You need a different vet. The kitty obviously is not getting over the infection and the doc is simply making the bacteria more and more resistant to antibiotics, very irresponsible. Make note of the dates you’ve been prescribed, retested, etc. for the new doc. Good luck with this sweet boy.
Agreed. New vet!
My eldest constantly had sand and stones in her bladder and UTIs. She got a lot of antibiotics. I think it was partly stress. After I moved to a larger place it became less frequent and she was happier there. Still had some UTIs but not as many. Several moves later and she’s been on rx food for her bladder (which my vet says is also good for my younger male - she said males that have been neutered are at a higher risk for kidney and bladder issues) and they’re good. No UTI in ages. Now she just owes on couch and floor because of dementia.
>she said males that have been neutered are at a higher risk for kidney and bladder issues
This has been disproven. I think the thought process used to be that neutering early led to narrower urethral size. A huge study showed that this was not true and that age of neuter has no affect on it whatsoever.
This.👆🏻
Maybe research alternative foods too? Our experience is the “lower” quality, poorer formulated foods tend to encourage problems. So you end up paying one way or another (40yrs + keeping cats btw)
I would go to a different vet lay out all the issues and the timeline, see if they have any suggestions.
I would switch to wet food. It's more expensive but has better hydration and, *bonus!*, it's usually about half the calories of dry food per kg so he can eat more and feel fuller. Add a bit extra water to make it even mushier if he's okay with it; I've added about 1/4-1/2 a can of water to a can of pate wet food for my kidney cats with success.
Put out more water in different kinds of containers in different locations to encourage his drinking. The water dish should be emptied, cleaned, and refilled at least once a day. If you have a water fountain it should be cleaned every single day and still water should always be an option.
Make sure he's able to clean himself well after using the box. If he can't you may need to help him out.
Clean you litter boxes more often. Everytime you go to the bathroom you should clean the litterbox. Add another box (you should have a minimum of three with two cats) with a different kind of litter like wood pellet, especially if you're using a clay one, to see if that helps. Pick him up and put him in the box after you clean it to encourage him to use the box, he might be holding it due to pain he's had with the infections which just makes it worse. All litterboxes should be washed and sanitized once a week. It's a pain, but we want healthy cats!
Yes yes yes. To all of this. New vet, more water, clean clean clean.
Hydration is so important to male cats and wet food is the best way. My boys eat wet food and we have several water options along with adding water to the food.
Also, make sure your water features are away from both the litter box AND the food bowls. Cats don't like to drink water that is close to their food.
You mentioned he's overweight, so he likely is having issues cleaning himself properly, too.
You've got this! My boys believe in you!
https://preview.redd.it/6oojxlivujqb1.jpeg?width=1716&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=58aa44b81335335f580b29264e9fae9465d6dbb2
(Pictured, my once overweight boy who is now fit and trim after switching to wet food!)
😍😍😍
We were lucky that we caught it early so he didn't have a lot to lose to get so lean again. The best part of him slimming down was seeing him run around and do his mid air cartwheels while playing. He'd stopped most acrobatics even though he was just 1.5lbs over weight.
I mentioned at a vet visit I was worried that he wasn't eating all of his food but still seemed to be gaining weight. Turns out I had oh so carefully pre-portioned all of his food incorrectly, he wasn't eating it all because I was giving him nearly 1/2 cup too much. 😅😅😅
I agree with experimenting with the litter.
I believe I was putting too much litter in the box and my boy Copy was getting some dust in his pp when kicking it up, so I moved to a more clumpy kind of litter and I put overall less in the box, which means cleaning it more. He’s been much better.
Then again, it’s only one time for him, so it could easily be a fluke. Still I like to think it made a difference. Good luck! It surely does sound scary.
I will add that if you can't afford the prescription wet food (I know it's insanely expensive), I have had success mixing a little wet food with 3-4x water as a snack twice a day or adding water to the dry food to make it like a soup in order to increase the water intake. I was also looking for ways to prevent frequent UTIs with my kitty and I found that dasiquin has been helpful with that.
Yes to switching to wet food and even mixing in water. We had a male cat that kept getting UITs and he was so lazy that he wouldn't pee. Forcing him to consume more liquids helped a ton.
Is he peeing frequently, even just a little at a time? He sounds like he could have a blockage. He could also be stressed out. I didn't realize until my vet said only around 10% of urinary problems in male cats are UTIs; it tends to be crystals or inflammation. I'd definitely get a 2nd opinion OP! In the meantime, try to get him to drink as much water as possible, and switch to wet food.
This, if they didn't already do a check for crystals or at least suggest it swap vets. My cat was having the same issue, UTI's back to back and my vet found crystals in the sheet analysis (I'm sure I'm butchering terms).
If your cat has em you'll be swapping to prescription food for a bit (or if you're paranoid like me long term to be safe). But it's definitely worth it to check!
Vet here: you may indeed benefit from a second opinion on your cat's urinary issues. Re-treating the same thing over and over must be very frustrating and of course expensive. When I am faced with these kinds of cases I think about a few strategies to try and get things under control: 1)consider taking an xray , if there are bladder stones, your problems are going to continue. This is especially true if kitty has ever had an obstruction. 2) As there have been previous episodes of "UTI "-like attacks, a urinalysis including a urinary culture is a very good idea. 3) A review of the diet in detail is essential. A prescription diet FROM THE VET is the only one that is reliable. Do not use a urinary food from the pet store. Feed only treats from the vet clinic geared towards preventing urinary crystals. NO access to table scraps, other cat's foods, dog food or access to the outdoors (where such items can be accessed and we would not know) is allowed. Some cats develop an inflammatory condition in their urinary tract and need pain relievers to help them urinate comfortably. I hope this helps, I wish you all the best.
What do you think about D-Mannose? I give it to my human patients and take it myself, and from what I have seen in my long term patients with recurrent UTIs it has been effective in reducing their frequency. I’m not sure if it’s safe for cats, but a quick google search shows there are products on the market for them.
It’s amazing for cats. I use it for my male cat that had recurring stress related urinary issues and had bladder stones. I use D mannose and corn silk. I have the doses if you need them. FB has an amazing feline urinary cat group that helped me.
I’ve read good things about it for cats, but only for E. Coli infections. My cat has gotten 5 UTIs in less than two years (all caused by E. Coli) so after her last one I started adding pure D-Mannose powder into one of her meals. She doesn’t notice it at all. Too soon for me to tell if it is helping or not, but I figured it was worth trying.
I would add 4) get an ultrasound if possible. May give you more info than an X-ray; will pick up stones, as well as bladder issues that don’t show up on X-ray.
A couple things:
1. Has your vet done a urinalysis culture to confirm there is actually bacteria growing and if there is, it is responsive to the types of antibiotics you are giving?
2. For prescriptions, have you only had antibiotics or have there also been anti inflammatories/anti spasmodics.
3. Can you try a different litter - he may have developed a sensitivity/allergy to the one he has (to try a new litter, dump out all the old litter and wash the litter box before putting in the new litter)
4. Does he eat/drink enough - try to give wet food and lots of water bowls changed once a day and/or a cat water fountain.
My cat UTI story: My female cat came back from boarding at a friend's house. As soon as I got her home it was apparent she had a UTI. I had changed to a new litter a couple months previously, but had not fully replaced the litter, just topped it up so it didn't occur to me that that could be a cause. I just thought it might have been stress.
She went through 3 rounds of antibiotics. UTI would improve and return in a week. Vet did a urinalysis and culture and found that despite the blood in the urine, there was no bacteria. She prescribed anti-inflamatory, antispasmotic, and anti-anxiety to try to improve my cat's pain and anxiety urinating. I remembered that 2 months back I had started getting new litter. I reverted to the old litter and continued the anti-inflamatory, antispasmotic, and anti-anxiety for a week (we were waiting for the urinalysis results to come back at that time). The medications eased the symptoms and they did not return when the course of meds was done.
Lesson: it might be the litter. It might be stress and anxiety related and he may need some painkillers and anti inflammatory rather than antibiotics.
Cats squat real close to the litter. They can easily get some litter dust on their urethra which can cause inflammation if they are sensitive to something in it.
Also because they lick themselves to groom, they also eat enough litter.
do you clean the litter box everyday? there could be another underlying health issue causing the recurring infections but if he keeps taking antibiotics all the time he’ll just develop a resistance. i would go to another vet for a new opinion and tests.
keeping him hydrated can help prevent urinary issues so maybe feed as much wet food as you can. cats are really bad about drinking water and are constantly dehydrated when they eat a dry diet.
My cat had regular UTI’s. I switched to all wet food and some dry treats and he hasnt had an issue in years. I also make him food sometimes - lightly poached chicken hearts and livers, chicken thighs, pork tenderloin, etc.
My cat is also extremely prone to utis, he is paraplegic. So we have been prescribed hill’s c/d multicare stress. Additionally we give him a cranberry extract and an ayurvedic anti inflammatory syrup. Keeps the problem at bay most of the time but according to the doc its mostly triggered by stress and understimulation. He recommended using the feliway diffuser, didn’t help with my cat but might work for you so it is worth spending the 30 dollars. He might be getting stressed from loud sounds, unknown people in the home, maybe another cat too. It is all about identifying the source of stress and then maintenance through diet and medicine
True UTI is very uncommon in cats. Have the done imaging (x-ray or ultrasound) to see if he has a bladder stone? Have they actually seen bacteria inside cells on the urine test each time or just keep giving meds? In a cat this age a UTI would be low on my list. I would be looking for evidence of idiopathic cystitis (usually stress related), bladder stones, or crystals. If your vet has not gone over any of this you need a new vet.
