Spent 7 hours at the emergency vet with my cat on the 4th of July...

[Kanin]

... suspecting a UTI, which she's had before and was horrible... only to get a diagnosis of "idiopathic feline cystitis." In other words, bladder irritation for no known reason. She's clearly uncomfortable but has no bacteria in her urine. We've got pain medication and a muscle relaxer.

After the 6th hour, I remembered that this has happened before, a long time ago. It came and went and never returned. Until now I guess!

Home now and eating all the things.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Does she eat canned food?  If not, I would switch her to it. 

[KSera]

2 minutes ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

Does she eat canned food?  If not, I would switch her to it. 

This. I would eliminate all dry food and initially add additional water to the wet food to flush her urinary tract well. Should make her a lot more comfortable. I hope she feels better soon.

[Kanin]

She does eat wet food, but also dry. I can switch to completely canned.

 

[KSera]

2 minutes ago, Kanin said:

She does eat wet food, but also dry. I can switch to completely canned.

 

It helped immensely for my cat. Mine really cannot tolerate any dry at all. If yours is still in a painful stage, which I assume she is, we got through that acute stage by feeding a couple tablespoons of wet food every couple hours with an extra tablespoon or two of warm water thoroughly mixed into it each time. That got her peeing in high-volume and quickly got her urine from dark red back to clear, at which point she was comfortable again.

[Kanin]

2 minutes ago, KSera said:

It helped immensely for my cat. Mine really cannot tolerate any dry at all. If yours is still in a painful stage, which I assume she is, we got through that acute stage by feeding a couple tablespoons of wet food every couple hours with an extra tablespoon or two of warm water thoroughly mixed into it each time. That got her peeing in high-volume and quickly got her urine from dark red back to clear, at which point she was comfortable again.

She is at a painful stage, and it's so sad to see! She keeps trying to pee, but there's nothing to pee. Great idea about the wet food often with water. I'll go buy some baby food turkey, her favorite. Thanks for sharing your success story 🙂 

[chocolate-chip chooky]

Oh, the poor thing. I hope she improves quickly 🌻

'Idiopathic' is a bittersweet diagnosis, because yay, it's nothing too serious, but also there's no clear treatment plan.

I really hope this is a once off and doesn't return. 

[Kanin]

1 minute ago, chocolate-chip chooky said:

Oh, the poor thing. I hope she improves quickly 🌻

'Idiopathic' is a bittersweet diagnosis, because yay, it's nothing too serious, but also there's no clear treatment plan.

I really hope this is a once off and doesn't return. 

Thank you! It's been a tough day. I'm glad it's not a UTI, but it's definitely bittersweet. 

It was eye-opening at the emergency vet though. There were some really difficult things happening for other pets! 😞

[mommyoffive]

Poor baby.  Sending some good thoughts her way.

[Dmmetler]

(((Hugs)).

 

I’m glad it isn’t too bad. I’d definitely try wet food and see if that helps. You can also get prescription UD from the vet-I don’t know if it would be useful for a girl or not, but Scooter seems to consider it edible, at least. 

[Shelydon]

Water from canned tuna really helps. The more liquid you can get her to drink the better. 

[stephanier.1765]

I am so sorry! I've been there...the emergency vet, the kitty trying to pee...it's awful. What everyone one has said about getting more water in her is right on the nose. We bought a water fountain for ours, as well. Anything to get liquids in her. That and the pain meds is key.

Ours kept coming back, unfortunately. No UTI, no crystals, nothing. So she's now on amitriptyline which has worked a wonder. On the downside, it also makes her nauseous so we have to give her meds for that too. It feels never ending but she's back to her old self which is all that matters. I hope your baby makes a quick turnaround. Hugs you all. 

[Kanin]

33 minutes ago, stephanier.1765 said:

I am so sorry! I've been there...the emergency vet, the kitty trying to pee...it's awful. What everyone one has said about getting more water in her is right on the nose. We bought a water fountain for ours, as well. Anything to get liquids in her. That and the pain meds is key.

Ours kept coming back, unfortunately. No UTI, no crystals, nothing. So she's now on amitriptyline which has worked a wonder. On the downside, it also makes her nauseous so we have to give her meds for that too. It feels never ending but she's back to her old self which is all that matters. I hope your baby makes a quick turnaround. Hugs you all. 

I’ve been wondering about your kitty! It’s wonderful that she’s back to her old self! I remember how awful it was for you and her not long ago. It’s a bummer about needing to take two meds... but like you said, the main thing is she’s back to her normal self. It’s crazy that it wasn’t a UTI, not crystals, nothing... so strange! The vet today was like, Wellll... cats are finicky! True, but not particularly helpful either. 

Maggie is sleeping. They gave her gabapentin which always knocks her out. She lapped up two small bowls of turkey baby food plus water. She had subcutaneous fluids at the vet, and they gave her a cat laxative to help with constipation. 

I just feel so beside myself when she’s not well. I was thinking to myself today sitting in the car waiting, that this is probably an abnormally high level of anxiety over a somewhat minor problem. I probably need to do something about that for myself. 

Then I think, she’s 18... we must be on the downhill slope of her life which just makes me 😭. She’s been my constant companion for over 13 years. 💕

[chocolate-chip chooky]

@Kanin

Maggie is so fortunate to have you as her human.

