Cat cystitis....

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Ask the vet

[wickywack]

Thanks everyone,

Daisy had her urine tested and no infection was found, but small crystals were. We live in an area with very hard water so wondered whether this could be a contributing factor so have since bought a britta filter. She's now on urinary care food also. She was given a course of Cystophan which finished on Monday,  and today there's blood in the litter again. I was wondering if Cystophan is safe to give long term as it seems to work for daisy?

[tab]

Im sorry I havent read the replies so may be repeating stuff.
My Amber get idiopathic or stress cystitis.
After years of putting water on her food she now drinks enough. Some days more than enough and then gets sick

She is on cystease once a day in her food and when she starts the yowling pink wee's she need an anti inflam inj. She doesnt manage well on liquid metacam as that makes her sick.

I think your best thing if she isnt yowling is to get a sample by either the vet taking a bladder sample or by using the crystals that the vet sells. They dont absorb so the vet can tell if its bacterial infection or not

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Just want to add that there are two types of stones, one which can be disolved and others that cant. For boy cats the latter are very dangerous, I dont know the effect on girl cats.

Napoleon had them and they had got into his bladder and his bladder had to be opened for removal. Sadly they were the indirect cause of him going to the bridge 

They were found on a scan.

[Lotzy]

My cat, Lottie, had cystitis six times in a year and she actually passes lots of pure blood - not nice. After the third time the vet xrayed her and took a urine sample. There are different things which can cause similar symptons and you need to know what you are dealing with in order to treat correctly. They ruled out infection, crystals, stones, any unusual lumps and were able to confirm it was cystitis. So we slowly swapped Lottie over to eating wet cat food all the time and she has one cystease mixed with her food daily. Getting her tested as the besst thing I ever did for her - knowing what the medical problem is has made a great difference with the correct course of treatment and since that time she's had it just once in two years, so do ask about testing. It's not cheap, but the vets bills will soon add up if you are having to regularly go the vets. If it's down to something like crystals/stones, then your little once would need a special diet.

[Puffball (Louise)]

Willow suffers with cystitis, sometimes with blood tho not always but she usually has litter tray avoidance when it happens. The vet said this is because it's very painful and she starts to associate the litter tray with pain. When it first occurred she was less than 2 years old and had 2 or 3 episodes in rapid succession which were treated with Metacam for pain relief, Cystease and Zylkene for stress. I can't remember whether she had any other tests done at the time but the vet was not overly concerned with the repeat problems, he said it's not that uncommon and can sometimes take a few treatments to clear up completely (this was the Beaumont Hospital in London which is attached to the Royal Veterinary College and I totally trust their judgement). She was then clear for a few years before a single episode where there were clear stress factors involved.

She's now 6 and recently, when she was being bullied by my other cat, had two episodes in a month. Again she was given one week of Metacam but the vet now uses Cystophan which is a combo of Cytease and Zylkene. I have to say that the litter tray avoidance stops from the instant she gets the first Metacam. The vet has recommended a urinary care diet with ongoing Cystophan and they want to check for crystals in her urine which I'll be doing this weekend even though I'm quite convinced it's stress related for Willow.

Has anything changed that could be causing Daisy stress?... have you decorated, got new furniture, changed her diet, got a new cat in the neighbourhood, etc... Hopefully all she needs is another go of the treatment but if there are no clear stress factors involved I'd be asking for the urine test and anything else they could do to test for an underlying cause.

Hope she gets well soon 

[Kay and Penny]

Tiffany had several bouts of cystitis, without any obvious cause, and she is a good kilo overweight

I have given  her a Cystease capsule sprinkled on tuna every other day for more than two years, and she hasn't (touch wood) had a flare up for over a year now - the last time she showed the early symptoms I upped the dose to two a day for a week and that knocked it on the head

[sheilarose]

Metacam is the equivalent of NSAID, non-steroidal anti inflammatory dddd?? so is standard first aid for painful conditions, same stuff as Nurofen which is the human first course of action for inflamed painful conditions.
However, in my experience for cystitis in cats (two boys so far, never a female though) this is normally accompanied by antibiotics (either Synulox orally at home or Covenia by injection at the vet) to relieve the infection that is causing the problem.

I'd be seeking a second opinion on this case.

[LouiseJ]

Our vet started Luna off on a short course of it so maybe it's a short term option? I'd never come across it before so was a bit surprised when I looked it all up.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

I havent heard of metacam being used for this before, its a painkiller but maybe an anti inflam too.

I think the vet needs to try and find the cause, Misa had stress cystitus and was given a jab if I remember rightly but I knew the rreason he was stressed.

[sheilarose]

I wonder if somehow she's introducing infection from outside, maybe her bowel motions? Not sure about this as I know this can be a factor in human cystitis and have wondered about the similarities.

Has your vet checked her for crystals or stones? As this is now a recurring feature, and she's so young, maybe seek an opinion from another vet (this is common, so don't worry about hurting anyone's feelings!)

Sly had a UTI earlier this year and he's also overweight at 5.5kg, same as Daisy. I wonder if there is a link to obesity and cystitis. 

[LouiseJ]

Hiya
One of my girls has had stress cystitis and with a bit of help from the vets the following helped clear it up:
Extra water (tried putting tuna in it but depends if Daisy likes it. Luna had it twice and then turned her nose up) in various places around the house.
Try to feed her more wet food than dry as it has a higher water content and I tend to add to it to make it a but gravy like
Two capsules of cystaid a day dropping down to one.
Cranberry tablets (supermarket capsules).

With the last two I broke the cystaid capsules and pierced the cranberry capsules, mixing the powder and juice with Webbox paste which went down a treat.

Good luck 

[wickywack]

Our Daisy is 2 years old and a little overweight at 5.3kg...

She was diagnosed with cystitis about 5 weeks ago and was given oral anti-inflammatory to have once a day (Metacam, I think) which cleared things up. (No temperature btw)

About 2 weeks ago, she had the same symptoms (blood in the litter tray, tiny little frequent wee's but generally well and happy and running around and playing, also eating fine) and was given the same medication again which cleared things up again. (again, normal temp)

Other half has just emailed saying that there was a tiny amount of blood again in the litter tray this morning and that it looks like things are recurring AGAIN!

Were both reluctant to go back to the vets for vet another prescription of oral anti inflammatory's as there is clearly an underlying problem or cause of this blood in the wee problem. 

She isn't wailing in pain or changed her mood etc so it's quite baffling.  We're concerned that it could be something more serious such as a bladder/kidney problem rather than just inflammation

After the first bout of cystitis we followe the vets advice and left more water recepticles around the home, put another litter tray out so that she had two to choose from and also changed her diet to "urinary care" food.

Any ideas or thoughts anyone?

Thanks, Wickywack