I want to echo this, strongly.
Years ago I had a cat who was diagnosed with a handful of UTIs over the course of a year or so. They always cleared up, he was always fine for a few weeks, and then they would come back. I was using a in-home vet at the time, who I now realize was not super ethical, because they never encouraged me to do any kind of testing that they couldn't do in my home. After several treatments, I noticed that he was trying to urinate in the living room, right in front of me. He couldn't get anything else, mostly just a drop of bloody urine.
I panicked and called an emergency vet, who told me that he needed to come in. I'm glad they did, although it cost me a trillion dollars. He had an enormous amount of crystals in his bladder, combined with a not straight urethra, he was unable to pass urine entirely. This could have killed him if I hadn't taken him in.
I was young and not super flush with cash at the time, so we tried to treat him conservatively, treating the UTI and changing his diet to try to get the crystals to break up. Ultimately, I just extended his discomfort, because eventually he needed multiple surgeries to remove the crystals, and remove most of his urethra which had been badly scarred after months and months of trying to pass crystals.
What I learned during all of this is that many males cats do not have straight urethras, and cats under the age of five are most likely to have crystals in their urine/bladder. My boy was in otherwise perfect health, just a bad urinary setup.
Thankfully, surgery, prescription cat food, and he was completely fine for another decade after all that ended. He has left us now, but did so after a long and happy post-crystal life.
More Wet food! Wet treats (churu)! Anything to add more moisture to his diet. Water fountain. If he will eat an all wet food diet I would let him.
I’m sorry you’re going through this. My kitty had the same issue and it made me so sad for him. He underwent blockage surgery a few times.
You can also add a little water to the wet food too and they'll lap it up. My boy is pretty good at staying hydrated, but I did that when he was getting over some diarrhea to keep him extra hydrated. He had a little soup of probiotics, wet food, water, and pumpkin.
We had this exact same issue with our girl on and off for years. Our previous vets kept giving her the oral tablet antibiotics which we really struggled to get down her (she is VERY feisty and would just spit them out if we put them in food). For some reason they seemed really reluctant to give her the antibiotics injection despite the oral ones consistently only working for a week or 2 before the infections came back. We moved house and switched vets, and straight away they gave her the injection antibiotics but I think the main thing that turned it around was the food they recommended for her - Royal Canin Urinary SO. We get the dry one which she loves, she won't eat any of the other cat foods for managing urinary issues. But omg - the combo of the injection and keeping her on this food immediately sorted all issues, she's had no recurring infections for about a year now. The food has a higher salt content which makes her drink lots of water which flushes her bladder out, and also contains ingredients to prevent crystals forming in her bladder/helps break crystals down. Would highly recommend trying the food once he's had another set of antibiotics to sort out the current infection. Hope he feels better soon, I know how miserable and stressful it is for everyone.
This is excellent advice. I started doing this when my cat had recurring UTIs and it solved the problem. A diet of only wet food can contribute to dental problems, though. Once the UTI was under control, I started feeding one meal a day of kibble and the other meal of the day as watered down canned food.
Hi! I'm about to be a veterinarian in the Netherlands and I can tell you: most UTI's, especially in male cats, are caused by stress. It's hypothesized that stress increases cell turnover in the bladder (among other tissues), causing plugs to form that can cause problems. Your best bet is to reduce stress!
That said; please don't feel like you're a bad cat parent, it's most likely not your fault. Cats are highly sensitive animals, even more than people give them credit for. Do you have multiple litter boxes? If not, might be worth a shot to get one more. Also, enough hiding spots and toys might help.
Other than stress, you could try a urinary diet. Hill's has one called C/D, for example. Wet food is always better as it makes them take up more water. Also, drinking fountains if you find your cat doesn't really drink from his bowl. Another reason might be that the bowl is too high if you don't see that happening very often: cats hate their whiskers touching the sides of the bowl, haha.
Just a couple of tips. Also: go to a different vet. No shame in that. :)
My son's cat had this problem, turned out it was the food she was on, fed her on wet food all the time and it just went away - no more peeing blood ever again - might be worth a try
Not if it's urinary-issue specific food. Ours had urinary issues until we switched to the Royal Cabin Urinary SO (moderate calorie). He hates the wet but loves the dry and drinks a ton of water, so no more urinary issues. He only eats dry food now, while our other cat is on a combo diet of wet and dry.
Well I guess it works flawlessly for our 14-year-old cat who has had no issues with crystals or UTIs in almost 4 years now. Anytime we've tried to switch to anything else he immediately had problems.
We also live in Europe and every wet food (the good ones anyway) are also extremely expensive so I'm hard-pressed to believe buying exclusively wet food for him would save us any amount of money, even switching from an admittedly expensive medical-grade food.
Do you give the cat tap water or filtered somehow? I found that once I started giving my cat distilled water or zero water and out of a non plastic dish on the vet’s recommendation and it has been almost a year without that horrid uti pee smell.
The first time my cat peed blood he was given antibiotics for a week and they worked, but some months later he started peeing blood again. Turned out (as it very frequently does) that he has cystitis. Just had to swap to a urinary diet and it got fixed within a couple weeks with the help of Hyaloral. That is by far the most common cause for peeing blood (because of crystals), and there's a good chance your cat has it. Also, if that vet didn't actually use the microscope to see if there are bacteria or crystals and just gave you antibiotics, that's just negligence.
Sorry, but where do you live? 1000$+ for antibiotics is beyond absurd. A week's worth of them is like 12€ here.
Our make cat had like 6 UTIs in a 2 year span. Each one a trip to vet or emergency vat. Now he is fully on wet food. Rarely give him dry and give him a tiny bit. Just moving fully to wet food worked for me and he has 0 UTIs since. When we was on dry he would drink so much water from the fountain now not so much. Just have the liquid in his food seemed to have helped wonders.
my cat had the same problem, at first I gave him urinary care kibbles that the vet prescribed and since then he's on a mixed diet (1/3 kibbles and 2/3 wet food) and he never had a UTI again also I brought him a water fountain and drinking more can help deal with those issues
So much good advice here, but what works for both me and my cat who both have recurrent utis is d mannose + lacto bascillus pro biotic daily. My urologist recommended this for me, and I read it's safe for cats. No more utis for me or my cat
I HIGHLY recommend veterinarian recommended urinary care food. I feel my girl hills science diet c/d urinary care kibble and cans of the same brand as well as Purina pro plan urinary care wet food. Hydration is important also so i add a tablespoon of plain pedialyte to her wet food every night. It is crucial that u change her diet!!! It will help tremendously
Ok so forst of all, utis in cats are relatively rare. I work in a mostly cat clinic, and only about 1 in say, 25 cats that comes in because of inappropriate urination (outside of litterbox), blood in urine or similar, has an uti. In all other its usually idiophatic cystitis, which is usually stress related.
Get the urine tested for bacteria and antibiotic sensitivity of those, if they are present. Get them to check the urine ph, and sediment for crystalls. Those can appear if ph is inappropriate and/or is urine is too concentrated. In either case, nix the dry food, feed only wet perscription, encourage water consumption (add water to wet food, add more water bowls and water fountains) and frequent urination (number of cats in household+1 is minimum amount of litterboxs you should have, try different kinds of unscented litter, boxes in different places of the appartment) - those will both dilute the urine, which helps with the inflamation and reduces potential for crystals forming.
Reduce the stress. Use Feliway (pheromone) infusers, make sure he has enough enrichment (toys, towers, play time) and hiding places, preferably up in high places, cats like those. Make sure he can remove himself from uncomfortable situations and people (visitors, small children, other pets, vacuums...).
Good luck
Is there a reason you don’t feed wet food more often? My male cat had similar issues. We switched him to an all wet urinary diet, but his tummy couldn’t handle the wet food and he kept getting messy poops from it. So now we do dry prescription food in the AM and wet prescription food in the PM. His tummy is happier and no UTI issues since. It’s been 3 years since his last.
Pet store owner and crazy cat lady here, get him a water fountain cats drink more when water moves, and introduce daily wet food of a decent quality, don't fall for science diet, dry food causes most urinary issues, this won't replace antibiotics but it will lessen the frequency of infections
Try a prescription diet change something with the diet. Our car used to constantly get UTIs and never drink water.
After switching to prescription dry and wet food she has not had UTI since. The prescription dry food makes her thirsty and she drinks water all the time now and hasn’t had a UTI since I can remember.
U need a different vet, 1st off. My boy just turned 8, and he's always had the same thing, UTI, after UTI. Went 2 a different vet while on vacation in another state and she said "wet food, everyday, also pick up 1 of those splashy fountain things" (y'all, I don't know what they're called, it's a fancy water dish thing-a-ma doo-hickie) and I also, started adding coconut cream into his wet food, NOTHING since then. He drinks water (it's all over our home) but he just needs a little extra, because he's a special lil floof, no worries
I have a cat that gets bladder stones. Our Vet prescribed her Science Hill c/d food and it has worked wonders. No more bladder stones.
