My cat is having issues, taking her to the vet this evening

[charlie and algernon]

I just made an appointment for my cat for this evening. For the last 24 hours or so, she's been having issues peeing. She'll just squat for a couple minutes and it seems there is only a little bit of pee in the liter. She's also been doing this frequently, she went at least 5 or 6 times last night. Each time just a little and squating for a while.

She seems fine otherwise and is eating normally (she ate her breakfast this morning just fine) or else I would've taken her to the emergency hospital last night.

Am I right in assuming she probably has some kind of urinary infection? I'm really hoping it won't require surgery, but has anyone had cats with this kind of problem? What did the vets do when you took your cat in?

[redwitch]

1. UTI seems likely.

Clears up fairly quickly with antibiotics. Good luck to her!

[charlie and algernon]

3. Thanks! Hopefully that's all it is

How expensive do the antibiotics usually run?

[redwitch]

9. Shouldn't cost very much.

I can't remember what we paid for Clavamox last time but pretty inexpensive.

[TorchTheWitch]

12. quite inexpensive usually

Depends mostly on which one they give her. I also imagine it would be a lot cheaper for a cat than the big dog I had since dosage goes by weight of the animal. A two week course of Cephalexin for my 100 lb. dog was about $50, so for a cat the same course would be a whole lot less since a cat is so much smaller. I don't know if cats take Cephalexin or not, but I know with dogs it's a fairly common broad spectrum antibiotic that is especially good for skin infections and UTI's. Don't be afraid to tell the vet that you'd prefer the cheapest medication that will work for her... vets are usually very accommodating about financial things like that if you let them know.

Incidentally, apparently female dogs and cats are far more prone to a UTI than a male. Hope that a UTI is all that is wrong since that's usually such a simple easily dealt with problem.

Best of luck to you and your kitty. :hug:

[stuntcat]

17. that sounds right, Tell kitty to Get Well Soon!

Our oldest cat had this problem a couple months ago. It was the first time I'd had a cat with that problem so I was worried, but the treatment was easy and now he's back to normal.

As soon as I read your description it sounded just like what happened with ours, that must be what it is!

[muffin1]

2. My best friend has a kitty who suffers from the same symptoms.

His poor Gunther gets an infection a couple of times a year. And as Redwitch said, antibiotics clear it up pretty quickly.

[PassingFair]

4. I had a male cat that did that -- turned out that his kidneys were bad.

Hope it's just a UTI in your case.

:hug:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. Probably a urinary tract infection.

If so, they'll send her home with an antibiotic for you to give her, probably liquid Clavamox, which tastes terrible and will have you chasing the cat all over the house with a little plastic syringe because once she tastes stuff she will have none of it, so you'll have to trap her in a corner somehow and get her in a hammerlock with one arm while holding the little plastic syringe in your other hand, then wrestling said cat into position so you can get the syringe in her mouth without getting your fingers bitten off, then squirting the stuff into her mouth and not all over her face or yours. You will do this once or twice a day for ten days. The cat will be fine, and you will probably survive as well.

Don't ask me how I know about this.

[LisaL]

7. Now they have injectable antibiotic.

They inject it into a cat and it lasts 2 weeks. Problem solved.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

8. But that's not as much fun.

:eyes:

[LisaL]

10. Trying to get antibiotics into a cat is not my idea of fun.

:rofl:

[charlie and algernon]

11. I don't know, after Ocelot's discription, I'm kinda looking forward to it

:rofl: :hide:

[hamsterjill]

13. Convenia is wonderful!!!

n/t

[Gormy Cuss]

16. Oh yes. I will always ask for the injectable in the future.

Much easier for everyone even if it is twice the price of the other options.

[LisaL]

6. My cat did the same thing.

Nothing was helping until I put him on a special cat food for cats with urinary problems, and now he is as good as new.

[hamsterjill]

14. Probably a UTI

These are, generally, must less of a concern in a female than in a male, but you are absolutely correct to get her taken care of as quickly as possible. It is a good thing that you are still seeing urine in the litter. Antibiotics will most likely take care of it quickly.

Sometimes there is a need to change diet, etc.

Best of luck to you and your kitty!!!

[grasswire]

15. meantime, give her some tuna water to drink

Encouraging a cat to take liquids in this situation is good. Dilute tuna water with some more water, and she will probably drink it.

[applegrove]

18. very common for cats to have blockages in their digestive tracts of one kind or another.

[charlie and algernon]

19. UPDATE: Had to take her to the emergency hospital Friday evening

I did take Esther to the vet on Thursday but they couldn't determine what she had. They said, from my description, that it was probably UTI, but they weren't able to get a urine sample since Esher was so tensed up. So they gave me Amoxicilan drops to give to Esther twice a day and said that it should be cleared up by Saturday.

I get home from work Friday afternoon and now she's going VERY frequently. Like every 5-10 minutes. And at this point she's already had three doses of the drops. They obviously aren't working. The Vet has already closed for the day, so it's off to the Emergency Vet hospital. This time, they're able to see the reddish urine stains in Esther's carrier from her going on the way over. So they give her an ultrasound and see that her bladder is VERY small. The vet at the hospital tells me to stop giving the cat the drops and instead has me giving her pills once a day and pain medication every 6-8 hours.

So she's definitely improved. She's still going somewhat frequently than normal and not going all that much, but definitely better than before. Perhaps even better, it doesn't look like she's straining as much or in as much pain. I have to give her pills for 14 days, so she has a while to go. Hopefully it's gone by then.

