Hi All,

I am posting this because my friends are deperately worried about their cat and I know some of you are pretty experienced when it comes to felines so I'm hoping someone might be able to help.

They have been having a problem with their male (neutered) cat peeing in the house fo a while. Sometimes he would use his litter box but sometimes he would just pee wherever he was standing at the time. Then, about 3-4 weeks ago, he squatted in the middle of the floor and peed blood. Since then, he has had several visits to the vet and they can find nothing wrong with him even though traces of blood are still showing up in urine samples. Antibiotics were prescribed incase it was a kidney infection but were ineffective. The vet also suggested that the cat may have been hit by a car but it has no other apparent injuries and various tests have all come back clear. The cat does not seem unwell otherwise. They have another cat who is perfectly well but it is a house cat that rarely goes out while the affected cat has frequent access to outdoors.

Last night my friends were going out and a girl who lives up the street came to babysit their daughter. They told the babysitter not to open the door to one of the bathrooms as they had put the cat in it for the evening and explained about the peeing blood thing. The girl said that her cat had been doing the same and it started around the same time. Their vet cannot find anything wrong with this cat either

My friends left their cat to the vet again this morning for more tests and mentioned about the other cat having the same symptoms but the vet said it was probably just coincidence. Maybe it is coincidence but it seems strange that 2 cats that live close to each other would develop the same symptoms at about the same time.

Do any of you cat owners have experience of anything like this? My friends are very worried about him. Any thoughts/help/suggestions would be great :)

Thanks.

Hi

I had same sort of problem with my cat and it was (not sure of the spelling) Sistitis.  The vet said it was due to stress.  We had just moved house so that could be it.  he was peeing blood and peeng all over.  This could be caused with him being let out only now and again, once you let a cat out they know whats behind the door and get stressed that they cant go back out.  Our vet give the cat an injection of antibitics I think it was and told us to starve him for 24 hours and give him plenty water.  I would advise her to run this past the vet first though.

Thanks Thompson1

Their vet did say it could be stress related too but my friends couldn't think of any reason that the cat would be stressed. He gets let out all the time (he used to be miserable being kept inside so they don't restrict his access to outdoors). Maybe there has been an incident whilst he has been out that they are not aware of that has caused him stress?

I will suggest starving him to them. At this stage, they will try anything as the vet is really at a loss.

Ideopathic cystitis, meaning there is no known cause. My favourite cat Vanilla suffers from it. In his case we can pretty much always relate it to stress. If something happens, he gets bad. We did for instance have one cat he hated and when I re-homed that cat to my daughter, he got a lot better.

One vital thing is to not feed dried food alone -any cat prone to cystitis or blockages from stones or crystals  should be fed either on canned only, or one meal of canned and one meal of dried a day as it greatly reduces the risk of it recurring. It's all down to getting enough of a liquid intake. In fact force feeding water by syringe can help.

I'm wondering if these two cats maybe are fighting with each other so both are stressed?

I seem to remember my vet gave Vanilla steroid injections when he was at his worst, to calm it down.

It is very important always to keep a close eye on things and always consult the vet as if it should worsen to become a blockage, male cats can die from this within hours.

Hope this was of any help.

Thanks for that Goldmali...I was hoping you would see my post as one of our resident cat experts :)

It sounds like you might be spot on. I don't think the cats are fighting or anything, they are both neutered and have lived together happily for several years. However, because this cat goes out a lot and the other doesn't, I would wonder if something has happened outside that may have upset him. I know he came home injured (not badly, just a couple of small puncture wounds to the leg which have healed now)some time ago so maybe he has been in a fight? Also, I'm pretty sure he is fed mainly dry food.

I shall pass on your advice when I see them in the morning. Thanks so much :)

Totally and absolutely agree with Goldmali, undoubtedly Cystitis, as advised I would feed NO dried food at all I'm afraid...it may not be the cause but it definately doesn't help one iota! As advised in earlier post, agree 100%!!! I also have a cat that suffers! :rolleyes:

that's intriguing - my younger cat Whisp (younger meaning 10, lol :D) suffered from idiopathic systitis almost a year ago now, definitely due to stress - my brother's cats live with us, and she absolutely hates them - I posted about it on a US forum, and I had someone email me several times telling me to stop feeding her wet food as the high levels of magnesium often cause systitis.  So it's intriguing that you're saying dry food doesn't help... as it is, I don't feed dry food as I see no reason to feed an obligate carnivore cereals :D and aside from the odd snack, she doesn't like it!  She hasn't had it since though, and soon enough I'll be moving out and taking her with me so she won't have to worry about those other two nightmares :D

If it were Cystitis, anti-biotics would of stopped it.  In my experience, repeated blood in urine could consitute struvite crystals.
Dawn.

The vet has tested for, and ruled out, struvite crystals in the case of my friends' cat.

My cat had similar symptoms and had suffered from cystitis on and off, we eventually found that she had oxilate crystals - had to send to the US for full tests :rolleyes:

She is supposed to be on a special diet, which she flatly refuses to eat, so we tried BARF for cats and found that she would only eat the bits that she likes so now, as she is a bit long in the tooth, we have given in and she lives entirely off of white fish and white meat. Probably dosent cost any more than the special diet and it makes her very happy so we thought that she may as well enjoy the rest of her life :D    

Just thought I'd update on this....

Goldmali, you were spot on :) The vet eventually diagnosed Ideopathic Cystitis and recommended the wet food etc. This cat will not touch wet food but I suggested soaking his dry food in chicken broth. Is this an acceptable way to get more liquid into him? He does drink a fair bit of water anyway but I also suggested the syringe method if necessary.

Having thought about it, my friends do think that the other cat might be the cause of the problem but they didn't want to face the prospect of rehoming one as the cats both belong to their 10 year old daughter. However, they are now looking into the possibility of rehoming him with a family friend so that their daughter can maintain contact with him.

Thanks all for your input. Once again, the Champdoggers come up trumps (even if it was for a cat :D )

By rehoming the cat ,it could make the problem much worse,cats really get stressed when they are rehomed.maybe she could try feeding whiskers pouches in jelly,cats are very fussy eaters,i am sure there will be a wet food what the cat likes,just have to try different ones, i personaly would not use the syringe method ,also like dogs if they are fed on dried foods they will drink alot of water.

Sheila.

Goldmali, you were spot on :-) The vet eventually diagnosed Ideopathic Cystitis and recommended the wet food etc. This cat will not touch wet food but I suggested soaking his dry food in chicken broth. Is this an acceptable way to get more liquid into him? He does drink a fair bit of water anyway but I also suggested the syringe method if necessary.

:) What about boiling fish (coley or cod), I've never yet met a cat that could resist it, and it will contain a good amount of water. It can keep in the fridge for a few days, I often do a few days worth for kittens. Chicken broth should be okay to add to the dry as long as it doesn't have a lot of salt in it, and here I don't know. Ultimately though I would try to get away from the dry food.  HiLife tinned food contains a lot of pure meat and/or fish, more than any other tinned food I know of, and a lot of cats love it because of that.

Re-homing could of course solve all the problems, if he goes as a single cat.

Thanks Goldmali :) I shall pass on your suggestions.

He will be rehomed as a single cat and he lived with the person he will be rehomed to for a short while in the past and was very happy there.

Thank you so much for your help and advice :)

One of our cats has problems with crystals and will not touch tinned food. However she is very happy on a cooked version of cat Barf, the only really essential thing that is missing in the long term is Taurine, which can be given as powder/capsules. Who knows the cat that you refer to may even be prepared to eat raw.