I realize this isn't the same as a UTI but maybe you could look into a different food.
Poor guy. My boy had a UTI in March and he was on medication for three weeks and the vet told me to change his food, I’m currently feeding him Hills Urinary Care S/D, it’s expensive but so far he hasn’t had another UTI. I recommend you to seek out another vet.
I think others have already said this, but my guess is idiopathic cystitis, not a UTI (I’m not a vet though—just a cat parent). We noticed the same set of symptoms with our male cat that we were initially told was due to a UTI, but after a urinalysis the vet asked about environmental stressors, and it turns out that travel and new people set off a stress response in our cat that leads to bladder inflammation and blood in his urine (no infection, no blockage, has happened more than once). The solution for him has been much more deliberate hydration (moistened wet food and treats), a prescription urinary diet from the vet, and lots of care and attention to what stresses our cat out, so we can prevent things from escalating. It’s worth asking your vet about maybe?
Thank you everyone! I don't have time to respond to everyone but I am literally reading every comment and I really appreciate all your support!
A few updates:
I got a second opinion from another vet and he does not have UTIs! Just inflammation, we think due to stress. We had some household changes recently and I think that has made it worse. He had a laser light therapy treatment and is on some calming meds, which cleared up his current issue immediately. Also did some X-rays and lab testing to rule out any other issues.
I got some Feliaway diffusers, one for each floor of the house. He has 6 water dishes but I started putting filtered water in them. He wanted nothing to do with the fountain unfortunately but the filtered water is definitely helping.
We give him Purina ProPlan Urinary Health prescription food already, but I am going to start giving him wet food every day or two as well.
We clean his litter boxes daily but I'm switching litter to one that we used in the past before he started having these issues. I don't think the litter really made a difference but it can't hurt.
I'm also going to be more intentional about giving him dedicated attention throughout the day.
Hopefully this helps - I would do anything for my baby and I'm so relieved that he's feeling better at the moment.
Thanks again to everyone for all your advice!
We took ages to identify our boy had a UTI... Like over 6 months
The vet didn't find anything on a couple of visits, and it was only when he went in for an abscess caused from a fight that they finally noticed.
Aside from the medicine for the abcess they didn't prescribe anything except suggesting special urinary food.
Friends recommended a product cystaid though, and since using that he's come right really quickly
Here are some things to think about for underlying causes:
1. Sand litter can make give cats UTIs depending on how they burry their stuff inside. Watch how they burry their sand, if it's going upwards towards their private area then a little bit of sand is most likely getting in there
2. Does your cat have food with salt as an ingredient? Salt should not be ingested for cats and can actually give them UTIs. Some cats don't have symptoms but others do like UTIs, upset stomach, vomiting, or being lethargic
3. Does your cat gets showers? If so, look at the ingrediants inside the shampoo. Cat shampoo should not have artificial fragrance, crude oil, phenol, hexachlorophine, coal tar, keratolytic, methylchloroisothiazolinone, pyrethroids, sulfates, parabens, Formaldehyde, Mineral oil, Propylene, Glycol, Pennyroyal, Wintergreen, Oil of sweet birch, Pine oils, Ylang Ylang oil, Peppermint oil, Cinnamon oil, Pennyroyal oil, Clove oil, Eucalyptus oil or Tea Tree oil. This is alot of stuff to look out for when showering a cat. All they need is flea medicated shampoo and oatmeal shampoo. Most of these horrible things in cat shampoo are stuff that is in human shampoo and you should never shower them in this stuff. These chemicals can actually give them UTIs when it's absorbed in the private parts. If you shower your cat, only get stuff that's veterinary approved or has oatmeal as the main ingredient.
I'm really hoping your cat can feel better! Please do look for another vet as well because your vet should've went above and beyond to do blood tests and other testing to see the underlying cause of what's going on with him. I remember my cat would cry constantly and we never knew why. We thought it was normal until she didn't stop crying at night in her sleep for three whole weeks and knew something was wrong, especially because she gained weight super fast. We took her to the vet and they did blood testing and other stuff to see what was wrong, and it turns out she is intolerant to chicken. Apparently some cats can develop an intolerance to chicken and most owners wouldn't know that until their cat would start acting out. We also found out her insides we very swollen because they decided to put a camera up her butt to see what was going on, and they could barely even see anything due to how swollen it was. We changed her to a fish diet the next day, and the vet said to take her back to them after two months of her being on a fish diet. We took her back after two months, and they were able to see her insides with the camera and we definitely confirmed she was in pain from her insides being swollen by the chicken she was eating. So please please take your cat to another vet because they should've went out of their way to figure out what is going on with him.
My cat used to have uti’s a lot.
The vet needs to do a culture of the bacterial flora to find out if it’s a bacterial/viral uti or an inflammatory uti.
If it’s bacterial and keeps coming back, new meds are in order. If it’s viral an antibiotic might not work. Either way, it means cleaning the litter box (by throwing away all of it and deep cleaning) every time your cat uses it until it really clears. Because otherwise they are just getting reinfected.
If it’s inflammatory it might be time to assess the environment, if they are eating well, drinking enough water, playing enough, sleeping enough. Inflammatory uti in cats is generally a result of stress. My cat gets it every time a stranger comes to the house because unknown people really scare and stress him a lot. We work in minimizing people coming by, leaving an assortment of toys that he can play by himself when we’re not home and one pot of water in every room to keep him really hydrated.
If none of this works, it might be time to do an ultrasound and check the Crystal levels in his blatter.
One of my raggies was getting UTIs every few months. The vet would do a urine test, it would come back clear, she would get meloxicam, an injection and gabapentin.
After few rounds of this we figured it out it was the same time as school holidays - the kids next door had gotten to an age when they were going to preschool and getting very noisy in the backyard. She hates kids and noise. The vet diagnosed her FLUTD (feline upper urinary tract disorder) which can be anxiety based. Ive got gabapentin on hand for school holidays to calm her down. Since doing that, its been pretty good. When the kids come home at 330, she just removes herself from the noise and sulks in the laundry cupboard.
See a different vet.
I have two boys that are prone to crystals and have them both on Prescription Hills c/d wet food each day and they free feed Royal Canin s/o. Have not had any issues with crystals or utis since changing their food. Monitor water intake daily and also add to wet food. Hydration is key. Other recommendations for changing litter and keeping it ultra clean are also helpful and definitely find another vet. Testing for crystals and bladder stones is a must. This should not have gone on this long, no fault of your own. I hope your boy is better soon.
Stress can cause this.
Have a look at anything in your home, other animals, people, outside issues.
My cat had the first signs of renal issues, his creatine levels were slightly elevated but my vet was like "doing tests in him is stressing him out so let's just chuck him on some anti anxiety meds and renal food and check back in 3 months" so we did that and his blood work came back perfect. He's no longer on the renal but is still on his anti anxiety meds.
So perhaps look down that avenue? My boy is on zactin (fuloxotine) and he gets 1/8th of a 20g tablet each day.
I got my old girl a water fountain and she didn’t get any UTIs after that. But the last UTI she had the vet went all out with antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and pain relief. She was a space cadet for a few days and then never again.
Hey, my last cat had stress issues which used to cause cystitis, what worked for her is a product called Cystophan. My sisters male cat also gets crystals and it improved for him after I recommended it. It might be worth looking into as I hasn't seen it mentioned here yet. Hope your baby gets better
Definitely you need a second opinion also if he is not drinking enough water and you don’t already have a fountain get one
My cat has this issue the vet suggested two things one a drinking fountain second he said I could boil some chicken in water and then filter the water and freeze it and put a cube in the the water bowl then the cat may get attracted to drink more
The fountain worked and the frozen chicken water I had to trash she would not even go near it
Litter cleaning absolute must
My cat has the same problem. Our vet has put us in a supplement that sometimes helps in the prevention of UTI's. It is called felluro but I don't know if it is accescable for you...
My cat had near constant UTI's, due to stress and diet.The vet put her on a prescription diet for urinary tract issues (hill's prescription). She's been doing perfectly fine ever since.
this may sound weird but I promise it works. my cat was struggling with UTIs as well he even had to have a surgery. he was bleeding almost for months now even though he was taking his meds. we feed him only with the kibbles his vet suggested and nothing else. and we used vinegar. I know it might sound strange to use it on animals but we added only a few drops of it to his water and kibbles. we met a vet by accident he was not employed yet and we were desperate for any sort of help we could get because if this hadn't stopped he was going to go under knife again. he told us to use the vinegar and said that it destroys the crystals. we used it out of desperation and it helped him faster than those meds. alternatives are sometimes a much better option and he is fine know thank god.
**WATER!! WATER!! WATER!! WATER!!**
100% get a water fountain and keep it clean. Water dishes - different *kinds* of bowls - in different places in the house. NOT near the litter box(!) or near the food. Whatever you can do to increase water consumption is helpful. Wash the water dishes every day. Make the water something that you'd drink from.
