Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD)

If you have a male cat you may already be familiar with FLUTD. Thankfully I was well aware of it after having researched some of the serious medical issues that can happen to a male cat when we adopted Simon a couple of years ago. Sat night he was "off", just not himself but I put it down to him being annoyed with us for having "abandoned" (his word not mine)  him for a week while we were on vacation in Mexico.. Sun morning I let him out as per usual but kind of kicked myself for doing it without giving him the once over, but knew he would be back in a an hour so let it go.. Well he wasn't back in an hour, so I kept looking for him. Simon has better recall that my dogs, I swear he comes immediately when I call. By noon I began to look seriously and it took another 3.5 hrs to find him or until he found us.. It was the longest 3.5hrs in a long time. I knew as I carried him in the house he was very sick. He went to the litter box and did nothing then laid down on the dog bed. I checked him and he had blood on his penis. I knew he was blocked so I called the Vet and met Dr. Ted at the clinic.
Dr. Ted confirmed the blockage and showed me how to check the bladder, it was the size of and orange (damn that had to hurt). Dr Ted cleared the blockage and placed a catheter, gave him fluids and meds.  He was able to come home today a little earlier than expected because he refused to eat at the clinic.. He was quite stressed there and would not even eat for me.
He had xrays today that did not show any bladder stones so that's good. The likely cause of the FLUTD is cystitis. The basic treatment is lots of fluids and feeding wet food.. Simon however HATES wet food so that is going to be a challenge. He has eaten a small amount since he came home this morning and had several drinks so I am feeling a little better about it but he has not peed.. The catheter came out this am and then Dr. Paula expressed him before he came home so we know he was not blocked... so now all we need is some PEE...

I took this just after he came home and he assumed his place! He has barely moved from there since he got home.


Here is a link to some good info from Cornell on FLUTD

If you have a cat, especially a male cat you should be very aware of FLUTD. It is a true emergency for a cat if they become blocked. Do NOT wait if you see these symptoms, take your cat to a Vet immediately.

The symptoms you need to look for:
  1. Straining to urinate.
  2. Frequent and/or prolonged attempts to urinate.
  3. Crying out while urinating.
  4. Excessive licking of the genital area.
  5. Urinating outside the litter box.
  6. Blood in the urine.
  7. Lethargic
  8. Refusing food or water
  9.  Vomiting

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