ask your vet about, just my experience.

I hope Grady feels better very soon.

[Grace]

Grady has never shown any signs of not feeling well - despite the frequency and hematuria.

We segregated him last night and everyone survived. He is peeing, and there were two decent wet spots in the box this morning.

Stress - yes, she mentioned that as a cause. He really doesn't have much in his life; but Charley does pick on him from time to time. I tend to attribute all his problems to in-breeding. We strongly suspect that his father was also his older brother. Grady was 'rescued' from a house up the street when he was 6 months old. They never even missed him.

Candace - thanks for all the suggestions. I most certainly will bring them up with the Vet.

Thanks to all of you for your concern and well wishes. We all appreciate them.

[Grace]

Well, things are basically unchanged.

Grady did a 10 day course of Clavamox, combined with Valium and the pain med. A week ago today, 6 days after completing the abx, he spent the better part of the day at the Vet. They were finally able to aspirate some urine. Results: gross hematuria - no infection and no crystals, low specific gravity so the kidneys are doing their job. She did an abdominal x-ray that showed nothing out of the ordinary.

Next step is an abdominal ultrasound. Probably up at MSU Vet School. I think we'll wait on that until after our trip to Virginia that begins in 10 days.

Grady is not in any obvious discomfort, eats and sleeps and plays just as he always does.

Idiopathic cystitis normally resolves with or without treatment in a couple of weeks. We're way past that point, and he still has the hematuria. It's a mystery.

[Grace]

Grady had an ultrasound on Thursday, and another urinalysis. He has crystals in his bladder - both calcium oxalate and triple phosphate. The specific gravity is high, but the pH is 6. Still a lot of hemolyzed blood present, but the color is not red any longer. It's dark orange.

So he needs to be on a special diet. Our Vet recommends canned food - it has lots more liquid that the dry variety, and he needs to dilute that urine.

Well, so far we have tried Hill's c/d Seafood flavor and Eukanuba Low pH/S. He won't even come near the bowl, even when it is mixed with lots of his favorite, smelly canned food. In fact, none of our 6 would touch either brand.

Candace, I told my Vet about the cranberry powder, and she has no problems with it. And I read an article I found in a post here from several years ago that advocated routine use of cranberry powder - as well as no dry food.

Does anyone have any suggestions re the refusal to eat the prescription cat food? I did buy a sampling of canned food from a pet store - will see if he likes any of them.