Stones in my cats! Dial-Up Warning!!!

So exactly a year ago...alost to the date we found out our one female cat had a rather large stone in her bladder. She wasnt peeing, but would sit in the litter box for sooo long at a time and maybe a pea size amount would come out....and it was blood red...she also started peeing all over the house...so we had these little dots of blood every where... they said it was because she could really go and would just just have an accident because it hurt so bad. Well 500 bucks later the stones are out and she's fine.

Then a few weeks back our cats for the first time ever started peeing on the rug in our bathroom, with 3 cats it was hard to figure out who it was...they had never done this before. So I took the rug up, but they would still pee on any piece of cloth in the bathroom. Well I put a box in there finally, because I thought maybe there telling me they want another box, we have an electric one in the office and then we have one for our Chihuahua aswell...which they all share at times. So this box in the bathroom stopped the peeing on the rug etc. But I happend to catch our one male cat Masin, sitting in there the other day and he was just sitting and sitting and finally a drop came out and it was blood!! So I watched him for a couple days and sure enough it was him, I took him in and they said he had bacteria in his urine and that it was a bladder infection, gave me some anti-biotics and sent us on our way...once they were finished I brought him in to be tested again to make sure it was gone and brough the other 2 cats and cotton the chihuahua in to be tested for hook worms because I had to bring Lilly our greyhound in that week because she was yacking and had bloody stool...well it was hook worms. Well everyone was tested and the good news was there were no hook worms in them, bad news is Masin has stones...ooppss must of missed that when the fill in Dr. saw me and said it was a bladder infection, so I was ticked because I spent all that time and money on antibiotics etc. when in reality they were doing nothing for him except making him suffer for another week.
Today we took him in and they removed not 1 stone but 3!!!!!! This time they worked out a payment plan because I have been in there almost every stinking week with atleast one animal...we were actually one of there firt patients...so you'd think they would cut me a deal right???

Any who here are the pictures of the stones...they let me keep them this time.
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...asinStone3.JPG
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...asinStone2.JPG
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...asinStone1.JPG

Awwwwwwwww poor baby!

Sounds like it's time to change to a better food or a prescription diet. Good thing the cat wasn't blocked too bad, I've seen males go catatonic from being blocked for so long. It's sad that your vet couldn't diagnose bladder stones right then. I would have done a cystocentesis, grabbed a bit of urine, centrifuged it, and looked. Heaven forbid it take 5 minutes...

Sorry, I like to rant. Some vets are so incredibly stupid, it's unreal.

If your cats have recurring stones/bladder issues, then a diet change is needed or they will keep having problems. What are they eating now? Science Diet s/d, c/d, and x/d would help prevent the problem from recurring, as well as antibiotics every so often to prevent any bladder infections. A short round of steroids would be a good thing to do to help the bladder calm down and heal. But that's just me... I'm just a lowly RVT... What do I know? ;)

I would take those stones back and get a scraping from them to see what type of crystal is causing the problem. Then you can go from there on what food to put all of the cats on.

Hope that helps and glad you caught the problem early.

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

But that's just me... I'm just a lowly RVT... What do I know? ;)

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Not to thread hijack severaly, but speaking of you and your RVT-ness and cat food, I've been meaning to ask you what you would recommend for cat food. I can't get my vet to recommend any particular brand or type and my google searching profited me very little coherant information.

My cat, Nicky, is a 12.5 year old neutered male in seemingly good health (guessing his weight is about 10lbs and he has medium length fur, but never has seemed to have a problem with hairballs) - and I'd like to keep him that way. He's never seemed to have any preference for one type of food or another, but seems to go for "fishy" things more than any other type.

Currently I'm feeding him Iams Weight Control dry kibble (left over from when Cato was still alive and overweight), but I'm guessing that "Iams is crap".

