Asking for help with blockage in kitten's bladder

Herr Eisenheim said:
herondancer said:
We ended up taking him to another vet in town this morning. She was much warmer, and though pretty much said the same things as the first women, she seemed more positive about it all. The kitten will stay the weekend with a catheter to make sure he's fully flushed out. When I mentioned how small he was, she smiled and said she has intubated ferrets, so a kitten shouldn't be a problem. I mentioned we'd given him the belladonna homeopathic, and she just nodded, plus she kept the bottle of rescue remedy. Sure wish we'd gone there first. She mentioned the potential for ongoing problems, but I feel that if he can get through this, Herr Eisenhimeim's advice will mitigate this possibility. He's a real fighter.

Thanks everyone for your advice and support.
Click to expand...
So he is relieved now? Good!
They should have left the catheter in the first time round. But the most important thing is that he is good now. Glad you found this lady, I would be sweating at the possibility of catheterizing the kitten.
ADDED
Do put him on vit.C as soon as you can.
Click to expand...

I just called a little while ago and they have him set up with the catheter and a fluid drip. Now it's just time, but the desk clerk I talked to says he's resting comfortably in a kennel so for now it's looking positive. They will keep him for the weekend to make sure he's clear and to make sure his kidneys are functioning well. Re the vit C. He's about 1 kg, so what should be the dose? We have powdered ascorbic acid, so I'm wondering if we could make up a solution and give it to him with a syringe. We were provided with two from the first vet to help with keeping him hydrated.
 
the best is to mix it with food, you cannot overdose it but since he is small maybe you should start with 200-300mg
 
[quote author=herondancer]
I just called a little while ago and they have him set up with the catheter and a fluid drip. Now it's just time, but the desk clerk I talked to says he's resting comfortably in a kennel so for now it's looking positive.
[/quote]

Good work making a fast change of vets. As HE discussed, this is no easy fix and your new vet is helping.

Heal well kitty!
 
Here is the reply from Lisa:

I quickly read the thread and if the kitten was a bit older - you hit the nail on the head here:

"I think this might be effect from his previous diet ( where does he come from, can we find out what sort of food he was fed before?) as it takes some time for food to have this sort of effect. He was with you for only 2 weeks and I am certain raw food is not the culprit".

I get so tired of our colleagues not thinking past the nose on their face and failing to ask pertinent questions. Whatever happened to the art of good history taking?? For instance, a colleague posted on VIN a case about a Savannah cat that had major valgus deformities of the front limbs. The cat was ~10 months old and had been on my diet for only 2 weeks but the VIN 'nutritionists' took the opportunity to jump all over the diet. (They look for ever opportunity to disparage me.) When I pointed out that the deformities took a lot longer than 2 weeks to develop and that maybe they should consider the diet the cat had been on previously….dead silence.

But…for this kitten…rather than focus only on the diet - especially if it was a water-rich diet (no dry food) - I would definitely be culturing the urine. Dr. Kathy James (VIN urologist) states:

I would just add that most pediatric obstructions are struvite (especially ones younger than this), either stones or crystalline plugs secondary to UTI, which itself may be secondary to pyelonephritis. Kathy's #1 rule of urology applies here, no antibiotics for patients with lower urinary tract patients until the culture is cooking cause once they've seen ABs it's going to make the diagnosis hard to come by. Sometimes cats with cystitis have such bad pollakiuria it's very hard to get them to retain enough urine in their bladders, but I'd move heaven and earth to try to get a culture before ABs. I have not given any patient with presumptive lower urinary signs or presumptive UTI antibiotics without benefit of a culture in over 5 years, so it can be done.

Note that I hate the acronym "UTI" without defining 'I'. Infection? Or just inflammation? I am so tired of seeing antibiotics thrown at *suspected but not confirmed* "infections". But for this kitten, he may very well have a bladder or even kidney infection.

Please direct the kitten owner to my Urinary Tract Health page and tell her to read about 'culture and sensitivity'….or just explain it to her. I would have run a culture on this patient.

As you know, struvite crystals are often **innocent bystanders** and the real plug is mucus/protein material from inflammation - secondary to infection or inflammation.

Also, I like Prazosin for post blocked patients. Some VINers also use alprazolam or even diazepam to relax the urethra.

I am VERY glad that you covered just how fragile the urethra is. I cringe at repeated cath's.

Of course, you and I do not have any blood work…no UA….nothing to go on so we are a bit 'in the dark' here.

One last thought….liver shunt => urates as a thought.

Hopefully the little kitten will do well. Unfortunately, this person's vet (the first one) is scaring the owner away from a very good diet. Hopefully, you can lead her back down a better path so that this cat will not suffer for life due to an unhealthy diet.
 
I'm afraid things did not go well. There was too much damage from the crystals. He was put down last night.

Thank you for checking with Lisa, Herr Eisenheim but I'm pretty sure it was neither the diet nor epigenetics. I believe your assessment that he got too much magnesium in his system which caused the formation of the crystals is correct. I deviated from the recipe without checking whether the change was appropriate or not. Pure and simply, I was responsible. I feel horrible. Horrible for him and for everyone who loved him.

Thank you everyone for your support and advice. With all my heart I wish it had turned out better.
 
Oh Herondancer, I'm sorry it turned out this way. I'll be thinking of you tonight when I say the Prayer of the Soul. :hug2:
 
Fwiw, you tried hard and gave your all for the kitten's survival and am so very sorry herondancer for the pain of this. :hug2:
 
herondancer said:
Thank you for checking with Lisa, Herr Eisenheim but I'm pretty sure it was neither the diet nor epigenetics. I believe your assessment that he got too much magnesium in his system which caused the formation of the crystals is correct. I deviated from the recipe without checking whether the change was appropriate or not. Pure and simply, I was responsible. I feel horrible. Horrible for him and for everyone who loved him.
.
Click to expand...

Please don't beat yourself about it. Lisa raised some good points and I am not convinced struvite was the culprit to his untimely death.
I was quite positive he will make it once they left the catheter in. What happened?
I am inclined to think there was something wrong with his liver and kidneys.
 
Depending on what is available where you live the most obvious solution to the problem of composition of the raw diet (bone content, organ percentages etc.) is to just feed whole prey. This is what my ferrets are eating and it is miraculous - effortless for me and superb for them in terms of well being. Not only that, but the enthusiasm they have about eating rodents such shows me that this is what they prefer to eat most of all.
 
yea but there is slightly gruesome aspect to growing live prey, well I guess you get used to it
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Trending content

Back
Top Bottom