Anyone ever have a cat with a urethral blockage???

I am so worried about my boy!! Two weeks ago we had to rush one of our cats to Animal Medical Center in the middle of the night because he was having trouble urinating.

I saw him urinating outside of the litter box. Our cats have NEVER gone outside the box. I was so upset with myself b/c at first I thought he was being territorial. We just moved to new house and the previous owners had a cat so I thought myabe he smelt him. he tried to do it a few times with a matter of 10 minutes so I knew something had to be wrong.

If your cat ever does this out of the blue, definitely get them checked out right away b/c if they are blocked they can go toxic very quickly.

I can't stop worrying about him now. The vet said once a cat gets blocked they are prone to it reoccuring. We have him on wet food only now. Plus, I am adding extra water into the wet food to up his fluid intake.

Anyone ever deal with this?? I was thinking about goes to a holistic vet and asking about asking supplements, possibly cranberry to his diet.

Help! I adore this little guy and the thought of him in pain again breaks my heart.

Re: Anyone ever have a cat with a urethral blockage???

I had a female cat with this and urinating, squatting out of hte box did occur.

We had to change the food to a low ash diet I think. She hated it, but it had to be done. But I think girls can pass the stones much easier than the boys.
What does the vet want you to do?

Re: Anyone ever have a cat with a urethral blockage???

We just went through it with Espresso - he's 4 years old.
He had a problem urinating in October and we took him to the vet. They took x-rays, didn't see any blockage, gave us some Clavimox and he was fine for two months. Then in December, it came back only much, much worse. He had to be admitted, a catheter was inserted and he was under watch for three days. They sent him home with meds for two weeks and he is on Prescription Diet S/D for the rest of his life.

If it becomes a recurring problem, the only thing you can do is surgery which basically makes their urethra like a girls....and even that is not a guarantee.

Re: Anyone ever have a cat with a urethral blockage???

Ravi is 5 and I never thought I would have to go through this with him. His x-rays showed no stones just sediment which they cleared by inserting a foley cath. He was there for almost 3 days and I cried everyone of them.

The vet already talked to us about the possiblity of surgery if it reoccurs. She said that it is the last resort if he should block 3 times. I will do the surgery if he needs it but I worry because he has asthma and the thought of anasthesia with him makes me nervous.

The part that kills me is that we take such good care of our cats. Feed them only high quality food, regular check ups, and spoil them rotten. I have always stayed away from wet food with fish in it b/c I heard that it can cause blockages in males. I just wish I could have prevented this.

What scares me most is not being home when it happens again. I work such long hours and my husband travels. I'm afraid it will happen when we are not home.

PLease keep him in your thoughts. He is the best cat ever.

Re: Anyone ever have a cat with a urethral blockage???

Re: Anyone ever have a cat with a urethral blockage???

Re: Anyone ever have a cat with a urethral blockage???

the same thing happened to my male cat years ago.

He was admitted to the vet three times in a span of a month. They would attach a catheter to him and then release him like a day or 2 later.

They finally told me that we either had to put him down or get major surgery for like $2000 because this was just going to keep coming back. We opted for the surgery. They basically inverted his manhood into his body and expanded the hole so that he can urinate easier.

The surgery worked but for years after that he was peeing all over the house. And cat pee smells horrible

Re: Anyone ever have a cat with a urethral blockage???

I had a cat with that when I was younger. I wasn't recurring. We were told to take him off any food that had seafood in it.

Re: Anyone ever have a cat with a urethral blockage???

This happened to my cat over the summer, and he is now on a prescription diet (purina ur). The vet said that he may eventually have to have surgery to increase the diameter of his urethra. My cats condition is also brought on by stress.
Hope your cat is doing better soon.

Re: Anyone ever have a cat with a urethral blockage???

I had this and my beloved Strudel passed away at 2 yrs old. We took him to the vet and they cleared the blockage, it came back and as he was clearing it again he suffered a stroke and pased away.

Re: Anyone ever have a cat with a urethral blockage???

My male cat had a blockage about 8 years ago. We switched him to a special diet food for urinary blockage and thank God he has not had a blockage since then. It's important to keep them on the special food and not feed them anything else like treats etc. We used to give my cat alot of treats before but stopped after he got sick. He's now 14 years old and still looks and acts like a young cat.

Message edited 1/21/2008 1:33:37 AM.