I wander the cat food aisle at the big chain pet store and go 'deer-in-the-headlights' with all the varieties and market targets, I have no clue what to buy. So, got any recommendations? =)

Royal Canin, Science Diet, Wellness, Eukanuba, etc. Those are all wonderful foods. I use the Science Diet for the dogs(Sensitive Skin for one dog and Senior for the other). And my rats get Wellness Senior, LoL. Expensive little farts. Nutro is also another wonderful food. You want to look for a food that doesn't have many ingredients, with a real meat as a first ingredient(Chicken, Beef, Some sort of fish, Lamb, Turkey, etc). You can even get Kangaroo :)

Also, since he's 12, going on 13, he can now get the Senior Discount. Maybe try an Advanced Protection Senior food, so he can live into his 20's. Our cat lived until she was 23 and was healthy as a horse until then.

also, it could be your water. See if your area is known for having hard water. That would make calcium stones a possibility.

I keep my cat on Nutro Natural Choice cat food myself. It's great stuff. I've never had another cat in my life that had such soft silky fur.

I highly doubt it. It is most likely food related, and can have a genetic component.

Ow; those are huge. :(
I am glad they're no longer in your cat, at least :)
I feed Science Diet to Inky, and it is worth every penny. I noticed my cat fills his litterbox much less often using it, than the cheapo food.

I dont know much about cats, but in humans calcium stones are caused from many different things. Most common in a hypersecretion of a bone deteriorating hormone. You may want to have her adrenal gland tested if the problem occurs again.

Were actually pretty "green" here and like to keep things simple and as close to natrual as possible when it comes to our pets, our child and ourselves, I have them on Nutro's Natrual Choice for indoor cats right now, when I worked at pet stores when I was younger and then at vet. hospitals as I got older I leaned more toward nutro for some reason. I also like Wellness and other holistic foods, I am actually switching them all over to Royal Canin's Urinary SO, I am trying it out on Masin tonight...well I put some down...we all know he isnt going to eat it. Its unreal to be happening again and with Nutro. But I am also convinced this is something to do with them being from the same litter....I mean what are the odds right? Whats aweful is all 3 are from the same litter...I found them just as they were born, had to open there sacks and everything, bottle fed them and the whole nine yards. So I am wondering along with the Vet. if this is something that might also strike Merlin.
We did have Morgins stone shipped off and tested when this happend with her last year, I am assuming this could be the same exact thing so were waiting....if the SO shows results then were fine.....if not I have the stones in my fridge. that I'll send out....I figured we could save the 150 bucks for now and see if the food does the trick.

Thank you all for your kind words and advice.

glad those stones are out , poor kitty . good luck on getting this thing under control .

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Originally Posted by markface

glad those stones are out , poor kitty . good luck on getting this thing under control .

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Thanks :) Isnt it these sort of things happen all at once and when you just spent a huge amount of money??

Sorry to hear about the problems. :( I agree 100% with Becky about the change in diet. My ex-wife was a lab-tech/vet assistant and almost all these kinds of problems were food related. We had 4 cats ( 2 had same problem as yours) and had to switch them all to more expensive food, but we never had a problem after the switch.

I have found that you can feed less of the Sci Diet food. My cat was polishing off huge bowls of the meow-mix junk; now I give him about half a cup in the AM, and in the PM, and he never begs anymore for food; just eats a good amount and goes back to nibble. And he has lost weight too!

Wow. I used to have 2 WONDERFUL cats. One day one (or both) of them started to not use their litterbox. It became a BIG problem. It got so bad we ended up having to replace our carpets and tried keeping them in the basement. Time went by and we deceided to gave away both cats. I felt soo bad, but kept telling my self they'd be better off, living with a family (who had kids and no dogs) and they would be able to give them the love they needed.


I never thought that it could have been a medical problem.

Thanks for the recommendations, Becky! That's still a lot of choices, but at least it helps narrow it down a bit. =)

Becky may be able to chime in her opinions on this.

My friend works for a cat clinic as a vet tech (they only do cats). The vet recommends that cats eat wet food, since they would normally get far more moisture in their diet in the wild as opposed to drinking directly from water.

My friend's cat has had difficulty with urinary tract infections previously and she's switched him over to wet cat food exclusively. If I recall correctly, the vet said that it should help.

Well, if you look at the protein content in a can of wet food, there is only 7-8% total in the WHOLE can. Cats need around 30% high quality protein. Canned food is also high in fat and can lead to dental problems; calculus, gingivitis, etc.

Dry food makes them drink more, which in turn scrapes the plaque and junk off of their teeth, which also makes them drink more water that washes the food off of their teeth, and drinking more water leads to staying more hydrated and flushing out the kidneys better.

