Poor Guy.
Because Romeo is our problem child when it comes to the litter box, Pugsley’s peeing issues came as a bit of a surprise.
Friday afternoon, we noticed Pugsley was spending a lot of time in the litter box – up to 10 minutes at a time. I thought he had one of his frequent bouts of diarrhea. But when I checked the box later, after several of these lengthy visits, there wasn’t anything in the box. Not even pee. That’s when we knew the poor baby was in trouble.
Immediately after my concerning litter box check, I picked up Pugsley and he meowed in pain when I grabbed him around his belly. Then, he ran and hid.
As it always seems to be in cases like this, it was after hours. So, at 10 p.m. Friday night, off to the emergency vet we went.
Luckily I had learned along the way (and now you know too) that you should never, ever delay treating a cat who is straining to pee but can’t. He needs urgent medical attention. Don’t wait until morning.
The cause of Pugsley’s misery? A blocked urethra. This condition is when the cat’s urethra becomes clogged with urinary stones, for example, or a “plug” of soft, compressible material consisting of minerals, cells, and mucus-like protein. If the urethra is blocked, the urine backs up and the kidneys can’t remove toxins from the blood or keep fluids and electrolytes in balance.
According to Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine web site brochure on Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease: “The time from complete obstruction until death may be less than twenty-four to forty-eight hours, so immediate treatment is essential.”
So, poor Pug was admitted, sedated, catheterized and bagged with IV fluids so they could flush out his system and remove the blockage. Fortunately he did not have urinary stones, which might have required surgery.
Nonetheless, he was in the hospital for 3 nights. He’s home now, but looking absolutely bummed out with a funny looking collar on his head to keep him from licking his privates. He’s on a couple of medications and I am watching his litter box output carefully to make sure he doesn’t re-block. Reblocking, by the way, will likely lead to surgery to widen his urethra. Cross your paws this doesn’t happen.
The vet says this condition isn’t uncommon for male cats of Pugsley’s age (he’s six years old). She also said many factors play a role including genetics or stress. With the new baby and the parade of visitors we’ve had here at my house, he could very well be upset and we didn’t realize it because he’s so laid back.
The vet urged me to feed a full wet diet, which I will write more about here at a later date. They also suggested we have lots of water bowls around, which I do. I have also been meaning to write about water intake and litter box issues so stay tuned for that topic as well.
In the meantime, our bank account is $2,500 lighter. It’s not pretty and makes a good case for finally getting around to securing pet insurance. With a couple of boy cats getting older, there are sure to be more medical issues in our future. I’ll share more soon about what we end up doing on that front.
Have any of you experienced this type of medical emergency with your cat?
{ 35 comments… read them below or add one }
Yep. Horus at 4am on a Friday morning. He’s also allergic to poultry so we couldn’t put him on prescription food. My four now have a water fountain and several water bowls, are fed freely Natures Variety dry kibble rabbit flavor, and daily NV canned lamb flavor. Haven’t had any problems since, knock on wood.
I have not personally experienced this, but my mom and sister have with their cats. It’s frightening and so hard on the kitties. Very glad that Pugsley is doing well so far. Fingers and paws crossed that there are no re-blockages!!
Thank you for taking the time to educate others with this post, as well
This happened to my boy Sibebe! I saw weird signs for a few weeks though, but didn’t realize what it was. I thought he was constipated at first, but realized (also late at night) that he couldn’t pee. Similar outcome, 3 nights in hospital, no surgery needed, hiss/attack from other cat once home. It’s been well over a year now though, and he’s FINE! I’ve had him on a prescription diet since then though, and I don’t dare go off because it also cost me almost 3K. Sadly, now he is uninsurable (also found out he has a heart condition at that time) but luckily I was able to purchase accident insurance for him. Got my other cat on the Cadillac of insurance now though, which just came in handy with some tooth extractions!
Good luck to Pugs!
Aw, poor Pugsley! We hope he feels better soon!
We haven’t had any issues ourselved ::knock on wood:: but our mom had a cat that came before us that had peeing issues. Fortunately, they were minor and only required antibiotics and no surgeries or hospital stays.
