A Recovering Kitty After His Cystotomy & Perineal Urethrostomy

Hey Pet Parents & Pet Lovers,

We’ve been gone for over a week now dealing with the emergencies that arose last weekend with Beau and his Struvite Crystal/Blockage issues. If you’re interested in reading a bit about our experience on Saturday you can read about it on my personal blog. (Please note, although that blog post is more family friendly some of my posts do contain swear words or talk about mature content.) You can also check out the play by play on the blog’s twitter account.

After a week of worry and troubles, I’m happy to report that Beau is doing better than we imaged. On Saturday we admitted Beau into the Emergency because he completely blocked after months of having no issues. To be honest, Beau had been peeing regularly until Saturday. Large clumps and no signs of straining, just a constant flow. Saturday was different though. I got a number of frantic texts from my partner telling me Beau wasn’t doing well, and Beau had been in the worst condition we have ever seen him in.

Knowing that Beau had a history of urinary issues that we thought we solved with Science Diet C/D, but we couldn’t be further from the truth.

Unfortunately, there were a number of underlying health issues with Beau which didn’t peak their nasty heads until he was on the operating table.

From what I can tell you right now: Beau had a small urethra which meant he got blocked easier than most male cats. We’re actually experiencing reoccurring blockages with Walker and we will be taking the same dietary/supplemental precautions with him to make sure he doesn’t end up with the same problem that Beau had.

Beau also had very thick urine which the vets were pretty concerned about since he had been flushed by a catheter for over 48-hours. Because of this, we are going to be doing some extra tests to see what the reasons may be and if it has a long-term condition we were unaware of.

Currently, Beau is on a kitty drug concoction, which includes Cosequin, which is a supplement I wish I heard of earlier. Although it is commonly marketed for hip & joint issues Cosequin has also been used for urinary tract issues (although, honestly different forums seem to say different things). We’re primarily using it for inflammation issues. Since Beau and Walker have had UTIs on and off for two years, we’re certain they have some inflammation in their bladder (well Beau definitely does), but we’re more than happy to listen to our vet on this one, especially so close to the surgery. However, please note Cosequin has no effect on Crystals. So if your little one has them, definitely get the vet to recommend a good food.

We’ve also found a way to switch from dry food to wet… SUCCESS! Although Beau is currently in too much pain to eat properly, we have switched him onto the well-known and commonly recommended Royal Canin Urinary SO, which he’s been eating since before his operation (and it was actually helping with his blockage. (The main reason we decided to have the operation is because he got blocked 3 times within a few days.)

So far, everything looks good. Beau has been camping out in his man cave. He’s been grumpy and doesn’t want to eat too much, but we’ve gotten him to take all of his medications with the godsend Pill Pockets. If you haven’t tried them before and have difficulty getting your little ones to take their pills I HIGHLY recommend them. I’ll give them a couple more tries before I review them (especially since we want to see if Beau will catch on that there is medication inside of them. (Please don’t let it happen, please don’t let it happen!)

We’re also really happy to let you know that Beau is drinking a lot more. We know it has to do with the food he’s eating (as it has extra sodium to get cats to drink), but it’s better he drinks more, especially at a time like now. We even ordered an extra fountain to see if Beau likes it better than the one we have. Although, today he walked right up to it and drank for quite a long time. GO BEAU!

Otherwise, nothing to report. I’ll give you all an update if things change, and will probably do a write up in a few days with everything we’ve noticed from this surgery. It was definitely scary to go through, but so far… it’s been easy to handle post-op. I’m really grateful for how easy Beau is to take care of and hope that the recovery keeps going smoothly.