It takes ALOT to find a high quality canned food. Even some of the good ones still have some sort of junk in them that isn't useful to the cat.

I always tell people to feed a good quality dry food with some wet food as a treat now and then. Wet food only just leads to problems, IMHO.

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

It takes ALOT to find a high quality canned food. Even some of the good ones still have some sort of junk in them that isn't useful to the cat.

I always tell people to feed a good quality dry food with some wet food as a treat now and then. Wet food only just leads to problems, IMHO.

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I concur actually. My friend and I discussed this several weeks ago, so I'm probably not repeating the advice correctly.

Our vet always advised a quality dry food diet with wet food given occasionally as a treat for the cats and the dog. As well as other issues with wet food, it also tends to stick to their teeth and gums and cause excessive problems with their teeth over the years. Quite honestly I always found with our cats that their feces stunk to high heaven whenever they got too much wet food (and who needs a stinkier litter box...not me! lol) Also they tend to get that stinky wet food breath thing going on...yewwwww.

FYI, Becky ROCKS! Thanks for sharing your leet info! =)

Haha, info... That's just me stepping on my soap box every 5 flippin' seconds to gripe at someone for buying junk for their animals to eat. How about they eat sawdust mixed with chicken blood and other "parts" such as feet, beaks, hooves, ears, skin, etc(can be called a by-product if it has any sort of animal SOMETHING in it)? It just appalls me to see the crap that is in these bags of "stuff". I work at a grocery store right now, and see people going by with Dinner Time dog and cat food, other unmentionables... I could scream...


Even my rats eat Wellness Senior, which is pretty hard to find in Waco(Petsmart and one specialty shop that is closing *sniff*). The poor dogs only get Science Diet Sensitive Skin and Senior, LoL. Poor unloved things :)

www.omhpet.com has a great explanation of dog and cat foods and what ingredients are included in the crappy foods and what it can do to your pet.

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Originally Posted by SatanicIntention

www.omhpet.com has a great explanation of dog and cat foods and what ingredients are included in the crappy foods and what it can do to your pet.

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We have always given our animals the best food we could get that they would actually eat, if needed I suppliment there cat food to make sure there getting what they need to live long comfy lives.

We need them to drink as much water as possible, since you cant really make an animal drink more, we water down there wet food, we keep Royal Canin Urinary SO down during the day, and give them the wet food at night...they never fail to polish the wet food down. They talked about putting them on wet food full time, but I was a little worried about there teeth and gum health, so we are trying this out for now.

I might just talk over the BARF (bones and raw food)diet for cats, with the vet. and see what she thinks...I'm sure it couldnt hurt to give it a try.

I'll keep everyone posted. So far Masin is doing fine, his staples are ready to come out...I havent noticed him having any fluid build up, Morgin did with her surgery because she has so much fat on her belly. But so far Masin hasnt gotten any lumps to indicate he has fluid built up.

~Audrey

So I had this huge long response typed out, and just as I was doing the closing paragraph, one of the kittens kindly jumped on the keyboard and erased it all.


The short version:
BARF is a royal PITA, I wouldn't bother when there are so many good quality diets available. We feed Science Diet here, does wonders with our elderly chronic kidney failure cat.

Get the stone analyzed; your vet might not be aware that the Minnesota Urolith Lab does them for free; I think at most you pay shipping. I can check the forms when I go in to work tomorrow, and would be happy to fax a copy of the submission paperwork to you or your vet.

It's absolutely essential to know which type of crystal you are dealing with, so that you can regulate your urine pH appropriately (easily done with one of the Science Diet Prescription Diets). The wrong diet will push your pH in the opposite direction from the one you want, making the problem worse...so it's essential to know what you're dealing with.

One trick to increase water consumption is to add a drinking fountain. I have one for my cats, and they love it. It produces a constant flow of filtered air-cooled water for them.

Good luck! Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease is one of the most frustrating to deal with; please be patient with your vet...they will most likely need to do a lot of follow-up urinalyses and stuff...it can seem overwhelming if you're not used to dealing with it, and often you will have recurring problems for years. :-( One of the biggest challenges I have in communicating with owners is getting them to understand that this is a complicated and long-term condition, with many setbacks and no quick fixes.