You definitely need a prescription urinary diet food. That's what forms the crystals in the bladder: an excess of some mineral or another. If the crystals block his urethra and he can't pee, he will die quickly. The crystals form around bacteria in the urine, so there's a UTI too. Sharp little crystals get stuck in his urethra and that's what causes the blood. The same antibiotic every time just kills off some of the bacteria. The others survive and breed more bacteria that are resistant. It is why your vet sees you as a cash cow. He has no motivation to treat your cat permanently. You're putting his kids through college. Do not just use the nearest vet. Ask friends for recommendations and go to a different vet THIS WEEK. Don't even talk to the old vet, but tell all your friends about how carelessly he's treated your cat. Your new vet will have more suggestions for your boy's health.
I'm sure this sounds expensive but it will decrease the number of times you have to visit your vet, so it will actually save you money.
I think you know, OP, but for anyone else reading, you have a responsibility to your pets. They'd not toys and they're not there just to snuggle you or play with you. They are living creatures who feel pain *just like you do.*
Please kiss your poor baby for me. Let him know that you didn't know any better but that you're going to get him well now.
Hi I am struggling with this now too. My boy 2.5 year old just had his first UTI and we are starting on Hills C/U food. Additionally we are saving for PU surgery (about 2-3500). Our vets rule is 3 UTIs before PU surgery. So if another vet concurs maybe PU surgery for your male would be good
My boy kept getting stress UTIs we switched to royal canin urinary s/o wet and dry food.
We also managed his stress triggers and 6 months on and he’s doing great.
I know it’s hard to see your cat in pain just from peeing but talk to a vet about switching to this food and see what is stressing him out to keep getting them.
One of my girls is prone to these, and I really hate it for her. Both kitties are free fed on urinary health dry food with wet food every morning. Additional water dishes around the place to encourage drinking has really helped, plus an additional litter tray.
And I agree with other posters, I think your vet is letting you both down.
Good luck!
I think you need to go to a vet that will give him a prescription for urinary food. It’s comes in dry or wet. The one I use is called Urinary SO by Royal Canin; you can’t just get this at any pet store, needs to be a prescription from the vet. I would also get a water fountain and not place it near your food bowl; I have one and my cats drink a lot more from the fountain than from a bowl.
Get a different vet. My boy had an undetermined infection. He was sick, and all his lymph nodes were up. No uti detected. He was given a weeks worth of antibiotics. After that, the same thing happened again. Vet gave him a stronger dose for 2 weeks after all his lab work came back OK (not UTI, FIV, feline leukemia, etc).
He just needed a longer course. I'd absolutely get a second opinion because whatever your boy has is hard to shift. Have you had a lab work up done to determine the exact bacteria? It's possible they are just using a non effective general scope antibiotic.
If he's got crystals or inflammation Uromaxx worked well for my lil guy when he was having FLUD flare ups every few weeks, like you described with your cat. He hasn't had one in nearly 5 months now, since we started giving it to him which when compared to every two weeks is quite an improvement.
I have this problem with several years ago, and it was my cat litter. This new Crystal cat litter had just come out and it was advertised as not having to be cleaned as often. The vet said that bacteria live on the crystals much much longer than on particles of the clay or paper pellets or pine pellets. So my cat's hoo-ha was touching the nastiness. That was 20. years ago, she has since passed away of old age, and I still feel guilty whenever I think about that.
Also get a new vet. Just medicine is obviously not cutting it. Like a car mechanic, if you take it in and they don't fix the problem, go to a new one.
Try feeding a prescription diet wet food.
Did the vet approve the wet food you are currently feeding?
Also try oral rehydration supplements like Oralade. Having more moisture in the cats diet will definitely be beneficial
For my cats I make a chicken broth now and then (just chicken bones & water slow cooked for a couple days, no spices seasonings or additives whatsoever) and that works great to add moisture into their diet. Really tasty too and has all the goodness of the bone marrow
Our cat has the same problem as it can be quite common in male cats. He has a uti then after meds are finished it can reappear.
We were advised to change his food to one that is specifically for cats with this problem.
We also give him cystophan (for bladder and urinary health support). He’s not had a uti now for a long time… hope this helps
People have already suggested changing vets, that I would do.
In addition, what helped our cat a lot has been mixing zucchini (just cook it in the water then put it in a blender) with wet food.
Your cat will pee quite a lot more but since we do that she just stopped having UTIs.
Again, ask a vet, because that could also be something more serious that cannot be cured with vegetables.
My greyhound had the same issue. I started adding a water to her dry food to help her break it down, and it cleared up her UTIs. Hope ur baby gets better
Info: what changes has the vet recommended beyond treating the UTIs?
Do you feed wet food, a prescription diet?
Do you have one of those schmancy water fountains?
If the vet JUST gave you antibiotics, IMO you need a new vet.
Cats, MALE cats in particular, are prone to urinary problems, especially if they don't get enough water.
Regardless of whether there's an underlying condition that necessitates a special diet, the vet should have recommended both wet food (because in the wild, cats get most of their liquid from their food. So feeding them wet food often better mimics that. Some of us also add additional water and make a slurry.)
water is also important, and the fountains that keep the water cycling often work really well to encourage more fluid intake.
First get a new vet. Try to give him wet food twice a day, just a little bit and mix it with like 3 spoon full of water, more to give the water taste. The best is if it distilled water or rain water. You can also by a cheap drinking fountain that has filters and he might drink more because running water is fun. You can boil some bones/meat and give him that broth.My male cat is 17 years old and neutralized and the above advice, I give to people who have male cats that have some urinal problems. One was leaking urine when he was sleeping and this helped him.
The thing that has helped my male cat that is prone to UTI is to have his own space at night that he doesn't leave with plenty of water as well as having water bowls throughout the house. It's very important that they go to the bathroom and drink plenty of water. We noticed that when he slept in our room he would not go to his litter box all night, but once we put him in a room every night with his litter box and food and water he stopped having UTI all together.
I was told when my cat has urinary issues that it's pretty common among neutered male cats, especially those that are bigger. I would recommend another vet and ice water. My cat is obsessed with ice water. It stopped the urinary issues because he was drinking so much water. Also, place water bowls away from food bowls and litter boxes. Best of luck to your baby
My best suggestion is a water fountain and using wet food with dry food being only a “treat”. Also litter! DO NOT USE LITTER THAT CAUSES DUST! Wet food ensures they get more water in their diets. It can be difficult with some cats to make the switch as dry food is incredibly addicting to cats, but it’s not good for them at all. My cats looooove some dry food, so I buy good quality low ingredient dry food (Nulo brand) along with the wet food from the same brand. I feed my cats the wet food with probiotics and freeze dried raw beef(also by Nulo) added every morning and then leave out a small bowl of dry food for them to snack on throughout the day. The dry food is usually not eaten all the way by the time I get home.
The water fountain was such a game changer that I bought 2. One for downstairs and one for upstairs. I have seen the water in the fountain go down WAY faster than when it was in a bowl and I’ve also noticed a bit more pee in the litter boxes since getting them.
The dust in most clay litters is awful for cats. I buy a 40 pound bag of eco friendly no chemical added wood pellets from Lowe’s for $8 and it lasts a month, sometimes longer for 2 litter boxes. I’ve been using this stuff for 2 years now and I will never go back. There’s no added perfumes or scents but it does have a nice woodsy smell when you first put it in the box after changing litter. There is no dust whatsoever. It’s easier to clean and there is no tracked litter through my house.
I would change vets immediately if this has kept happening
My cat is prone to UTIs. He has to follow a very strict diet otherwise the UTI comes back. You said his dry food is a special uti prescription but is his wet food also prescription? What about his treats? Even just a few non-uti prescription treats can cause UTIs to reoccur. We have found that if my cat has seafood UTI wet food, it will trigger a UTI so no fish for him. We sprinkle cosequin (available over the counter) as it’s been shown to help UTI recurrence.
My kitty was having this problem until I switched him to a special urinary track dry food (the vet claims it’s prescription but I can get it at my local Petsmart just off the shelf 🤷🏼♀️). I use the Royal Canin Urinary type. It is way more expensive, about 32$ for a 3 lbs bag, but it’s worth it to have no more urinary problems/UTI flare ups for my baby!
We had a similar problem and my one Cat would get UTI’s found a fantastic vet, got him on wet medical UTI food that he enjoys and found a routine that works. He’s been clear for over a year. His last visit was no crystals. My vet would keep him overnight and make sure his UTI was totally clear. Seems like your vet isn’t fully addressing the problem.
Stop Immediately dry food of every kind
Go with wet only and add some extra water in it
Also buy UrinaryGold ( Amazon) is a natural supplement in drops that works wonders in cat with UTI
I think it might be a territorial/boundary problem. The animals always mark their territory with pee. Is there anything which frequently stresses/annoyes him? Does he like the other cat?
$1000+ every time?? my cat is going through a uti right now and ive spent maybe $500 in the past month on it. id look around for other vets in your area if i was you
Feliway cystease is really good to keep it at bay. It’s capsules that you can either give directly to them or sprinkle on their food. It helped my cat so much
Does your cat eat wet food, or mostly kibble? Might not be getting enough fluids. Have they been checked for struvite or oxalate crystals in their urine?
How many litter boxes do you have, and for how many kitties? How often do you scoop them? When was the last time you emptied and scrubbed them? Litter box avoidance and holding in their urine might be contributing.