Poor Pugsley! You are such good staff for getting him in to the vet right away. Get better soon! *katiekisses*
Awww, poor Pugs! My kitty Graphite all of a sudden lost control of her hind end. Her back legs would sway back and forth, and she could barely walk. I took her to the vet, and they thought she injured her back. They took her for an xray, then came back a few minutes later, and she wasn’t the same kitty. She was pale and panting, and she had absolutely no use of her back legs. Apparently she was in shock. I’ll never know what happened when they took her for that x-ray. She had to go to another vet to stay overnight, and I was told the next morning she’d never walk again or have control of her bladder/bowels. She was 19 years old, and I made the awful decision to put her down. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through. Needless to say, I never went back to that vet.
Poor baby! Will be sending up prayers for him to the God who loves cats so much that He made them in every size and shape!!
Poor Pugsley.
We have two kitties (out of seven) with urinary issues. The first one is a girl kitty and luckily when she first started having issues, we caught it fast enough that she wasn’t blocked up totally so she didn’t require an emergency visit. The second, however is a boy kitty and since it’s far more dangerous for boy kitties since their urethra is much narrower, he ended up at the emergency vet and had to have his bladder flushed out TWICE to get all the gunk out. He spent 4 days there (but I visited him twice a day and my husband came at night with me.)
Since our kitties eat a combo of wet and dry food, we get some of the special urinary formula dry food and the girl kitty gets a liquid urinary acidifier that we done in a fish flavor by a local compounding pharmacy. On top of that, we’ve got a recirculating water fountain on each floor as well as regular bowls of water in three areas.
It’s been 6 years since Inky had his issues and so far so good. *knocks on wood* Truffle is also doing fine and dandy, so what we’re doing seems to be working out.
Word of warning on the insurance thing…read carefully because most likely this urinary tract issue will be considered a “preexisting condition” and make him uninsurable (or only insurable more expensively.) I wish I’d done insurance on Inky and his mother Midnight when we first got him, because he and his mother have heart issues (which we found out about only after his brother Flash died suddenly out of the blue and we had an autopsy done to figure out what happened.) It would be lovely to have insurance to cover the cost of their yearly cardiology visits, but alas…it’s now considered a preexisting condition. *sigh*
Good luck!
My poor Lukie (age 6 at the time) had 2 blockages in a row so I had to go for the PU surgery (perineal urethrostomy). This surgery basically removes the penis and reroutes the urethra to a newly installed “slit” below the anus. While I jokingly talked about my boy having a sex change, I didn’t tell him what had been done nor did I tell any of the others out of respect for him. He doesn’t seem to even know he pees like a girl now!! It’s been over a year now and with the help of prescription urinary food, all is well. Oh, and I got lucky with this illness – I first noticed at around 6:30 AM while getting ready for work that he was straining to pee – my vet got me in at 8:00 AM so no trip to the emergency vet this time!
Oh dear poor Pugs. Fortunately, we have never experienced that kind of problem with any of our 4 cats or 1 dog through the years. Had lots of orher problems, but not urinary tract problems. I’m so happy you wrote about this tho – we can at least be alert to the problem and know whzt to do if we see this strange behavior.
Oh poor Pugsley!
A few years ago Kitty had a round of medical .. situations we’ll say. He’d had ear mites, and was discovered to have a hyper active thyroid, so he was given ear drops and some steroids.
unfortunately everything wrecked havoc with his little system, and he ended up with a urinary tract infection. Similar symptoms, sitting in the litter box for extended periods of time, and pain when being picked up. Similar possible outcome too, thankfully we took him to the vet and they gave him anti biotics.
Poor Pugsley! I’m sending him all the best. He is lucky to have such wonderful people taking care of him!
I took my persian Remington into the emergency vet last night too, he has the dreaded kidney disease and hasn’t been eating. After a bunch of fluids, a neausea shot, meds for a possible URI, and a syringe with which to give him high-calorie food, he is looking better already. I’m also giving him fluids under the skin every day to keep him hydrated. Vet care is EXPENSIVE, but when the “kids” are sick, you have to take them in, you cannot just let them linger – that is your commitment to them when you adopt. We have pet insurance for him thank God – I think it’s totally worth it. It’s affordable, and Remi was even 10 years old when we adopted him and started coverage, so I really recommend it.
