Mommakitty here - I had to take Kimo to the Vet's this morning (thank goodness they are open on Saturdays). He has been whining a lot for a couple of days now (which is unusual for him) and I've noticed he's been frustrated going to the bathroom (but I didn't know if it was #1 or #2).
The vet called me and told me he has a urinary blockage. They will have to anesthetize him and put a catheter in him to flush things out. He will probably have to be a special diet for life.
He is only 3 yrs old. Has anyone else had this issue with their fur baby? What was the treatment / outcome?
He'll probably stay at the vet's through the weekend ($ cha-ching $). We'd appreciate your prayers.
UPDATE 1:10pm:
The vet called and she was very pleased that we caught this early! She said Kimo is sleeping things off, and he will have to keep the catheter in, and stay under observation. He should come home Monday afternoon. We really love the Cat Hospital of Petaluma. They don't have a website to show you, but they are cat-only vets and they know thier stuff! We will keep you posted.
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36 comments:
SO Sorry to hear about Kimo! Well all be sending purrs and purrayers to you for a speedy recovery. Hope the special diet isn't too bad!!
We had a cat with chronic crystals. So long as you know that they can block again and get them to the vet quickly it's not a big deal. If they block regularly there is an operation but it's a big operation and not done often. Some cats will have issues once and the diet just changes things. Iggy was a urinary cat but his were strange crystals (calcium oxylate and not the more common struvite which responds to C/D). While we are not fans of Science Diet in general, the C/D seems to be well tolerated by cats and works. Fifteen years ago when we had this, there were no known reasons not to let the cat family have C/D.
Iggy lived a normal lifespan for a cat and his issues were more chronic and more unusual than most UA cats.
Oh no! Poor Kimo! We are purring and purring for sweet Kimo!!!
Poor Kimo. I am sending my special purrs and purrayers to Kimo and his family. Please keep us updated.
Big Purrrs for Kimo!
Three of us have the problem. We eat special food and Momma keeps watching us to see if we pee!
Noah and Timothy both have had decath, but doing very well on our special food..as long as we eat it and nothing else!
(((Hugs)))
~ The Bunch
This had been a chronic problem for my male cat. He had 3 instances of it in 4 years. It has been 3 years now with no problem...it fix was his dry food. He is on the ROYAL CANIN Urinaey SO formula. The secret....SALT!
Salty food=thirst=water=flushing the kidneys and bladder.
I cannot recommend this food highly enough. It worked great.
Mommy's first kitty T-Gray had these issues. His first onset was at about 11 years old. He did have the surgery and ate special food for the rest of his life. He had only one incident after the surgery and lived to be well over 20!
We are praying that all goes well for Kimo!
Smoochies and (((HUGS)))!!!
Get better soon Kimo. Don't forget to drink lots of water!! Mom has had kidney stones, and they were no fun!
All the best.
Boots & Brenda
Poor Kimo! I'm glad that he is responding well and I'm purring for him. Hopefully you and the vet can find the right treatment for him.
Loves of love and purrs,
Tuck (and Jen)
That happended to the Siamese male mom had when she was little. It only happened once with him. Momma's female snowshoe Morgan had crystal issues and she had to be on a special diet her whole life. Both kitties lived to be very old (18 for Morgan)
Purrrs for Kimo!! Hope the vet and you figure out what works best for him!
Your FL furiends,
We are sending purrs for Kimo ans the family! Wizard ahd Kidney issyes ans ate specisl food (Science Dite K/D) When Angel came to us, she ate it too! Wizards was caused by bad IAMS food that poisoned so many! Since you have caught this early, it should be easy to control!
We're glad you caught this early and Kimo will be home Monday.
We're glad Kimo is doing better! It's great you caught this early! Special diet will help... Mom has friends who's kitties have gotten blocked. Both kitties had to have the surgery. Both are doing great!
Our grampa norton hadded this prollem. He hadded to haf surgery the 3rd time it happened, and he was 4. BUT, after he spended a week in the hospital, he nefur hadded THAT prollem again. Noo, mommy says he then switched to not being able to poo. he liked to be difficult. We are purrrring furry hard for Kimo
We are glad you caught it early and Kimo is recovering well. We are purring for him.
Glad you caught it early. It's not uncommon for male cats. Kimo should be fine with the special diet. Mom had a cat with that problem and he ate special food. Unfortunately, he died at too early an age of another cause, so we don't know how the diet would have worked long term. Parker's Mom's T-gray certainly fared well.