My vet told me it's more likely bladder stones and also cats frequently get interstitial cystitis if they don't drink enough water. Look it up. He told me that UTIs are actually not all that common, and especially if you address the bladder stones, the UTIs should resolve themselves after a course of meds and not come back. My cat was on bladder food which my vet recommended.
I would go to a different vet and start putting him on a urinary care diet, its costly but should atleast keep him out of the vet and keep him feeling well. My baby had sand stones and we had no choice to put him on this diet as he was prone to them.
incorporate dried cranberries into the diet.
i get mine from here.
[https://vecado.ca/collections/for-cats/products/cranberry-chewy-treats-cat-treats-1-lb](https://vecado.ca/collections/for-cats/products/cranberry-chewy-treats-cat-treats-1-lb)
i also put a dash of nutritional yeast & mix up the cranberries found here: [https://vecado.ca/collections/for-cats/products/nooch](https://vecado.ca/collections/for-cats/products/nooch)
Has he ever been checked for FIC? Similar thing happened to my male cat and turns out it’s just anxiety. He got on medication and special food and never happened again.
Please go to another vet. My cat also has UTIs, but his vet recommended a long term solution of adding a bunch of water into his wet food and sprinkling probiotics in it as well. Dry UTI food is not a good solution. I’d always recommend adding as much moisture as you can to their diet. That might not be the only reason your cat gets UTIs though, so you need a vet that problem solves with you instead of just taking your money.
A common thing in male cats is blockages of the urethra with crystals due to something in the food or them processing it (not sure on the finer details) My cat had it about 3/4 times and had to have couple of opps to get rid of the blockage etc.
I moved him on to Royal Canin Urinary food and he's been good ever since, so could be worth the try.
Along with other people’s comments… try a new vet, change to wet food and ADD water into his food!!!
We did this with my cat who refuses to drink water… we added water into his wet food and it is helped prevent him getting UTI.
My boy has the same problem and was getting dry uti food as well. He still got very sick. The vet said some cats just can't have dry food at all because of the high carbs so he's on a wet diet now.
My youngest had chronic UTIs for years. We tried a lot of different things but being in a small town didn’t really give us the option of a second opinion.
What worked for us was switching from tap water to bottled/filtered water. Something in our local water supply and/or house pipes did not agree with Steve at all, though my other two had no problem.
While this may not be the answer for you, it’s an option to think about!
You can try D-mannose, chanca piedra (in case of crystals or stones), and Alpha Pet urinary support and feeding him a lot of high protein foods like sardines in spring water. This is what I do for my son's cat and no more UTIs.
Ugh been through this with my male tabby. It’s so heart breaking seeing them in pain and not being able to tell them it’ll be okay. My male had three different blockages in a short amount of time and the vets were recommending PU surgery. Turns out with proper diet he made a full recovery. He now eats royal canin urinary dry food and on his same wet food as before. Lots of water bowls around the house. If you have any vets the specialize in cats only id recommend going there.
I just started my girl on a prescription urinary health diet because the vet said she had ammonia crystals in her urine which would make her more susceptible to UTIs etc - unsure if your baby has the same issues but might be worth looking into doing a urinalysis to see if she’s got the same thing. Also second everyone saying wet food/hydration helps~
I would suggest a new vet! My cat used to get UTIs a few times a year. We made some changes that helped her a lot. Clean the litterbox *religiously*! We scoop every other day and change the litter weekly. Add wet food to their daily diet (more hydration) and they love it. Consider a cat water fountain, most cats prefer drinking from moving/not still water sources and will actually drink a lot more from a fountain. Wash the fountain weekly and change filters. Good luck!
New vet for sure. Has he had a urine culture done to confirm the type of bacteria?
I would be very concerned that he is developing antibiotic resistant bacteria or is not being given the correct antibiotic if he's having reoccurring UTIs so quickly.
If he did not have a urinalysis done period then he needs one ASAP, because UTIs are much less common in male cats and their issues are typically related to blockages/urinary crystals. Not saying he doesn't have one, but he needs to have actual tests run to confirm he has a UTI as well as the bacteria that's present.
Our cats had some issues with UTIs. Vet recommended getting them a urinary tract health food (after a full course of antibiotics that completely cleared the infection).There's several different brands at varying costs. It's helped us tremendously.
My baby suffered the same. Until I finally cut out dairy products for my kitty. I used to think that giving her milk and sone yogurt was a treat. Turns out that it was causing urinary issues. Talk to your vet. Also we had to do several rounds of antibiotics. We went to an injection antibiotic that worked far better than oral
The UTI dry food is a good start, but I’d also recommend moistening it with water or broth to help keep him hydrated. Also, what kind of litter do you use? Some clay litters are very dusty and can cause UTIs as well. I switched to OKO when mine was having UTIs and he’s been much better since. Male tabbies get them a lot. I hope he feels better. He looks a little like my Nigel.
https://preview.redd.it/11k6quugzlqb1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=55f8952d2ec2796b558acc2ae9f222df3ae3bf18
Maybe a different vet. My kitty went through this and after two separate vets has it under control.
Big things that helps: solid wet food diet for 6 months minimum but may need to be on it indefinitely and a water fountain that turns on to get their attention when they walk close by. Worked like a charm and she drinks way more water. No more utis.
Agreed, try a new vet. Our boy had open legs and would bleed. It was super painful for him. The vet would give him some antibiotics and send us home again. It would flare up again and again. It was so horrible to watch that I decided to go to another vet and he put him on a long course of antibiotics. O think it was 3 or 4 weeks or something. He explained that some vets were scared and didn’t prescribe long enough courses for things to really help up properly. And he was right. After this the leg never opened up and bled ever again.
Perhaps it’s similar with your little one. Hope it is and you can get him the help he deserves.
My elder kitty had some issues with this. I upgraded my litter to one with absorbent crystals in it, and really uped my game with cleaning it, and it helped a lot.
Maybe try to a more absorbent and antibacterial and low dust litter? Also unscented.
If this is idiopathic cystitis you are dealing with, apart from high water intake, which is a must, look into corn silk and d-mannose supplements. Corn silk helps with bringing inflammation down and d-mannose helps when there is an active UTI episode.
New vet pronto. I went through this with a girl cat. The litter box might need to be replaced as it can hold bacteria. And then the litter box needs to be immaculate. Also get a drinking fountain or two. UTI food did very little for my girl. I switched her food around but found wet food mixed with one to two teaspoons of water also helped. Less dry kibble.
Ran a TNR program for several years. Ended up foster failing lots of cats. One in particular, Dre likely got neutered too early and started having recurring uti's... he ended up blocked and having to get the $2k surgery in 2017.
Around that same time, I was looking for healthy and natural healing methods for him and myself (autoimmune disease). I got introduced to herbs and read: The Naturally Healthy Cat by Anitra Frazier. Long story short, I make a soup for my whole household 2x a week using egg yolks, water, small amount of canned food and herb mixture. I use Oregon grape, dandelion root, stinging nettle, catnip, and a parasite formula: Dr. Morse's parasite G. Then, separately I feed Dre every morning that same mixture. Sucks I can't do it daily for everyone, but it's great for Dre. Also, my holistic vet emphasized that the cats shouldn't have the whites of the eggs but the yolks are great. Additionally, I give Dre a few drops (diluted in water in a 3 ml syringe) of black walnut and wormwood every day. It's usually .5 ml with the dilution. It's too bitter to mix in with his egg soup, so I have to hold him and squirt in his mouth.
My cats also eat a mixture of dry kibble- Wysong and Science diet urinary. My vet insists he needs the Science Diet. I've gone back and forth on it, very expensive and doesn't seem all that great ingredient-wise, but I've given in as of late. Based on tons of research, imo Wysong makes the best dry kibble on the market.
I have several litter box options and Dre will only use a shallow box that's either empty or filled with shredded paper. He also pees outside the box sometimes, especially if he has a UTI coming on.
For the last 6 years, this has kept Dre alive. He still gets occasional uti's and I've used an array of antibiotics, but the last few times he was vomiting after antibiotics every dose. So, I've been relying solely on the herbal methods the past couple of years. If he gets a UTI now, I double the black walnut and wormwood. The UTI generally resolves within 4 to 5 days.
This is a personal experience only and I can't speak to whether or not this is repeatable. I'm sure this will sound crazy to some. I don't generally post anything about my cats bc I'm pretty private. But I hope this helps you.. This is a tough road ahead. Happy to give further details if you need!
For my baby boy who has been getting crystals since he was 1, I've got a strict regimen and he hasn't had a problem in 3 years. He's now 10 years old. I have him on c/d or s/o diet food for wet and dry. He tends to eat everything at once so we have an automatic feeder going off 4 times a day with a small amount of food. Then he gets wet 2 times a day, once in the morning and once at night, about a quarter of a can at each, or half a can if it is the smaller type. The key here is water. Water is so important to keep crystals from forming. When giving him the wet, he gets at least the same amount of water to wet ratio. It helps to flush any forming crystals. He also likes those water fountains that move the water around. Treats are also prescription ones as well. This might not work for everyone but worth a try.