On a side note, my other cat Magnolia has the Feline Lower Urinary disease also, she’s strained to pee before and I’ve had to take her in. Since switching her to an all-wet diet, we’ve had no other problems. You can even add water to the wet food to make the kitty more hydrated. It’s a little harder for Pugsley being a persian and all, and I really do recommend using an oral syringe to give him a little more water every day if he’ll let you. Good luck Pugsley, and much love from Remington, Magnolia, and Stella!
xo jen begg
Oh, no poor Pugsley!! We are sending healing purrs his way!
Poor Pugsley! We are purring and praying that he is all better soon.
Oh, Pugsley! About 1 year ago, Brighton went through just what you did. He had that mucous matrix plug and it happened while I was on vacation and I almost lost him! He, too, stayed in the emergency hospital for 3 days and my wallet was about as light as your humans was, too. Even though I work at a cat hospital, the EC had 24 hr care and state of the art monitoring, so I did not begrudge him being there one bit.
They think he has FIC-feline interstititial cystitis and that the stress of me being gone brought it on. He has been on 95% canned food since then with dry as a treat only and I didn’t put him on a specific Rx diet as I was reluctant to change from the Nulo and Life’s Abundance that I really like to feed, but if it had recurred, well I would make the change as I would hope to keep from having to do a PU surgery on him, as that’s not without it’s risks and downsides. I also have him on glucosamine chondroitin (for inflammation) http://www.zukes.com/meow/hip-action.html, and another nutraceutical with cranberry in it, http://www.vetriscience.com/ut-strength-everyday-soft-cats.php and also he gets an Adequan injection once a month as some vet experts think it helps the bladder in FIC cats. http://ftp.amvq.qc.ca/Notes/S-Little-Idiopathic-Cystitis-in-Cats.pdf
Anyway, that’s what I do for Brighton, though I know every cat is different, thought you’d be interested as you’re his furrend, too.
Poor Pugs, hope he’s better soon. What a scare!
Thanks for this very important information! No problems yet with Bella, but I wouldn’t have known that was an urgent issue-thanks!
My Shih Tzu Lexi-Lou had emergency surgery at the pet ER at midnight a few years ago. She was straining and straining, trying to potty, but couldn’t go. The ER vet removed over 200 stones from her bladder that evening. They ranged from the size of peas to the size of grains of sand. Stones had lodged and blocked her urethra, similar to poor Pugs’ problems.
We went on prescription food for the stones…and almost exactly one year later she was having surgery again. The prescription food prevented the type of stones she had the year before…but it did NOT prevent a second kind of stone she was also prone to. So few dogs are prone to both kinds that they didn’t even make a prescription food for both!
Been there, done that. I switched food for my problem cat but the other boys didn’t find that fair, so now all of my boys eat wet food twice a day and a little bit of dry as a midnight snack. All higher end products without fish, grain, etc, so very high in protein. Plus I add a little water to the wet food as none of them drink much (cats aren’t known to be big water drinkers) and my problem cat also gets Saw Palmetto once a day and some urinary balancing pill from the vet twice a day. I think I spend more money on them than I do on eating for myself in a month!
Medical issues are very scary. Sending get well thoughts to Pugsley. Another condition to be aware of that is related to litter boxes is feline diabetes. My 10-month old kitten stopped using the box and started voiding on blankets and furniture. This was a new behavior so I took note of it. After a vet visit, he was diagnosed with feline diabetes (which is quite rare for a 10-month old cat).
An article on the link between litter box habits and diabetes would be a great addition to this section. It is a subtle symptom, but one that could help cat companions recognize the signs of diabetes early. Thanks!!
EEEEEEK. Poor PUGS. My baby Ernesto had an emergency visit for this last fall and another one a few weeks ago, about the same time Pugs went in.
Ernest is now on Super Expensive Good for Your Pee cat food but seems happy, which is all that matters. And when I got him home, the Cone of Shame was off.
My poor Puggaliscious. I hope he’s better.
