WESLEY CAME IN BECAUSE HE WAS ACTING STRANGELY AND VOCALISING WHEN TOILETING.
His mum just knew that something wasn’t right. A palpation of his tummy revealed a large firm bladder – Wesley had an obstructed urethra. This is one of the presentations we see in cats with the disease complex Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD). Left untreated, these can have catastrophic effects on the body and are very painful. Clinical signs we look for in FLUTD cats include: straining to urinate, not producing urine, vocalising when in the litter tray, blood in the urine.
Patients with obstructed FLUTD are unblocked by passing a urinary catheter under a general anaesthetic and then hospitalised with a urinary catheter in place. We check a urine sample looking for blood, inflammatory cells, bacteria and crystals.
A couple of days after being unblocked, Wesley began acting funny again and was straining to urinate. Reblocking after an episode of FLUTD can occur. To determine why Wesley had reblocked he had an x-ray taken and we were surprised to find 15 little stones in his bladder! Check out his x-ray!
These stones needed to be removed via a procedure called a cystotomy. We incise into the bladder, remove the stones and flush the bladder to ensure they have all been removed. Over 20 stones ended up being removed from poor Wesley’s bladder!
FLUTD patients go home on a prescription diet that is designed to control the urine pH, pain relief and antibiotics if indicated. We recommend checking the pet’s urine regularly.
We are pleased to report that Wesley is going great after his surgery, his most recent urine sample was all clear. We are still waiting on the results on what the stones are composed of. Wesley will have frequent urine tests performed so we can minimise the risk of the bladder stones developing again.