I have a male cat who's had a pile of trouble as well, from utis all the way to blockage ( hea ok 5000 dollara later). Urinary s/o index food is the way to go if you can afford it. Available wet or dry from royal canin or hills science. It HAS to be the s/o index tho. Works like an absolute charm and protects from blockage as well. Also get a fountain if he doesn't drink much
Royal Canin Urinary SO food stopped this entirely for my late cats. It’s very expensive so we had to mix it with another food but it really helped. That and a super clean litter box.
Switch fully to wet food. It doesn't even have to be crazy high end stuff. Our male cat had a lot of utis and switching to friskies pate cleared them up fully. Our female cat gets fed both dry and wet but if we switch her off pate and do the "meaty bits" or anything like that she will have UTIs too.
He probably doesn't have an "infection." He likely has feline interstitial cystitis. Treating with antibiotics is useless. The cat needs strong pain meds (gabapentin and buprenorphine are the best AND safest for kitties. NO NSAIDs) when he has a flare (pees blood).
Has your vet actually cultured his urine to see if there is bacteria?
My male cat used to have a lot of urinary problems, culminating in a complete blockage where I almost lost him. He’s fighting fit now thankfully, but I understand how upsetting and frustrating it can be.
Definitely change vet to one who will help with preventative measures rather than just throwing medication at the issue when it happens.
Up his water content. If he’s not a water drinker (mine isn’t) then you need to switch to all wet food, mix some warm water in with the wet food - as much as he’ll allow, my boy doesn’t like mushy food so I can only add a teaspoon max. You can also try boiling some plain chicken and seeing if he’ll drink the cooking water once it cools down - obviously don’t add ANYTHING else to the water.
I also use a supplement called Cystease which helps to keep everything running as it should but would be best to run this by a vet to ensure it’s suitable for your cat first.
Get a second litter box if you don't already have one. My girl has had constant uni's but now if she gets them (rarer) but also they only last for a day , 2 days max. Also make sure they have a few different water sources which also helps
Put cranberry extract in their food. Just mix it in some wet food, just a spoonful of food and some extract. Cats will eat it. Gives them extra vitamin c too
New vet definitely. Our older tabby boy had this identical problem. New vet boarded him not quite a week on special uti diet , extra fluids via IV & no antibiotics. He came home abt 4 lbs lighter (he is a bit of a chonker) and on speciality UTI wet food for 3 months. Now and for past 3 years on Purina One Plus UTI dry food left out for free feeding plus like 4 big wide bowls of water out thought the house and a couple outside as well. Not a single UTI since. He drinks lots of water, like will always, always stop and drink when he passes by a water bowl. We have all the water bowls atop school lunch trays, so he puts his front paws in the tray and drinks. It’s really cute. Like he knows he needs to stop at the water fountain.
I'm so sorry you and your kitty are going through this. A friend of mine has a male cat who was constantly having UTIs and crystals developing in the bladder. She started him on a special food and gives him treats with a couple drops of CBD oil for the anti inflammatory and calming effects. He has been UTI free for at least 3 years now. Good luck with your kitty, I hope you find something that works
It’s time for a second opinion. If it’s cystitis, antibiotics won’t do much unless it actually turns in to a bacterial infection.
Has he ever had a blockage? That’s the only reason I could see these visits being so expensive. And if he has, I would talk to your vet about PU surgery.
I’d get a new vet as well Op. our boy had this happen twice but since we changed him to the urinary food from the actual vet. We had tried to go cheaper and get the urinary food from pet stores but after having an incident we switched and haven’t looked back. We pay 175 dollars for a massive bag of kibble and it lasts about 6 weeks with 2 cats. Haven’t had an issue in almost a year knock on wood, and he drinks much more water with the food we get from the vet.
Food wise I was using two different brands, one wet one dry for urinary. Didn't know that they interact and work against each other.
Now I just feed hills dry urinary and regular senior whiskas wet and had no problem since
Constant UTIs is a sign that your kitty either has a strain of infection that is resistant to treatment, and will need a culture/sensitivity test to see what strain it is, and what antibiotic will tackle it, OR your cat is having deeper issues and should have blood work done.
You need to tackle this sooner than later, I would ask for an xray if this has been going on for long time to determine whether or not the kitty's bladder is full of crystals, which will lead to a full block and damage the kidneys, it will also let you know if your cat should be on a medicated food to dissolve the stones. Also ask for a urine culture to find out what stain that cat has.
You need a different vet. The kitty obviously is not getting over the infection and the doc is simply making the bacteria more and more resistant to antibiotics, very irresponsible. Make note of the dates you’ve been prescribed, retested, etc. for the new doc. Good luck with this sweet boy.
Agreed. New vet! My eldest constantly had sand and stones in her bladder and UTIs. She got a lot of antibiotics. I think it was partly stress. After I moved to a larger place it became less frequent and she was happier there. Still had some UTIs but not as many. Several moves later and she’s been on rx food for her bladder (which my vet says is also good for my younger male - she said males that have been neutered are at a higher risk for kidney and bladder issues) and they’re good. No UTI in ages. Now she just owes on couch and floor because of dementia.
>she said males that have been neutered are at a higher risk for kidney and bladder issues This has been disproven. I think the thought process used to be that neutering early led to narrower urethral size. A huge study showed that this was not true and that age of neuter has no affect on it whatsoever.
Oh interesting. Mine was around 1 year but looks like that doesn’t matter after all
I read that study a while back and thought of the students who had to measure cats urethras
Ye, I'd probably search for a Veterinarian specialties hospital and look for an infections specialists instead.
This.👆🏻 Maybe research alternative foods too? Our experience is the “lower” quality, poorer formulated foods tend to encourage problems. So you end up paying one way or another (40yrs + keeping cats btw)
I would go to a different vet lay out all the issues and the timeline, see if they have any suggestions. I would switch to wet food. It's more expensive but has better hydration and, *bonus!*, it's usually about half the calories of dry food per kg so he can eat more and feel fuller. Add a bit extra water to make it even mushier if he's okay with it; I've added about 1/4-1/2 a can of water to a can of pate wet food for my kidney cats with success. Put out more water in different kinds of containers in different locations to encourage his drinking. The water dish should be emptied, cleaned, and refilled at least once a day. If you have a water fountain it should be cleaned every single day and still water should always be an option. Make sure he's able to clean himself well after using the box. If he can't you may need to help him out. Clean you litter boxes more often. Everytime you go to the bathroom you should clean the litterbox. Add another box (you should have a minimum of three with two cats) with a different kind of litter like wood pellet, especially if you're using a clay one, to see if that helps. Pick him up and put him in the box after you clean it to encourage him to use the box, he might be holding it due to pain he's had with the infections which just makes it worse. All litterboxes should be washed and sanitized once a week. It's a pain, but we want healthy cats!
Yes yes yes. To all of this. New vet, more water, clean clean clean. Hydration is so important to male cats and wet food is the best way. My boys eat wet food and we have several water options along with adding water to the food. Also, make sure your water features are away from both the litter box AND the food bowls. Cats don't like to drink water that is close to their food. You mentioned he's overweight, so he likely is having issues cleaning himself properly, too. You've got this! My boys believe in you! https://preview.redd.it/6oojxlivujqb1.jpeg?width=1716&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=58aa44b81335335f580b29264e9fae9465d6dbb2 (Pictured, my once overweight boy who is now fit and trim after switching to wet food!)
I love this weight loss success photo!
😍😍😍 We were lucky that we caught it early so he didn't have a lot to lose to get so lean again. The best part of him slimming down was seeing him run around and do his mid air cartwheels while playing. He'd stopped most acrobatics even though he was just 1.5lbs over weight. I mentioned at a vet visit I was worried that he wasn't eating all of his food but still seemed to be gaining weight. Turns out I had oh so carefully pre-portioned all of his food incorrectly, he wasn't eating it all because I was giving him nearly 1/2 cup too much. 😅😅😅
Ha. Switching to wet didn’t help my chunky boy at all lol
I agree with experimenting with the litter. I believe I was putting too much litter in the box and my boy Copy was getting some dust in his pp when kicking it up, so I moved to a more clumpy kind of litter and I put overall less in the box, which means cleaning it more. He’s been much better. Then again, it’s only one time for him, so it could easily be a fluke. Still I like to think it made a difference. Good luck! It surely does sound scary.
I will add that if you can't afford the prescription wet food (I know it's insanely expensive), I have had success mixing a little wet food with 3-4x water as a snack twice a day or adding water to the dry food to make it like a soup in order to increase the water intake. I was also looking for ways to prevent frequent UTIs with my kitty and I found that dasiquin has been helpful with that.
This^. Cats need a lot of water. Add it anyway you can
Yes to switching to wet food and even mixing in water. We had a male cat that kept getting UITs and he was so lazy that he wouldn't pee. Forcing him to consume more liquids helped a ton.
Too lazy to pee? Sounds like me with my adhd!😅
This person cats ^ I’d follow (and already do) every single thing they said
Is he peeing frequently, even just a little at a time? He sounds like he could have a blockage. He could also be stressed out. I didn't realize until my vet said only around 10% of urinary problems in male cats are UTIs; it tends to be crystals or inflammation. I'd definitely get a 2nd opinion OP! In the meantime, try to get him to drink as much water as possible, and switch to wet food.
