My cat's in the "hospital" tonight after emergency care.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
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And I could really use a pat on the shoulder and a “there there” from other cat people right now.

Horton wasn’t bothering me this morning when I got up to make coffee. He’s normally parked outside the bedroom door, ready to make a break-in attempt so he can sit right smack under the middle of the king-size bed where I can’t reach him. But I was downstairs making kitchen noises and there was no sign of him. I found him in the litter box, just standing there. Last week we brought him to the vet because he’d been scooting his butt across the carpet and we thought maybe his butt glands were bothering him. My man had also noticed how Horton seemed to spend a lot of time in his box lately with very little liquid results, and when he told the vet this, we were given antibiotics and special food because it was likely a UTI.

So when I saw him straining in his box this morning, it wasn’t too much of a worry. but then he came upstairs and squatted on the carpet. And squatted on the kitchen floor. Over and over, with nothing but a drop or two coming out, and frantic licking of his crotch in between attempts.

I whisked him to the emergency vet, and they yanked him straight to the back room to put in a catheter. It took them an hour and a half to cath him. He was completely blocked. His urethra is apparently a mess of crystals and scar tissue. He’s there now, recovering from the procedure with an IV in one end and a catheter in the other, helping flush him out. The good news it he made it through, and we got him help in time. The bad news is, if we remove the catheter he will block right up again. He needs surgery. Something called a urethrostomy - the way the vet described it, we’ll more or less have a girl cat at the end of the procedure. A winkie-ectomy, if you will. So we have to pick him up very early tomorrow because the emergency vet won’t keep him, and we need to find someone to do this procedure on the little guy because it’s the only way to keep him with us.

I’m exhausted and stressed out from a day in the vet’s waiting room. There’s been a lot of crying, and I’m wishing I’d noticed something was wrong sooner. The vet said I did the right thing, and also that the other vet, who gave us pills and special food, was doing the right thing too. It was just much worse than we knew. But still. He’s my adorable vicious fluffball and he needs his winkie chopped off so he can pee, or he’ll die. That’s a lot to absorb for one day.

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Sympathy, man. I’ve been there, twice ( a year apart ), with the emergency vets, the hospitalization, the transferring from one vet to another and the whole ugly deal :(.

Haven’t gone the urethrostomy route on mine, yet. He’s young and was never very badly blocked, just blocked enough. Bought fountains and then went to an all wet food diet after the second incident. Crossing my fingers since, but another bout and it might be the next step.

Best of luck to you and Horton. Any surgery is best avoided, but if it works the way it is supposed to it should be the end of his pain and discomfort from that direction. And a little genital feminization is nothing but good in this instance. As one of my emergency vets put it, “female = straw, male = coffee stirrer.”

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hugs Here’s good wishes for you and Horton.

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Awww…the poor fluffball. We had to have our Moose reamed out twice before he had to be put to sleep for other reasons. He absolutely HATED the wet food. How old is Horton?

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Awww, I’m not a current cat owner having lost my baby many years ago but here’s a virtual {{hug}} for you. My cat had crystals, too. It’s very common.

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Been there too, I feel for you. It’s good that you got him to the vet hospital in time. Good luck to Antigen and Horton.

I’ll even forgive you for posting about your kitty and not giving us pics…

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I forgot about the pictures rule - just so you know who your thoughts are helping.

He’s only two years old. Which makes the whole “how much is his life worth to us” question so hard to even think about right now. If he was an older cat, the decision might be different, but he’s just a little guy, I don’t think I could live with myself if I didn’t try the surgery. But then, how much is too much? Where to draw the line? God, I’m crying even thinking about it.

I’ll just work more overtime. It’ll be ok somehow.

Just called the vet for an update - he’s very nervous and still shivering from the anaesthesia so they have him in a heated sleeping bag thingy. They’re trying to coax him to eat but he’s not interested for now. The vet tech said they’ve been taking turns sticking their hands into his cage to pet him a little and try to make him feel safe, which I think is just wonderful. Can’t wait to pick him up tomorrow, even if it’s just to drag him somewhere else to start this all over again.

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I’ve been there too. One of my previous cats had this problem when he was about 3 or 4, and I had to feed him Friskies “Special Diet” for the rest of his life. The problem never recurred, and he lived to be 20 years old.

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It’s quite a common problem with male cats, if caught quickly enough they usually do well. Make sure he has bloodwork run to check his kidney function.

Sorry, but this is sort of a peeve of mine. I hate hearing a perineal urethrostomy (PU) called a sex change operation. He will still be a male cat, he just won’t have a penis.

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Awww, poor Horton (((Antigen))) Hopefully he recovers with few complications and lives a long healthy life.

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Trust me, this whole dick-cutting thing is going to bother you a hell of a lot more than it will him. And no, he’s not going to essentially be a girl cat. He’ll be a boy cat with some extreme body mod. It’s expensive, and scary, but it’s actually quite a lot better than it could be. Some of these fellows partially block and get cathed and hospitalized two or three times before they finally break down and get a pu. Massively more expensive and stressful for you, massively more dangerous for the cat to do it that way.