Oh, and pill pockets are miraculous. She fought me all to hell when I tried to force the pill into her mouth, she kept spitting it out. So I tried breaking the pill in half and putting each half in a pill pocket and she gobbles it right up, none the wiser about what she's eating.

[TorchTheWitch]

20. do they mean her bladder is unnaturally small for her size?

It sounds like they still believe that this is nothing more than a bad infection, but I'm unsure what they mean about her bladder being small. Since a bladder is like a balloon, do they mean that she has an unnaturally small bladder for what her bladder is supposed to be like, or do they mean that they would have expected that it would have been much bigger because of being so full of urine? I'm hoping this is still only an infection and there is nothing else wrong.

Glad that kitty is doing better and hoping this is nothing more than an infection and she'll be right as rain soon.


Out of curiousity... what is a pill pocket? I've always had big dogs, and even giving a whole handful of pills is easy (just stick your hand in their mouth and pour them right down the "hole"). I'm guessing this pill pocket thing is some kind of clever device to give small animals pills, but I can't envision what it is or how it would work.

[charlie and algernon]

21. Yeah, they thought it was small for her size

but that it could be because she's doing everything she can to keep it empty because it's sore for her. That's why they gave me the pain medication to give her as well as the antibiotics.

I really don't know how to describe the pill pockets other than they're treats with holes or "pockets" in them. You just stuff the pill in the pocket of the treats and close the treat around it.

Cats don't exactly like having their mouths opened for them and will fight to get away. I would get her mouth open and push the pill in and she would just use her tongue to spit it out, all while frantically pulling away from me. Now, I just give her the treat with the pill inside it and she gobbles it up.

[GreenPartyVoter]

24. This is why I have to wrap my girl cat up in a beach towel. No way could I slip a pill in her if

her legs were free! (Yikes!)

Hope your baby feels better soon! :hi:

[TorchTheWitch]

28. ah, clever little device

Would never have fooled my dogs though. I first tried hiding pills in food, and they ALWAYS found it and spit it out (licked clean of every food molecule first, of course). Even stinky tuna. Thank goodness they were big guys and I could just stick my hand in there and pour them down the "hole". I can't even imagine trying to give a cat a pill. Cats just are so different than dogs. If they don't want you opening their face than good bloody luck to ya... kitty will make you very, very, very sorry. LOL!

Glad that these clever pill pockets are working and kitty is getting her medicine to make her all better.

[hamsterjill]

22. Great news...and a small word of caution

"Reddish urine stains" indicate that there was blood in her urine, right?

It's terrific that you were able to get her to the ER vet! I'm glad that she was seen quickly and is doing better. Just as an ounce of prevention...you might want to keep a close watch on her litterbox habits for a long while. Cats can have bladder stones, etc. that are sometimes difficult to see on an ultrasound. They SHOULD have been seen on the ultrasound, but I've actually had one cat where hers did not show up on one ultrasound. A few weeks later, I took her to a different vet to get a second opinion, and viola! On that particular ultrasound, there were stones readily visible. I don't know if it was better imagery equipment at the second vet, or whether the stones had grown to a larger size to make them more visible.

My cat was treated for the stones and continues to do well today.

Don't mean to come off as a naysayer, and chances are that your kitty is going to be just fine. Just wanted to share this information as a precaution.

[charlie and algernon]

23. Yeah, the ER Vet did bring that possibilty up

nothing came up on the ultrasound and she said its not common for female cats to get stones, but I'll be watching her for a while. Maybe it is just the pain medication, but she has seemed more relaxed this weekend. I think I only have about a day's worth left, so I'll see how she is once I run out and she's off of it for awhile.

[stuntcat]

25. ((((Esther))))

I'm glad she has you to look out for her! She'll get better now.

I am sorry you had to go to the emergency vet.

[charlie and algernon]

26. Thanks for your thoughts!

:hi: :hug:

[Skittles]

29. good news!

and thank you for the pill pocket recommendation - I've seen them and wondered if they work

[charlie and algernon]

30. She loves the pill pockets

After I gave her two stuffed pockets last night, she was still looking for more, lol! So I gave her a couple empty pill pockets to snack on.

[davsand]

27. Get your cat a water fountain. It REALLY helps.

Cats do not always drink enough water and a fountain keeps the water a lot fresher tasting so they will drink more. Part of the issue for cats prone to UTI is the urine gets too concentrated due to the dry diet that they eat rather than the "juicier" diet they eat in their natural state. A fountain can help with that. I also echo the suggestion of giving tuna water or even mixing water into canned food.

I did not have great luck with Pet Fountains sold in pet stores, so I bought a small water pump for water gardens and set it up in a plastic (Rubbermaid) tub with enough tubing to just stick out above the water level so it makes a small geyser in one end of the tub. It keeps the water aerated and the cat actually plays in it sometimes.

Good luck to you and your kitty!



Laura

[charlie and algernon]

31. Are they noisy? I don't know how she'd react to something that made noise

she's very skittish and will avoid a noise making fountain.

[davsand]

32. She might like the commercial pet fountain better.

As I recall, they were more quiet than my home made version. My biggest complaint with the "store bought" ones was that I tried a couple of different brands and my water is SO full of minerals and iron that the pump didn't hold up for long unless I used bottled water. My cat is a big fat neutered male that is not afraid of much (except thunderstorms, for some reason...) and he doesn't seem to mind the sound of water running. (He'll actually sit and paw at a faucet that is running! He's a big old goof!)

Again, I wish you and your kitty good luck and sound health!



Laura