Hi
soryy to hear that Shadow has been poorly. Urinary problems in cats are only VERY rarely due to infection, but most vets seem to assume they always are, and just prescribe antibiotics without much thought
did they actually do a culture of the urine and found that it was definitely a bacterial infection?
Cystitis, which is probably what Shadow has (peeing blood etc) is nearly always due to irritation in the bladder, which can be due to crystals (ruled out for Shadow), or an alkaline pH to the urine (did the vet check her urine pH?). Unfortunately, dry food is the prime cause of UTI in cats and it can nearly always be cured simply by removing all dried food from the diet and feeding a high quality wet food (high in protein and with a high moisture content) Dry food lacks sufficient moisture, so the urine becomes too concentrated, which leads to further irritation - a vicious circle.
so my suggestion woudl be to change Shadow's food. I doubt that she even needs antibiotics.
for further info, see
Feeding Your Cat** Know the Basi
good luck
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cats_Shadow
My cat, Shadow, has had a couple of attacks of FLUTD (Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease) a couple of times this year. We got her in March from a rescue home so I don't really know if she has a history of FLUTD. She is an indoor cat and a little overweight (about 5.5kgs) and is on royal canin light dry food.
We took her to the vets when she developed it a second time and the vet came to the conclusion that she hadn't recovered from the infection that she had before. So Shadow is now on a longer course of antibiotics to get rid of it. She was given an ultrasound to check for stones/tumours and was given the all-clear. She was also tested for crystals in the urine, which was negative. So the vet said it must be the infection.
She was given 4 weeks of antibiotics. She still has 10 days left and yesterday started peeing tiny patches of blood again, even though she's on the antibiotics.
Does anyone know why this might be happening? Surely if it was an infection she shouldn't be peeing blood while on antibiotics?
I'm going to call the vet tomorrow and ask whether she needs more tests or stronger antibiotics or something... but in the meantime does anyone have any advice or ideas?
I'm just so worried.
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