You may be VERY surprised by the GOOD an all wet diet will do for your felines.
A few years ago, we had two experiences with blockages. Since changing to an all wet diet…ZERO urinary issues of any kind.
Cats need water IN their food. They naturally don’t have a strong thirst drive.
For more info, from a professional (DVM), please visit Dr. Lisa A Pierson’s website: http://www.catinfo.org
Lola, THANK YOU!
I have a 3 month old kitten that adopted myself and my 17 yr old daughter. After a 190.00 vet bill and a couple of weeks of rehabilitation our Chloe is doing great. I read all the comments about dry vs wet food but i am still left wondering what brand is the best food to feed her. I have been feeding her Disney’s Aristocats canned food. Has anyone heard any info on this food?
Michelle, I have not heard of that food but…..I feed my cats Wellness and Halo. Both brands are terrific and highly recommended by vets.
Two of my cats blocked with struvite crystals while on a ‘premium’ dry food diet. I also had a diabetic cat at the time, and so I did a lot of reading on the subject of food and came across http://www.catinfo.org by a vet who studies feline nutrition. She has a great web page now on urinary crystals. I learned so much and put my crew on a raw food diet. One of my boys hasn’t had another issue. The other is carb sensitive so when he gets into too many treats he starts having problems so we have to be careful.
Your vet is pretty progressive to suggest an all wet diet. So nice to see.
Connie, thank you so much! I am very happy to know about that resource and will definitely cite this vet in future posts.
We had similar issues with our beloved kitty Squeakie. He did have stones, we flushed them out several times (at a high price too) and we couldn’t figure out what was plugging him. We finally figured out it was cancer in his urethra. We had to put him down a few months ago after 16 beloved years. Poor little guy would strain and literally scream, which I took as the sign to get him in ASAP. For awhile I also had to take him in daily to our wonderful vet to be drained, since his couldn’t empty his own bladder by himself fully. So sad. And expensive.
Heartbreaking. Poor baby.
My cat Hermione had gotten into by accident some chemicals that made her basically not function properly so I got her to the veterinarian and they flushed her system and gave some medications to me to give to her. She’s fine now and will be 9 years old in August.
Thank goodness! I am so glad Hermione is okay! xoxo
My 11 yr old cat Munsch had the same infection when he was about 4. He kept leaving wet spots on the floor and was licking his private parts incessantly. The vet said that he would have to eat prescription foods, both wet and dry, for the rest of his life. I was told that when the male cat is neutered they are more susceptible to these infections.
He has never had a re-occurence but I stopped our flights back and forth between Europe and the US. Even though he flew with me in the cabin he stressed out with all the commotion around him. I didn’t want to trigger off another bout.
I have learned since that dry cat food is the culprit. I’d like to learn more about the diets because the choices of flavors for the prescription cat food is very limited.
Munsch is a sport and eats the stuff but I would like to give him more variety.
Viviann, I am looking into various options for wet food. I am getting conflicting answers on whether or not the prescription food is the way to go so I’m investigating futhre!
About 21 years ago, I had to euthanize a wonderful tuxedo cat, Drop In, because he was so troubled with Feline Urinary Syndrome. I learned too late about this problem which probably resulted from using the wrong kind of cat food. I’ve learned a good bit about this problem since it first appeared in Drop In. It is rarely a problem with females. With males, it is mostly a problem with the urethra in the penis getting blocked and damaged by the crystals. Sometimes the penis must be amputated. Best way to avoid the problem is lots of water intake and use of high quality, wet, low ash, low magnesium food. As stated in the article, genetics and/or stress can also factor in but the biggest problems are our ignorance about cats’ need for water and the really poor quality of even the best supermarket available pet foods. I would recommend to any pet parent that they do some serious research into the food we give our pets, their special health needs and veterinary care (it’s apalling how bad some vets are).
Just went through the same exact thing with my 6 year old kitty. Now that I am searching for pet insurance for him and his younger brother I cannot get a straight answer on whether or not his blockage is a pre-existing condition and won’t be covered if it should happen again.
Anyone have experience with this? Not that I don’t love my kitties but the emergency vet is very expensive.