A true story about a cat and his urinary issues

My name is Deb and I work for Blue Barn Pet & Hobby Farm. I wanted to share this story to help educate cat owners about the importance of urinary health in cats because I recently learned a lot about this topic, and I learned the hard way.

It seemed like a normal Friday morning.

I live with my adult daughter and we share our home with a rescue dog and two rescue cats.

Mornings consist of a frantic 15 minutes when I feed the dog while my daughter fends off hungry cats who insist on being fed NOW. After everyone has been fortified, the dog is let outside and the cats are expected to go through their regular routine.  Except this Friday morning that didn’t happen.

The dog, who is as regular as an alarm clock, completed her routine. The grey tabby kitten took care of her business, but the big black rag doll we call Buster, was having problems. He sat in his litter box and looked uncomfortable.  Then he wound his way around the perimeter of my daughter’s room, squatted, left a tiny puddle, squatted and left another tiny puddle. It was then that Hailey realized this was NOT a normal morning and wondered if our cat might be dealing with a urinary tract infection.

The timing of these developments that Friday morning were not ideal.  We were leaving for Calgary that day for a business trip and we knew we couldn’t leave an ill cat with a house-sitter. Knowing that Calgary had a 24 hour animal hospital, we decided to take Buster along and bring him to the vet there.

We made it to Calgary safely and literally ran into the vet office…only to find out that we might have a 5 hour wait.

Because Buster’s issue was clearly urinary-related, he was triaged higher up the list and the vet was able to assess him fairly quickly.  As it turns out, we did spend about five hours at the vet and Buster was x-rayed, poked and prodded in an effort to determine if he indeed had a blockage. Ultimately the vet gave him a pain killer so that he would be comfortable urinating. The test would be whether he would urinate, which would show that he didn’t have a full blockage. The worst outcome would be that he wouldn’t be able to urinate at all and the vet would need to perform surgery.  Treatment for a partial blockage would cost about $400 while surgery would be about $4000.

Since I don’t entirely trust my memory of all the things the vet was telling us, here’s an excerpt from the American Veterinary Medical Association that explains what was happening.

The most serious problem associated with urinary function is when a cat’s urethra becomes partly or totally blocked. These cats strain to urinate and produce little or no urine. Urethral obstruction is a potentially life-threatening condition caused either by urethral stones or by urethral plugs. Cats with urethral obstruction must receive immediate veterinary care.

Obviously, we hoped that Buster would urinate once the painkiller took affect but while we waited, my daughter and I had a very difficult conversation.  I wanted her to be hopeful and optimistic but also wanted to prepare her for the worst.

If all went well, the vet would give Buster some painkillers, antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. We would change his diet to one designed for cats with urinary issues and we would be more vigilant in making sure he drank lots of water.

The worst-case scenario would mean emergency surgery, and fees that we simply couldn’t afford. What if he had a blockage? What would we do? Would we have to make the decision to euthanize him because we couldn’t afford to treat him? How could we live with the guilt of knowing his life came down to a $4000 vet bill? It was a very raw conversation and my daughter went through phases of both anger and despair. Anger at herself for not being prepared financially for a situation like this and despair because just a year ago we had lost our senior cat. At one point she found herself staring blankly at a poster in the office that advertised pet insurance and she pledged that if Buster made it through this crisis, she would get insurance for all of our pets so she would never be faced with a decision like this again.

It was now Hour 4 at the vet. Buster had been given the painkiller and we sat on the floor beside a litter box, praying that he would be able to empty his bladder. The vet moved to the doorway to exit the room, wanting to give Buster time with us to so he could relax. Before she was able to close the door, he hopped into the litter box. And in the silence, while we all held our breath, we heard the most glorious sound of liquid hitting the side of the plastic box. All of our eyes opened wide while we simultaneously understood that it would be bad to speak at this moment or do anything to distract him.  He finished, stepped out of the box, and Hailey and I cried out in total joy. The vet, who held her professional demeanor said, with some irony, “Well that’s a good sign” and proceeded to explain that she would get meds ready for him and then we could be on our way.

One again, here’s some information from the AMVA.