Four weeks back, when we woke up in the morning, our 10 year old MC "Sam" was moaning from something which was bothering him. We took him to the vet and found his bladder was blocked (and painfully swollen.)

The vet recommended anesthetization and catheteriztion to relieve his problem. We went for it. The vet said the urine came out and was bloody as a result of the pressure on it. We left him there for two days and visited him to make sure he was as happy as possible. The vet said there was definite crystalization in his urethra which had caused the blockage. After the two days, we brought him home.

Within a day it was obvious he was in pain again. We took him in again to find the same condition, and the vets repeated the treatment to knock him out and empty his bladder. We continued to visit him daily and asked the vets to watch him for several days to make sure it didnt happen again. Well, It did. They repeated the procedure again for a third time.

Not knowing why the cat was unable to urinate, they sent him home after prescribing a very potent (1/4 pill per day) antispasmodic medicine. (Wish I knew the name of it still, it was evil.) Sam became unresponsive about 24 hours after the first pill, drooling all over himself at an unprecedented rate. (drip drip drip drip). We discontinued the medicine because it seemed to be killing him.

We took him in again because we thought it wasnt helping, only making things very worse on top of his (again) growing bladder. By the time we took him in this time, he was almost in a coma, very very far from reality due to that drug.

They said Sam had an uncharacteristic response to the evil medicine, and instead had some special drugs flown in from the University of Washington to attempt to help him.

Within two days, Sam came back to the real world, he was bright and chipper, purring and happy to see us. But, he still could not urinate.

After another day, he again needed relief. The group of vet doctors indicated they had NOTHING else to try. Sadly, we had Sam put down. It was a very hard decision because he was essentially OK and happy to see us, he just ...could not pee...

I wish I would have known about this forum before we made our decisions, as I post my question to you all, is there more we could have done for Sam.

Mike

-- Anonymous, April 21, 1999

Answers

Response to Is there more I could have done?

I had a beautiful show quality black persian that had a neurological issue. Same kind of thing...

He was young (3 years). I felt bad about it, but I can say that we tried everything too and had to put him to sleep.

Reading all your treatments is proof enough that you did everything you could for him, and that he had good parents.

-- Anonymous, April 27, 1999

Response to Is there more I could have done?

I had a simmilar problem with one of my cats. The vet reported to me that colored cat food causes the crystalization in unirinary tract. Any foods that are not ph balanced or have artificial colors are murder on the U.T. I was lucky that all worked out well for my little friend but that was just it. LUCK. The vet said that a very large precent of animals die from this. Sorry for your loss. stef

-- Anonymous, May 06, 1999

this is actually typical in male cats. the best thing is to give them low ash cat food right from the beginning. i am sorry for your loss :(

-- Anonymous, October 26, 1999

You have probably heard all of this by now - Surgery could have been performed to enlarge the hole where the male cat urinates. It was performed on my mother's cat 10+ years ago. This is a cure. Female cats don't have the same problem because they have a larger opening to urinate, so the crystals pass thru and are eliminated. I have just had my 2 1/2 year old male cat suffer a blockage, even though he is on a special diet to keep him from getting the blockages. I will try a normal course of events before considering the surgery. This is a horrible condition for a cat to have - it is horribly painful, as you witnessed yourself. You did all you could for your pet - your vet didn't. Please, find a new vet. I am so sorry.....

-- Anonymous, January 12, 2001