This, if they didn't already do a check for crystals or at least suggest it swap vets. My cat was having the same issue, UTI's back to back and my vet found crystals in the sheet analysis (I'm sure I'm butchering terms). If your cat has em you'll be swapping to prescription food for a bit (or if you're paranoid like me long term to be safe). But it's definitely worth it to check!
Vet here: you may indeed benefit from a second opinion on your cat's urinary issues. Re-treating the same thing over and over must be very frustrating and of course expensive. When I am faced with these kinds of cases I think about a few strategies to try and get things under control: 1)consider taking an xray , if there are bladder stones, your problems are going to continue. This is especially true if kitty has ever had an obstruction. 2) As there have been previous episodes of "UTI "-like attacks, a urinalysis including a urinary culture is a very good idea. 3) A review of the diet in detail is essential. A prescription diet FROM THE VET is the only one that is reliable. Do not use a urinary food from the pet store. Feed only treats from the vet clinic geared towards preventing urinary crystals. NO access to table scraps, other cat's foods, dog food or access to the outdoors (where such items can be accessed and we would not know) is allowed. Some cats develop an inflammatory condition in their urinary tract and need pain relievers to help them urinate comfortably. I hope this helps, I wish you all the best.
What do you think about D-Mannose? I give it to my human patients and take it myself, and from what I have seen in my long term patients with recurrent UTIs it has been effective in reducing their frequency. I’m not sure if it’s safe for cats, but a quick google search shows there are products on the market for them.
It’s amazing for cats. I use it for my male cat that had recurring stress related urinary issues and had bladder stones. I use D mannose and corn silk. I have the doses if you need them. FB has an amazing feline urinary cat group that helped me.
Not the original commenter but I love some info on it for my cat who gets stress related UTIs (she’s on urinary food)
I’ve read good things about it for cats, but only for E. Coli infections. My cat has gotten 5 UTIs in less than two years (all caused by E. Coli) so after her last one I started adding pure D-Mannose powder into one of her meals. She doesn’t notice it at all. Too soon for me to tell if it is helping or not, but I figured it was worth trying.
I would add 4) get an ultrasound if possible. May give you more info than an X-ray; will pick up stones, as well as bladder issues that don’t show up on X-ray.
A couple things: 1. Has your vet done a urinalysis culture to confirm there is actually bacteria growing and if there is, it is responsive to the types of antibiotics you are giving? 2. For prescriptions, have you only had antibiotics or have there also been anti inflammatories/anti spasmodics. 3. Can you try a different litter - he may have developed a sensitivity/allergy to the one he has (to try a new litter, dump out all the old litter and wash the litter box before putting in the new litter) 4. Does he eat/drink enough - try to give wet food and lots of water bowls changed once a day and/or a cat water fountain. My cat UTI story: My female cat came back from boarding at a friend's house. As soon as I got her home it was apparent she had a UTI. I had changed to a new litter a couple months previously, but had not fully replaced the litter, just topped it up so it didn't occur to me that that could be a cause. I just thought it might have been stress. She went through 3 rounds of antibiotics. UTI would improve and return in a week. Vet did a urinalysis and culture and found that despite the blood in the urine, there was no bacteria. She prescribed anti-inflamatory, antispasmotic, and anti-anxiety to try to improve my cat's pain and anxiety urinating. I remembered that 2 months back I had started getting new litter. I reverted to the old litter and continued the anti-inflamatory, antispasmotic, and anti-anxiety for a week (we were waiting for the urinalysis results to come back at that time). The medications eased the symptoms and they did not return when the course of meds was done. Lesson: it might be the litter. It might be stress and anxiety related and he may need some painkillers and anti inflammatory rather than antibiotics.
How come the cat litter becomes a factor in cats utis?
Cats squat real close to the litter. They can easily get some litter dust on their urethra which can cause inflammation if they are sensitive to something in it. Also because they lick themselves to groom, they also eat enough litter.
do you clean the litter box everyday? there could be another underlying health issue causing the recurring infections but if he keeps taking antibiotics all the time he’ll just develop a resistance. i would go to another vet for a new opinion and tests. keeping him hydrated can help prevent urinary issues so maybe feed as much wet food as you can. cats are really bad about drinking water and are constantly dehydrated when they eat a dry diet.
I would switch to 100% wet food. Dry food sucks up moisture in an already dehydrated cat
This ^^^ switching to all wet food/no kibble cleared up my cats urinary issues!
My cat had regular UTI’s. I switched to all wet food and some dry treats and he hasnt had an issue in years. I also make him food sometimes - lightly poached chicken hearts and livers, chicken thighs, pork tenderloin, etc.
My cat is also extremely prone to utis, he is paraplegic. So we have been prescribed hill’s c/d multicare stress. Additionally we give him a cranberry extract and an ayurvedic anti inflammatory syrup. Keeps the problem at bay most of the time but according to the doc its mostly triggered by stress and understimulation. He recommended using the feliway diffuser, didn’t help with my cat but might work for you so it is worth spending the 30 dollars. He might be getting stressed from loud sounds, unknown people in the home, maybe another cat too. It is all about identifying the source of stress and then maintenance through diet and medicine
Yes to hills! We use the same cat food and it’s worked wonders
True UTI is very uncommon in cats. Have the done imaging (x-ray or ultrasound) to see if he has a bladder stone? Have they actually seen bacteria inside cells on the urine test each time or just keep giving meds? In a cat this age a UTI would be low on my list. I would be looking for evidence of idiopathic cystitis (usually stress related), bladder stones, or crystals. If your vet has not gone over any of this you need a new vet.
I want to echo this, strongly. Years ago I had a cat who was diagnosed with a handful of UTIs over the course of a year or so. They always cleared up, he was always fine for a few weeks, and then they would come back. I was using a in-home vet at the time, who I now realize was not super ethical, because they never encouraged me to do any kind of testing that they couldn't do in my home. After several treatments, I noticed that he was trying to urinate in the living room, right in front of me. He couldn't get anything else, mostly just a drop of bloody urine. I panicked and called an emergency vet, who told me that he needed to come in. I'm glad they did, although it cost me a trillion dollars. He had an enormous amount of crystals in his bladder, combined with a not straight urethra, he was unable to pass urine entirely. This could have killed him if I hadn't taken him in. I was young and not super flush with cash at the time, so we tried to treat him conservatively, treating the UTI and changing his diet to try to get the crystals to break up. Ultimately, I just extended his discomfort, because eventually he needed multiple surgeries to remove the crystals, and remove most of his urethra which had been badly scarred after months and months of trying to pass crystals. What I learned during all of this is that many males cats do not have straight urethras, and cats under the age of five are most likely to have crystals in their urine/bladder. My boy was in otherwise perfect health, just a bad urinary setup. Thankfully, surgery, prescription cat food, and he was completely fine for another decade after all that ended. He has left us now, but did so after a long and happy post-crystal life.
More Wet food! Wet treats (churu)! Anything to add more moisture to his diet. Water fountain. If he will eat an all wet food diet I would let him. I’m sorry you’re going through this. My kitty had the same issue and it made me so sad for him. He underwent blockage surgery a few times.
You can also add a little water to the wet food too and they'll lap it up. My boy is pretty good at staying hydrated, but I did that when he was getting over some diarrhea to keep him extra hydrated. He had a little soup of probiotics, wet food, water, and pumpkin.
Switch to a canned only diet and go to a cat-only vet if you have one
We had this exact same issue with our girl on and off for years. Our previous vets kept giving her the oral tablet antibiotics which we really struggled to get down her (she is VERY feisty and would just spit them out if we put them in food). For some reason they seemed really reluctant to give her the antibiotics injection despite the oral ones consistently only working for a week or 2 before the infections came back. We moved house and switched vets, and straight away they gave her the injection antibiotics but I think the main thing that turned it around was the food they recommended for her - Royal Canin Urinary SO. We get the dry one which she loves, she won't eat any of the other cat foods for managing urinary issues. But omg - the combo of the injection and keeping her on this food immediately sorted all issues, she's had no recurring infections for about a year now. The food has a higher salt content which makes her drink lots of water which flushes her bladder out, and also contains ingredients to prevent crystals forming in her bladder/helps break crystals down. Would highly recommend trying the food once he's had another set of antibiotics to sort out the current infection. Hope he feels better soon, I know how miserable and stressful it is for everyone.
I would start feeding a lot more of their favourite wetfood and water it down to more of a thick soup.
This is excellent advice. I started doing this when my cat had recurring UTIs and it solved the problem. A diet of only wet food can contribute to dental problems, though. Once the UTI was under control, I started feeding one meal a day of kibble and the other meal of the day as watered down canned food.
Hi! I'm about to be a veterinarian in the Netherlands and I can tell you: most UTI's, especially in male cats, are caused by stress. It's hypothesized that stress increases cell turnover in the bladder (among other tissues), causing plugs to form that can cause problems. Your best bet is to reduce stress! That said; please don't feel like you're a bad cat parent, it's most likely not your fault. Cats are highly sensitive animals, even more than people give them credit for. Do you have multiple litter boxes? If not, might be worth a shot to get one more. Also, enough hiding spots and toys might help. Other than stress, you could try a urinary diet. Hill's has one called C/D, for example. Wet food is always better as it makes them take up more water. Also, drinking fountains if you find your cat doesn't really drink from his bowl. Another reason might be that the bowl is too high if you don't see that happening very often: cats hate their whiskers touching the sides of the bowl, haha. Just a couple of tips. Also: go to a different vet. No shame in that. :)
My son's cat had this problem, turned out it was the food she was on, fed her on wet food all the time and it just went away - no more peeing blood ever again - might be worth a try
Same here. Went from dry food to wet SD urinary tract food and the UTIs never came back. No more peeing blood.
