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

[TheAudOne]

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.

[lillyorchid]

Awwwwwwwww poor baby!

[SatanicIntention]

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.

[cassandra]

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

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? =)

[SatanicIntention]

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.

[piranhaking]

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

[Schlyne]

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.

[SatanicIntention]

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

[Ginevive]

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.

[Cady]

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.