And I have to disagree with Tamarlane about all surgery being best avoided. Putting them under for trivial reasons is best avoided, yes. But this is the exact opposite of a trivial reason. Surgery is completely curative in these cases–he’ll probably need the crystal-dissolving diet to keep him from having chronic cystitis, but you won’t have to worry about him blocking again.

I’m not going to waste my breath telling you not to worry, because we both know you will. But try not to worry too much. I’ve been a tech for a decade, three years of that in an emergency clinic helping unblock 2-3 toms a week, and I’ve never seen one that was addressed in a timely manner go south.

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Surgery is always best avoided until there is a pressing reason to do surgery :).

Which is all I meant - if you can get away with not doing it ( i.e. it appears a special diet might clear up the problem ), then that is the safer, cheaper option. But if a vet ever recommended such surgery ( one hasn’t to me, yet, for this issue ), I certainly wouldn’t hesitate and I haven’t in the past. I’ve lost a ( quite old ) cat to cardiac arrest while in surgery, but I’ve also had the same cat’s life extended by an earlier amputation - I have no regrets about having either procedure done.

In this case it sounds like it is absolutely necessary.

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Poor kitty. I hope it all works out for you both.

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We just went through this about three weeks ago.

Our situation was almost exactly likeTamerlane’s.

We also had two incidents, one months ago and this recent one; Emergency visits to catheterize him, and, the second time, a transfer to our regular vet for a hospitalization stay. We bought a cat fountain (more attractive drinking water helps), special diet, put more water in his wet food, and (in an effort to be conservative) we did not have the urethrostomy this time. If he gets it again it’s either the urethrostomy or, if we’re out of money (a condition to which he has contributed mightily, ugh) perhaps the needle.

I don’t say that to be mean. We spent around $2700 on him this time. This cat is a stray we took in last December, he’s bad-tempered and bites, and he’s consumed more of our income than all our other pets put together. I don’t want to bankrupt the family on a cat with recurring problems and leave the poor dogs without any protective umbrella of savings.

That said, I’m a notorious softie when push comes to shove.

I hope our Lefty thrives on the new diet and habits and won’t need further vet intervention; I hope your Horton comes through with flying colors.

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Well, I know* I *feel better. :stuck_out_tongue: Good luck to you and Horton, Antigen.

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Not to be a downer here…and it sounds like kitty has good chance of pulling through.

If things get bad and you have to “put him to sleep”, keep in mind some vets will come to your house and do it, but it is uncommon and you’ll have to call around.

If the cat can be made reasonably comfortable at home for a short period before that is done, I think thats a much less traumatic scenario for the cat.

Some vets that do this only do it at certain times of the day, or certain days of the week, or need significant advanced notice, so if it looks like this might be required, its better to call around now and find who will do what when and under what circumstances.

We had our 17 year old cat put to sleep about 2 months ago. We did it at home. They charged about 60 dollars for the home visit and another 60 or so for the procedure itself (which is what they charged at the office).

Be aware of at least 2 things. Once that second shot goes in, their eyes fully dialate and heart and breathing stop nearly instantly (not the slow TV type “going to sleep slowly”). I would imagine they can still see, think, and hear for a brief period of time after that. It probably wouldnt hurt to talk softly, get in their line of vision, and gently stroke them.

With that in mind, you would want to do it in a dimly lit room with no direct lighting. Or in other words, make sure the cat isnt facing something like a window or bright lamp, because if they can see, that glare in their eyes would be pretty bad.

This post isnt so much for the OP as other cat lovers that may be facing this in the future and I hope this info helps.

I miss my old Bitchy Boots :frowning:

17

I am going to have to disagree on one point, a PU’d cat can indeed reblock. They can develop scar tissue that narrows the opening or he can form stones large enough to block the opening. They are much less likely to block, but they are not as unlikely to block as a female cat. In my 26 years as a Vet. Tech. (most of them in emergency) I have seen one blocked female cat that passed the stone right after we took xrays* but I have seen a few PU’d male cats that reblocked and many more than still have Uti’s.

You still have to take steps to maintain the cat’s urinary health, such as special diets, to prevent cystitis and stone formation. And be aware that he can reblock so if you see signs of obstruction don’t shrug it off thinking “he’s okay because he can’t be blocked”. Yes, it is much less likely that he will block again after a PU but it’s not impossible.

*I have seen countless blocked male dogs and cats but only a few female dogs and cats and every one of the passed the stone or the owner opted for the cystotomy surgery before we could catheterize it, which is great because catheterizing females is a bitch.

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heh.

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IOW, catheterizing a bitch is a bitch?:stuck_out_tongue:

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Well, when referring to cats and dogs I guess it would be a queen bitch.