~Bathsheba
We had the urinary crystals issue a number of years ago an' the special diet from Science Diet wasn't furry delicious, so it didn't get eaten. Other than keepin' Kimo in our thoughts an' purrayers, we don't know much that would be helpful ... Just listen to the v-e-t. Our kitty who had the recurrent crystals lived a good number of years after his diagnosis. This DOES seem to be a neutered male issue, though.
DMM
Maybe I shood teleport ofur and keep Kimo kumpnee. I bet he feels bedder, but hates beeing at tha vet. We've nefur had that problim in this house so Mommy will follow yur story closely. I'm the same age as Kimo. It's good that the mommakitty got Kimo to the vet so kwick. Me and Tenny send yoo many purrs!
Oh man, we'll be purring and purraying fur ya Kimo...dis is something mom fears wif Speedy cuz it is a mancat prollem and he's da first mancat she's hadded by herself. We hope dey can fix it easy.
Oh, I hope he will be well soon!! Sounds awful! Poor kittie..
Does he eat much dry food? Does he drink lots of catmilk/water? Does he eat can food?
I have heard that you can get problems with your urine thing when you just eat dry food and don't drink enough. If it is like that: drink more or eat more can food. But I am sure your vet will tell you what to do.
Love
So glad to hear he is doing well and you caught it early.
Has the vet mentioned filtered water? Our kitties get only bottled water and they have a Drinkwell Fountain which really encourages them to drink more.
So happy for the good news.
Love & Purrs,
ML & KC
Hi, We are so sorry to hear about Kimo!! We are purring very hard for a quick recovery!
Cal had a urinary blockage caused by mucus plugs and urinary crystals when he was 3 years old and was hospitalized for 3 days. He too had to get the catheter inserted. The vet thought we were going to have to do special surgery that widens the urethra because he continued to get blocked. He was put on c/d-s for a long time and also a special medication, sorry I can't remember the name of it. He recovered and no longer needed the medicine or special diet or the surgery.
Sending healing vibes Kimo's way!
we are all purrin furry hard fot kimo and yoo too mommakitty as we know how you must feel. we too are glad you got this early and kimo will be home furry soon.
purrin furr kimo
abby
Sorry to hear about Kimo, but it is great you caught this early.We wanted to send him purrs and prayers, and for your family too. get better soon Kimo kitty.
We are sayin' lotsa prayers for sweet Kimo.
Very truly yours,
The Whiskers and Purrs Gang
Lots of purrs to Kimo that he gets better soonest.
We're so glad that Kimo got help early on to fix this problem. Mum has heard about crystals with neutered males, but never had anycat with that problem, but there are already some good ideas here. We're purring that with the help of the dreaded v-e-t, and the love of his family, Kimo will be back to his cheeky self in no time,
{{{hugs}}}
Gypsy & Tasha
Oh Kimo, thank goodness for your vet being open on Saturday! And we're glad that you're gonna be ok! Please know that we are sending all of our purrs to you, your family and of course you're super-Saturday-vet!!!
Oh, Kimo! Buddy! I'm so sorry! I HATE having crystals! We're purring for you!
~Jack
The OTW here,
Jack has had this problem since the day after his neutering at 11 mos. As best I can remember, he went on Medi-Cal Dissolution to dissolve the crystals, in the canned food only, for a month, because he doesn't drink enough. This stuff changes the ph-levels of the urine to dissolve it.
Medi-Cal is a Canadian company, I don't know if they sell in the US. Hill's Science Diet (actually, Prescription Diet for the from-vet-only medicated stuff) has S/D as an equivalent. There's a different set of food for Oxalate crystals, I believe. Jack has Struvite.
He was switched to a mix of canned and dry Medi-Cal Preventative, which just prevents new crystals from forming. As I understand it, the Dissolution changes the ph-levels more radically, and long-term use can cause other problems, either with the liver or the kidney, can't remember which.
Jack was on the Preventative without another problem until he was about 5 years I think. He got a small stone and after a course of Dissolution, and back to the Preventative.
When he had it again two years later, the vet switched him to Science Diet C/D as a maintenance diet after the crystals cleared up, which is Hill's equivalent of Preventative, but a bit stronger than Medi-Cal's version according to her.
He was on that until the pet food recall, with no more episodes of crystals, when I switched him to Origen no-grain, because Medi-Cal's Dissolution was on the recall list (though he wasn't on it at the time), as was Science Diet's Maintenance (which he's never actually had).
