UTI Came Back :(

Hi guys! Harry has been doing better on his Insulin (he’s on 1 unit on Lantus 2x a day) His lethargy has decreased but we are currently dealing with some constipation and he will likely need an enema. With that being said, this morning we woke up to his third UTI, he has been having them at least once in the past 3 weeks. He will be fine and then all of a sudden he will be repeatedly trying to urinate and only a little will come out and there are little globs of red clots. The first time we had to go to the ER and they put in a catheter and he came home perky and fine. About a week later the same thing happened but this time we took his to the vets and that’s when we had both a urinalysis and blood work done. The next day they called and told me Harry has diabetes. They prescribe an antibiotic which we competed but the UTI is back 4 days later. Fast forward almost a week and we woke up and he was doing the same thing. Mind you, he is on a nice wet food diet with extra water added, his blood sugar is in the 200s but I’m not upping the dosage until we have completed our first week on Lantus and the depot fills, he’s been eating normally and peeing nicely. He has been doing so well with the exception of the constipation. He’s not a cat that gets stressed out easily so I don’t believe stress to be the cause. I have a feeling something more serious is going on but we really can’t afford to have X rays and more tests done. I’m looking at ordering that Homeopathic UTI droplets off Chewy and we are going to see if the vet can prescribe more antibiotics but obviously we cannot afford to keep buying him antibiotics every time this happens. What do you guys recommend? He just keeps trying to pee and only a little bit comes out every time, it’s painful for me to see him like this and I’m sure he’s uncomfortable.

 

Did they ever do a cystocentesis (where they use a needle to get a sterile sample directly from the bladder) and then do a Culture and Sensitivity?

It's important to get a sterile sample directly from the bladder (because of the bacteria that can be picked up as the urine moves out of the body) and then you have to culture it to see which bacteria you're dealing with. Not all antibiotics kill all bacteria.

Once the culture grows, they use different antibiotics to see which one works best against that particular bacteria.

The caveat is that if the cat has already been on antibiotics, you have to wait a week before doing the C&S

 

Yeah he finished his antibiotics on Thursday. I’ll ask my vet about it though. Thank you

 

You might also want to try getting him some Miralax (or the generic) from WalMart for the constipation.

It's a tasteless powder that helps soften the stool so it can be passed easier.

Usually we suggest starting on 1/8th teaspoon twice a day and then increase as necessary

 

They really need to do a culture and ssensitivity test. It will tell them exactly what bacteria it is and which antibiotics will be best for it. He may also need anti inflammatory meds

 

We are taking Mr. Hare Bear into a new vet today. We noticed he was being sluggish and took his BG and it was rising towards 320. We think the UTI is causing it to rise, hopefully, this vet will be able to determine why he isn’t doing too good

 

One thing that is important so that you don't spend money in labs that will not help much is you need to wait about 10 days after he finished his round of antibiotics before doing an urinalysis (make sure to ask them to do a culture this time) because if he just finished the antibiotics odds are that the analysis is going to be biased by the antibiotics, it is hard to get rid of UTIs on diabetic cats because the sugar in the urine is like the perfect environment for bacteria and it usually takes several rounds of antibiotics, ask for some antinflammatory meds to help him.

Regarding the enema I would do that as the very last resource if he is really not pooing, because is very invasive, and it takes a while for them to poo normally after that too, if he's struggling but still pooing I'll try SEB or Miralax first, also you could give him a bit, just a lick of vaseline to help it pass

 

Good luck at the new vet and hope they can give you some answers for Harry!!

 

Harry was very very constipated The vet said an enema was the best for him so he’s there right now. The vet didn’t see any bladder stones so I’m happy about that. The UTIs are probably from the sugar in the urine so once we get his BG nice and stable, hopefully, we will see a decrease in those. The vet said we should wait to put him back on the antibiotics because the enema will take a lot out of him. We might put him on Lactulose after the enema just so he’s nice and flowing (it’s possible antibiotics made him constipated too) He had a lot of poop in him so I’m hoping that this is the last vet visit for a while. Also, does anyone know if you HAVE to be sedated for an ene

 

ooops it got cut off,

Also, does anyone know if you HAVE to be sedated for an enema? The enema itself was $55 but they said they sedate them so the sedation was $120:/

 

Poor baby, I hope was he gets rid of all that poop he will feel much better

 

Most cats are sedated because it's not very comfortable for them and they can't understand what's going on.

Some very chill cats might not be sedated, but most do better if they are.

 

Harry hasn’t pooped yet on his own, we were hoping to see him going by now We are gonna wait this whole day and if there’s nothing the vet said to bring him in again. It just never ends I guess.

 

Poor Harry. .

 

Harry seems to be getting UTIs at least once a week:/ I haven’t done his chart but he has been staying in 100-260 range, is this common when regulating or do you Guys thing something else could be causing them to keep coming back. We are going to get Baytril tomorrow but it seems even with antibiotic use they just keep coming back.

 

Have they ever done a C&S?

You can't keep throwing antibiotics at them and hope they work. The sooner you know exactly which bacteria you're fighting and which antibiotic kills it, the sooner you're most likely to get rid of it for good.

Also, sometimes they need to be on AB's for up to 6 weeks especially if the infection goes into the bladder.

 

I’m trying to get his records from the first place we took them to see if they did a C&S and I agree that something is obviously not working or it’s not working long enough:/ buddy is in a lot of pain right now

 

I agree. Callie has a similar issue and when they did the culture they found she had several different types of bacteria causing it.

 

Ok! Sounds like that’s the next course of action, I will be calling around tomorrow morning and try and find the cheapest rate. We’ve gone to three different vets and haven’t had the best experiences at all three so hoping we can find one we trust.