[stephanier.1765]

11 hours ago, Kanin said:

I’ve been wondering about your kitty! It’s wonderful that she’s back to her old self! I remember how awful it was for you and her not long ago. It’s a bummer about needing to take two meds... but like you said, the main thing is she’s back to her normal self. It’s crazy that it wasn’t a UTI, not crystals, nothing... so strange! The vet today was like, Wellll... cats are finicky! True, but not particularly helpful either. 

Maggie is sleeping. They gave her gabapentin which always knocks her out. She lapped up two small bowls of turkey baby food plus water. She had subcutaneous fluids at the vet, and they gave her a cat laxative to help with constipation. 

I just feel so beside myself when she’s not well. I was thinking to myself today sitting in the car waiting, that this is probably an abnormally high level of anxiety over a somewhat minor problem. I probably need to do something about that for myself. 

Then I think, she’s 18... we must be on the downhill slope of her life which just makes me 😭. She’s been my constant companion for over 13 years. 💕

I don't know if it's abnormally high anxiety. There is something so helpless about having a sick pet. Like infants, they can't tell us what hurts and with cats they will hide their pain as long as they can so that you know, by the time they are telling you, that something has been going on for a while. Which means, a lot of diagnostic testing to rule out one thing after another until they think they have found the correct diagnosis. But yes, I do wonder the same thing about myself and the high anxiety. We have lost 3 pets in 5 years and the dread of losing another is pretty high. One of them was the pet who had been my constant companion for 16 years so I totally understand where you are coming from. I try to tell myself that the companionship and love is worth the pain of losing them but it's hard, real hard. Luckily, if what Maggie has is what my River has, then she should be fine. It's not fun giving her medication (I really, really hate doing it!) but totally worth it. So no, I don't feel that it's abnormally high anxiety. It just reflects how much we love and cherish them.

There really should be a hugs emoji ❤️ How is she this morning?

Edited July 5, 2022 by stephanier.1765

[livetoread]

17 hours ago, Kanin said:

It was eye-opening at the emergency vet though. There were some really difficult things happening for other pets! 😞

The few times I've had to go to the emergency vet (luckily nothing life threatening) I've just sat there with tears streaming down my face not for my pets who I knew were going to be okay - just needed some emergency treatment - but for all the other tragedies playing out around the room. It's so very sad and it takes me days to recover. So much raw grief.

Edited July 5, 2022 by livetoread

[Kanin]

2 hours ago, stephanier.1765 said:

There really should be a hugs emoji ❤️ How is she this morning?

Thank you for checking! She seems all right this morning... she ate her food with gusto which was nice to see! No bloody pee drips on the floor so far. She's been urinating OVER the end of the litterbox, so I'm not sure how to deal with that. It's a huge box (23 inches long) so she's got plenty of room. She just seems to walk in just enough so all four paws are in the box, and then pees with her backside over the end. 

They gave her a gabapentin at the vet for pain, and she was pretty zombie-cat all night last night. I wonder if I should give her another... it's hard to tell if she's in pain or not. 

[Kanin]

Here's my beautiful girl!

[stephanier.1765]

You might want to put a pee pad under that end of the litter box until she's better. If it doesn't change, I'd try a deeper box that won't allow her to hang out of the end. We had a boy once who would get in the box and then completely miss. A deeper box worked for us in that situation.

About the pain meds, they didn't give you any dosing times? That's crazy. It's nearly impossible to tell when a cat is in pain. I'd call and find out because I'd want her on pain meds until this is resolved. In my book, it's better to chance giving them to her too long than too short. It's not like giving cats pills is fun and we are just going to go crazy giving them pills all willy nilly.

She really is a gorgeous cat! I just want to scoop her up and snuggle all that fur.

[Selkie]

4 hours ago, Kanin said:

Thank you for checking! She seems all right this morning... she ate her food with gusto which was nice to see! No bloody pee drips on the floor so far. She's been urinating OVER the end of the litterbox, so I'm not sure how to deal with that. It's a huge box (23 inches long) so she's got plenty of room. She just seems to walk in just enough so all four paws are in the box, and then pees with her backside over the end. 

They gave her a gabapentin at the vet for pain, and she was pretty zombie-cat all night last night. I wonder if I should give her another... it's hard to tell if she's in pain or not. 

I've got a newly adopted senior kitty who pees over the edge, too. She has a big, covered litterbox with plenty of room, but she gets in there and pees while her rear is still out the door. I tried to find a way to stop this from happening, but she is old and apparently set in her ways.🤷‍♀️ So now I put a puppy pad in front of the litterbox and that works great.

[MercyA]

@Kanin, she is gorgeous. You are such a good cat mom. ❤️

[KSera]

5 hours ago, Kanin said:

She's been urinating OVER the end of the litterbox, so I'm not sure how to deal with that. It's a huge box (23 inches long) so she's got plenty of room. She just seems to walk in just enough so all four paws are in the box, and then pees with her backside over the end.

Is she still a pretty nimble cat? For our cat that did hanging over the end thing, we went to a four sided rubbermaid storage bin type set up. So, she has to jump into the box and has no way to hang over the edge. Initially, we left a wide rim around the lid and cut out the middle, so she could get on the rim and then step down inside, but we soon found it worked just as well to just have an open topped box. She has no issue with it.

4 hours ago, Kanin said:

Here's my beautiful girl!

She is soooo pretty! 😍

[Dmmetler]

Scooter is on gabapentin as well. You may want to see if you can get liquid because it's easier to reduce the dosage as the cat needs it without having to go down to nothing. We had to get it from a compounding pharmacy because the formulation most pharmacies have for young children has xylitol in it, which is poisonous to cats.