So far, the only time we've had a problem was in Nov. And he only had a urinary infection that CAN be a precursor to crystals, but no sign of crystals. Also, this was right after we tried to adopt Trapper, and a month later went away for a more than a week, so he was a bit stressed. He pretends I'm not Mommy, but he is SO-O-O a momma's boy! :)
He does still get a tablespoon of the Hill's C/D canned every night. Origen only makes dry.
Your vet's opinion may differ, but all the vets I've had have said it was fine for other cats to eat the Preventative and C/D as well, so both Persephone and Whisper eat/ate it exclusively too. Never the Dissolution or S/D however.
All three LOVELOVELOVE the Origen way better though. They'd all root through bowl looking for it and spit out the C/D during the transition period! And other than a bit more dander in Jack's fur (which may just be age) seem to do extremely well on it. It was about the same price as the Hill's from any of the vets here, and they eat less.
I know Origen does sell in some states; California is on their list. I didn't see any place in Petaluma, specifically, but maybe one of the other places is near you?
Here's the link for Orijen, if you're interested.
http://www.orijen.ca/orijen/about/
We haven't tried their new 6-fish version, but Jack isn't a fish lover. They don't have any special-diet versions, just the regular and the fish, but their principle seems to be that cats not eating grain don't tend to get crystals in the first place, because their urine's ph-levels are more suitable to their species than on a diet with grains in it.
Be warned, to me at least, the Orijen smells stronger than other dry foods. Also, their poops were FOUL the first week. And after burning out my nose, I couldn't tell afterwards if their poops continued to be stinkier on Orijen.
Hope all that helps!
~Jack's OTW
I had this happen to me about 9 months ago. Mummy came home from work and I was all out of sorts so took me straight to the vet. They could tell straight away that I had crystals in my bladder that had blocked me up. If she hadn't got me to the vet then I would have died. They drained my bladder with a needle straight away and then put a catheter up my hoo-ha.
I ended up being at the vet for a few days as I started to go into kidney failure, but I pulled through. She said it helped that I was still quite young (4.5 years).
The vet put me on some special biscuits but the main thing is to make sure you drink lots of water. Mummy has put me on wet food at night to help my fluid intake.
The biscuits the vet put me on was C/D - not very nutritious if you go though the ingredients and I didn't like it. It also tends to make cats put on weight as it is basically all carbs. We found another one (Optimum) which has the ingredients that stop the crystals forming but has fewer carbs and more protein.
I had a test for crystals about 3 months ago and it was all clear. FLUTD is a condition I'll have for life, but it something that's easily managed. Kimo was lucky to have a good Mummy who got him to the vet in time!
FLUTD is apparently not an uncommon condition, especially in boycats that have been fixed.
We're very glad that Kimo is doing well. No kitty likes to go to the vet or to stay over. Kimo must be looking forward to coming home to lots of pets and snuggling.
Purrs, Halloween
One of my cats years ago had chronic blockage so he had a 'sex change'! Literally had his penis removed since that is where the urethra is the smallest. Never had any more problems after that. . . Our vet was very proud!
Have had the problem with a few other boys but changing their diet has so far solved it.
My gang sends purrrrrrs for a quick recovery and return home. . .
We are purring & purraying that Kimo is better soon.
Prayers for Kimo! My cat Mouse started having this problem when he was just one (right have being neutered). I remember the first time...he got deathly ill, but the vet did the flush thing and put him on antibiotics and he was fine for awhile...eventually over the next 2 years he to got to where he had this occur about twice a year. The vet (our vet is wonderful!) suggested we try perineal urethrostomy for Mouse. This was about 14 years ago and he had only performed this operation one other time with great success, so we went for it. The vet offered the surgery to us very cheaply and on a payment plan (we were very young then, without a lot of money). Mouse continued getting these blockages sporadically thru the next few years but they never were as bad and I always knew when it was happening because I had learned the signs. After 3-4 years he stopped getting blockages at all and lived to be the ripe old age of 17 (Mouse went to the bridge last September). Miss my baby boy lots and look forward to seeing him again one day. Kimo will be fine since you caught it early. BTW, the only food change for Mouse initially was over to Purina One Urinary Tract formula.
Our Obi had a perineal urethrostomy at about 3 years old. He was in the clinic with a catheter for a week, then he had the surgery because he just kept having bloody urine and an enlarged bladder. He didn't have the crystals though. He was in a e-collar for 3 weeks after the surgery. He still occasionally has the enlarged bladder and needs antibiotics, but we have him on anxiety pills to help keep him calm. The surgery was rather expensive, but he is alive and doing well now. We give him extra moistened liquid food, and he has plenty of water fountains to drink from as well.
Luf, Us
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