Resolved: It was Chronic Cystitis

lupinfarm

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A few weeks ago Accio went to the vet with bloody urine, he was peeing the size of a quarter and he seemed strained. The vet told me he had Urinary Crystals/Stones and the blood was from the crystals agitating his urinary tract creating the blood when he peed (he wasn't blocked). The vet gave him some antibiotics that would be effective for 2 weeks and sent him home because he had an empty bladder so the vet couldn't take a sample.

I changed Accio's food from a raw-food diet to Hills Science Diet and his bloody urine cleared up and he was back to normal. Over the past week he has been having bloody urine again, however this time it is not small and he has normal urine in between episodes as well.

My mum suggested that this was perhaps stones/crystals passing and agitating the urinary walls. What do you guys think? Is there anything else I can do for him?
 

ksalvagno

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It does sound like stones passing to me too. Of course how do you make a cat drink more water! Is the Science Diet the one for urinary tract? Maybe a cat food specifically for the urinary tract would help.
 

lupinfarm

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I don't believe it is specifically for urinary tract/stones ... I believe the vet sells Medi-Cal which I think comes in a formula for urinary stones. I did some reading before I bought the Science Diet and found a number of sources that suggested it.
 

Sara

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My male cat had problems with that. Along with then meds The vet put him on a special feed, but it was very costly. I switched to the Purina One Urinary Tract Health, and he has not had a problem since, that was probably 5 years ago.
 

lupinfarm

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I'll look into the Purina One... I don't know if I'll be able to find that around here but I'll check Petsmart for it tomorrow.
 

cmjust0

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We use Purina One urinary tract, as we had a female with "struvite stones" or MAP stones...magnesium ammonium phosphate. Urinary care food is really low in magnesium and higher in calcium, I believe..

Something to consider here...you're basically looking at urinary calculi, but instead of it being in a goat, it's in a cat. Same thing, though....most UC stones in goats are also MAP/struvite stones in chemical composition.

Something we tried with my UC buckling was a drug called Phenoxybenzamine...which was actually made for UC in cats!! Problem with it, though, was that they were directed to give it after meals, but cats eat like 268 times a day...or 10 times, somewhere thereabout. Anyway, I'm not sure it has to be taken with a meal, though, as we just gave it to our buck 2x/day. Either way, it's a big long drug name you might throw at your vet just to watch the look on his face.

Definitely ask your vet about anti-inflammatories, too, as that's why my buck is STILL dribbly...a urethra is a urethra, right, so I'd hate to see your cat clear the stones and then clog up on scar tissue from inflammation like my buck did..

Good luck with him. :hugs
 

lupinfarm

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Accio eats once a day now.. He was picking at whatever we ate all day long beforehand but when I found out he had crystals, we limited his feeding to the specified feeding by the food, once a day. I've actually now changed his food from the Science Diet because it contains Pork Fat and we have purchased a bag of Royal Canin which says on the back that it is meant for Urinary Health (it's rated at .9 magnesium) ... I looked into Technical Urinary Tract Health BUT it's being discontinued as they are merging with Royal Canin unfortunately. The nice thing is that my local pet shop offers a money back guarantee. If you aren't satisfied with the bag of feed, you finish it and then bring the bag back and they will give you your money back.

The bloody urine is sporadic now, he'll have some normal urination and then he'll have bloody urine and that just isn't cutting it for me. I want him to be comfortable and happy and not have that bloody urine so we're going to keep trying food until we find a good fit.

If it doesn't clear up, we'll go back to the vet and he will have to spend the night there so the vet can get a urine sample and prescribe some medication for him.
 

MrsCountryChick

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Sorry to hear of your cat. :( Unfortunately my 11 yr old cat has had the same problem over the years. He has his 1st episode with the typical straining to pee & blood tinge. Our vet treated him with antibiotics. But what my original vet never told us was it would keep reoccurring if his diet was not changed. The second time it happened our vet was retired so we took him to another vet & they explained how it was prone in male cats, Especially neutered male cats because of a constricted uretha. Our vet explained how our cat needed to be on Urinary Tract dry cat food, she had us try some expensive canned cat food & my poor cat went on a hunger strike!......but she also explained we can get over the counter Urinary Tract cat food for him & to get more moisture in his diet it's better to feed him moist canned cat food or atleast suppliment his Urinary Tract dry cat food with a can or 2 a wk of moist cat food so he gets the extra moisture. Of course the typical keeping fresh water available (who doesn't, that's a given). & to try to keep the litterbox as clean as possible so he will be more likely to urinate frequently. We changed to the Tidy Cat Litter box system. It's great with the ceramic stones no litter to track onto the carpet. :weee Which is a BIG plus in our house. Many cat food brands have Urinary Tract cat foods. Brands like 9-Lives, Purina One, even Special Kitty Brand from Wal-mart has a Urinary Tract verison of cat foods. And it's very important that your cat is treated for his straining to pee & his bloody pee, that means he Actively Has urinary stones or small crystals passing....you have to be careful, the longer his has a Urinary Tract Infection or the More Times he gets them the larger the stones will be & they can possibly obstruct him & his urine will back up causing him to become toxic & killing him. A surgeon will be his only hope to save him & of him surviving. Our vet said if he 'does' get a full Obstruction he has to be Immediately rushed to the nearest vet (no matter what time it is) to give him the Best survival rate, so get your cat help now to save him from full Obstruction. He should be back to normal when he's all cleared up. Tell your vet so they can prescribe you more meds. My cat does fine on 9-Lives Urinary Tract dry cat food & the occasional Moist canned cat food & the Tidy Cat Litter System.
Good Luck with your Beloved kitty. :)
 

Beekissed

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I had a cat with this problem also. He was spending too much time in the house and eating cat food instead of out hunting, like normal. We just stopped feeding him and forced him to hunt for his diet. Cleared it right up. We made sure to limit his cat food consumption after that. I don't think I've ever heard of an outside, barn cat having any of these kinds of problems with urinary health....maybe it's all diet induced and a natural diet is best?

Actually, this worked for two cats. The other cat, someone gave me and told me he had to have the low ash food or he would have urinary trouble. That cat went out one day and rarely came home again but I kept seeing him in my old neighborhood for years, so his health must have been excellent.
 

lupinfarm

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Well we switched his food to Royal Canin ... Technical which would have been our first choice unfortunately is discontinueing the Urinary Tract Health line as they are merging with Royal Canin (a very high quality and spendy food). Accio is an indoor cat that hunts mice in the winter inside. Beforehand he was eating raw and because we weren't supplementing him (he'll eat anything and everything, we have to lock him up at dinner time!) the vet said the raw food was the likely culprit because as humans we can't know exactly what is in a food, and so the mineral levels could be off or he just isn't getting the minerals he needs. Plus we're on a well with hard water (we have a softener). We switched Accio and the dogs to bottled water from a spring in town and they are on a waterer that flows so they get fresh water all the time.

Accio's bloody pee is sporadic, and for the most part he has a clean urination. We are lucky because our local pet shop has the money back guarantee, so I can try all the foods until I find one that works well. We cannot buy Purina 1 in stores.
 
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