Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease.

I am at my wits end with my poor cat.

More info (in video form):

How to Handle Feline Lower Urinary Disease | Expert Village Videos

He has been to the vet for a total of over $800 since January.

This is incurable. They have no idea why it exists. Only it does exist.

My poor - well, actually my son's - cat is on his second dose of antibiotics in less than a month. He just got his second anti-inflammitory/steroid shot yesterday - the first shot was 2 1/2 weeks ago. And if I notice him NOT going potty, I am to call the vet immediately because he may be plugged.

The cat is using his litter box, but he is also using the floor quite frequently.

He is urinating ALL THE TIME - little bits at a time.

I have a puppy pad taped to the floor in the area he frequents the most - thank goodness we have laminate floors. I would hate to smell our house with carpeting!!

Is anyone familiar with this disease? Any advice for me on how to handle it?

According to my vet, it is not common, but not uncommon either. They have about 3-4 other cats with it.

If I notice him going outside his box, and having frequent urination, I am to call and schedule a steroid shot with the nurse and get a dose of antibiotics. And now he is on a special type of Science Diet prescription food (CD) for urinary issues.

I would love to hear about anyone else either familiar with this issue or who has a cat with this issue. Tell me I am not alone!! Please!!

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"Yesterday my life was duller, now everything's technicolor!"

Is that the disease where the cat gets crystals in their urine which block the flow and cause pain etc when they urinate?

If so, my parents cat had that and they ended up having surgery for him. I think it ran something like $300 in vet bills each time he got plugged up and they had to do the whole course of shots/meds, catheter etc. The surgery was somewhere south of $1000 or like the vet said - 3 blockages. Considering he'd had 3-4 blockages by the time they got the surgery they figured it was worth it. He lived a long time afterwards and didn't have a single urinary tract problem after the surgery - eventually sucumbed to cancer but thats not relevent I suppose. The surgery basically made him pee like a girl - they rerouted the urine flow from the boy bits if you will - and made a separate and distinct opening for him to pee out of - which was located just where it would be if he was a girl. The opening was wider etc (although the surgery was microsugery) and so the crystals never caused another blockage - apparently boys have a bit of a u-turn in their plumbing and girls don't and the crystals get stuck in the U. He was fine afterwards, didn't pee on the floor, no pain, wasn't incontinent etc - worked great.

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Meddle ye not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crispy, and taste good with Ketchup!

No, he does not have crystals. Just chronic urinary problems. And there is no cure for them.

Last January, we ended up having to have his boy area opened up, as it was very swollen. He had various tests applied to him, and for a while the vet thought he may be diabetic.

But a full blood panel turned up nothing - no diabetes, no crystals, no nothing.

And that is when the conclusion that he may have FLUTD came into play.

He was just at the vet about 3 weeks ago, and yes, it was concluded that he does in fact have FLUTD.

I have never heard of the above surgery. But yes, boys do have a bit of a kink in their plumbing - especially neutered ones - that make them more prone to what my family refers to as "potty problems".

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"Yesterday my life was duller, now everything's technicolor!"

Have you changed his diet to a low ash diet? Alot of dry foods are high in ash content and can contribute to this. There are various foods on the market specifically for Urinary problems. Don't buy the ones from the grocery store ask your vet to prescribe one for you. I know Hills makes a good one. Most cats that have this problem have to be kept on these types of food for life.

I used to work as a Vet Tech and I have 2 male cats both have urinary issues. One was hospitalized for 2 weeks for blockages. A couple of things I have learned is to cut back on dry food and offer more wet food as it has higher fluid content. Also a drinkwell fountain or something similar helps to get your cat to drink more. The more fluid they get the more they flush their systems and that helps keep the alkaline down that causes urinary issues.

Your vet may give you some special crystals to put in a litter box just that kitty can use and have you collect it every so often to run tests for crystals and bacteria this way if they catch it early they can give you medicine to correct it before it gets to the point of blockage.

I run a cat rescue and a must have for me is a product called Natures Miracle. It is a enzyme cleaner and you use it where the cat has went outside of the box. You wash the area down with this and let it completely dry the enzymes will kill the bacteria that causes the odor. Cats have a extremely sensitive nose and can smell things you yourself cannot so even if you can't smell where he has went he probably can and that is why he keeps going back to that spot.

Be sure to watch him for any signs he is blocking up again a cat can die in 24-48hrs of a blockage because it basically poisons their system. So they need emergency treatment at that point.

Good Luck with kitty I know FLUTD is not fun.

Yes, he is on Prescription Science Diet CD for urinary issues.

I have always been pretty crazy about the animals bathroom issues - ever since we had a cat with kidney failure.

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"Yesterday my life was duller, now everything's technicolor!"

Make sure he has plenty of water available and try to encourage him to drink. The more fluid he gets into him, the better. My cat had the same problem and the combination of the CD and encouraging him to drink made all the difference.

Good luck, my cat had FUS, and finally had the surgery (they basically told me they gave him a sex change....LOL), and he was fine after that. Definitely stay on the Prescription diet, and NO OTHER food, NOTHING else.

It can be SOOOOO frustrating, I know. I would look on the internet (Google) and see if there is any information or advice there. That is what I did when my dog was having issues. It was very helpful.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

My DD's cat has this problem and is also constantly getting UTI's even though he is on Prescription Diet C/D food.

And my shih tzu has the same kind of problem with UTI's. She kept getting the UTI's and I ended up taking her to a new vet who did x-rays which showed that she had a whole bunch of stones in her bladder that were causing the repeat infections. She had surgery (over $800) and has been on the Prescription Diet C/D food for a few years now. Unfortunately, she is now getting the UTI's again and will be going in for x-rays to find out if she has more stones -- which may require surgery again The cost of another surgery is bad enough, but even more distressing to me is the discomfort she will have to go through AGAIN -- the recovery was not easy

She had a $5,000 back surgery two years ago so this poor dog has been through a lot