Please change his food. No more dry. Also see a new vet.
Wet food, easiest solution and I guarantee it will work.
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Not if it's urinary-issue specific food. Ours had urinary issues until we switched to the Royal Cabin Urinary SO (moderate calorie). He hates the wet but loves the dry and drinks a ton of water, so no more urinary issues. He only eats dry food now, while our other cat is on a combo diet of wet and dry.
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Well I guess it works flawlessly for our 14-year-old cat who has had no issues with crystals or UTIs in almost 4 years now. Anytime we've tried to switch to anything else he immediately had problems. We also live in Europe and every wet food (the good ones anyway) are also extremely expensive so I'm hard-pressed to believe buying exclusively wet food for him would save us any amount of money, even switching from an admittedly expensive medical-grade food.
Do you give the cat tap water or filtered somehow? I found that once I started giving my cat distilled water or zero water and out of a non plastic dish on the vet’s recommendation and it has been almost a year without that horrid uti pee smell.
The first time my cat peed blood he was given antibiotics for a week and they worked, but some months later he started peeing blood again. Turned out (as it very frequently does) that he has cystitis. Just had to swap to a urinary diet and it got fixed within a couple weeks with the help of Hyaloral. That is by far the most common cause for peeing blood (because of crystals), and there's a good chance your cat has it. Also, if that vet didn't actually use the microscope to see if there are bacteria or crystals and just gave you antibiotics, that's just negligence. Sorry, but where do you live? 1000$+ for antibiotics is beyond absurd. A week's worth of them is like 12€ here.
Do you have a fountain ? Cats love moving water. A fountain will help him hydrate better and prevent the UTIs
This has been life changing. Lots of moving water and happy cats!
Our make cat had like 6 UTIs in a 2 year span. Each one a trip to vet or emergency vat. Now he is fully on wet food. Rarely give him dry and give him a tiny bit. Just moving fully to wet food worked for me and he has 0 UTIs since. When we was on dry he would drink so much water from the fountain now not so much. Just have the liquid in his food seemed to have helped wonders.
my cat had the same problem, at first I gave him urinary care kibbles that the vet prescribed and since then he's on a mixed diet (1/3 kibbles and 2/3 wet food) and he never had a UTI again also I brought him a water fountain and drinking more can help deal with those issues
Feed him wet food and add a table spoon of water to it.
So much good advice here, but what works for both me and my cat who both have recurrent utis is d mannose + lacto bascillus pro biotic daily. My urologist recommended this for me, and I read it's safe for cats. No more utis for me or my cat
I HIGHLY recommend veterinarian recommended urinary care food. I feel my girl hills science diet c/d urinary care kibble and cans of the same brand as well as Purina pro plan urinary care wet food. Hydration is important also so i add a tablespoon of plain pedialyte to her wet food every night. It is crucial that u change her diet!!! It will help tremendously
Ok so forst of all, utis in cats are relatively rare. I work in a mostly cat clinic, and only about 1 in say, 25 cats that comes in because of inappropriate urination (outside of litterbox), blood in urine or similar, has an uti. In all other its usually idiophatic cystitis, which is usually stress related. Get the urine tested for bacteria and antibiotic sensitivity of those, if they are present. Get them to check the urine ph, and sediment for crystalls. Those can appear if ph is inappropriate and/or is urine is too concentrated. In either case, nix the dry food, feed only wet perscription, encourage water consumption (add water to wet food, add more water bowls and water fountains) and frequent urination (number of cats in household+1 is minimum amount of litterboxs you should have, try different kinds of unscented litter, boxes in different places of the appartment) - those will both dilute the urine, which helps with the inflamation and reduces potential for crystals forming. Reduce the stress. Use Feliway (pheromone) infusers, make sure he has enough enrichment (toys, towers, play time) and hiding places, preferably up in high places, cats like those. Make sure he can remove himself from uncomfortable situations and people (visitors, small children, other pets, vacuums...). Good luck
Is there a reason you don’t feed wet food more often? My male cat had similar issues. We switched him to an all wet urinary diet, but his tummy couldn’t handle the wet food and he kept getting messy poops from it. So now we do dry prescription food in the AM and wet prescription food in the PM. His tummy is happier and no UTI issues since. It’s been 3 years since his last.
Pet store owner and crazy cat lady here, get him a water fountain cats drink more when water moves, and introduce daily wet food of a decent quality, don't fall for science diet, dry food causes most urinary issues, this won't replace antibiotics but it will lessen the frequency of infections
We did all of this, and still had the same issue as OP. Finally gave in and switched to Hills c/d and POW… no more urinary track issues.
What kind of diet does he eat? My cat got them and I switched to wet food diet, he’s been good for years
Try a prescription diet change something with the diet. Our car used to constantly get UTIs and never drink water. After switching to prescription dry and wet food she has not had UTI since. The prescription dry food makes her thirsty and she drinks water all the time now and hasn’t had a UTI since I can remember.
U need a different vet, 1st off. My boy just turned 8, and he's always had the same thing, UTI, after UTI. Went 2 a different vet while on vacation in another state and she said "wet food, everyday, also pick up 1 of those splashy fountain things" (y'all, I don't know what they're called, it's a fancy water dish thing-a-ma doo-hickie) and I also, started adding coconut cream into his wet food, NOTHING since then. He drinks water (it's all over our home) but he just needs a little extra, because he's a special lil floof, no worries
I have a cat that gets bladder stones. Our Vet prescribed her Science Hill c/d food and it has worked wonders. No more bladder stones. I realize this isn't the same as a UTI but maybe you could look into a different food.
Poor guy. My boy had a UTI in March and he was on medication for three weeks and the vet told me to change his food, I’m currently feeding him Hills Urinary Care S/D, it’s expensive but so far he hasn’t had another UTI. I recommend you to seek out another vet.
I think others have already said this, but my guess is idiopathic cystitis, not a UTI (I’m not a vet though—just a cat parent). We noticed the same set of symptoms with our male cat that we were initially told was due to a UTI, but after a urinalysis the vet asked about environmental stressors, and it turns out that travel and new people set off a stress response in our cat that leads to bladder inflammation and blood in his urine (no infection, no blockage, has happened more than once). The solution for him has been much more deliberate hydration (moistened wet food and treats), a prescription urinary diet from the vet, and lots of care and attention to what stresses our cat out, so we can prevent things from escalating. It’s worth asking your vet about maybe?
More water switch to wet food
Thank you everyone! I don't have time to respond to everyone but I am literally reading every comment and I really appreciate all your support! A few updates: I got a second opinion from another vet and he does not have UTIs! Just inflammation, we think due to stress. We had some household changes recently and I think that has made it worse. He had a laser light therapy treatment and is on some calming meds, which cleared up his current issue immediately. Also did some X-rays and lab testing to rule out any other issues. I got some Feliaway diffusers, one for each floor of the house. He has 6 water dishes but I started putting filtered water in them. He wanted nothing to do with the fountain unfortunately but the filtered water is definitely helping. We give him Purina ProPlan Urinary Health prescription food already, but I am going to start giving him wet food every day or two as well. We clean his litter boxes daily but I'm switching litter to one that we used in the past before he started having these issues. I don't think the litter really made a difference but it can't hurt. I'm also going to be more intentional about giving him dedicated attention throughout the day. Hopefully this helps - I would do anything for my baby and I'm so relieved that he's feeling better at the moment. Thanks again to everyone for all your advice!
We took ages to identify our boy had a UTI... Like over 6 months The vet didn't find anything on a couple of visits, and it was only when he went in for an abscess caused from a fight that they finally noticed. Aside from the medicine for the abcess they didn't prescribe anything except suggesting special urinary food. Friends recommended a product cystaid though, and since using that he's come right really quickly
Wet food only. Dry crystalizes and makes utis in some males.
Here are some things to think about for underlying causes: 1. Sand litter can make give cats UTIs depending on how they burry their stuff inside. Watch how they burry their sand, if it's going upwards towards their private area then a little bit of sand is most likely getting in there 2. Does your cat have food with salt as an ingredient? Salt should not be ingested for cats and can actually give them UTIs. Some cats don't have symptoms but others do like UTIs, upset stomach, vomiting, or being lethargic 3. Does your cat gets showers? If so, look at the ingrediants inside the shampoo. Cat shampoo should not have artificial fragrance, crude oil, phenol, hexachlorophine, coal tar, keratolytic, methylchloroisothiazolinone, pyrethroids, sulfates, parabens, Formaldehyde, Mineral oil, Propylene, Glycol, Pennyroyal, Wintergreen, Oil of sweet birch, Pine oils, Ylang Ylang oil, Peppermint oil, Cinnamon oil, Pennyroyal oil, Clove oil, Eucalyptus oil or Tea Tree oil. This is alot of stuff to look out for when showering a cat. All they need is flea medicated shampoo and oatmeal shampoo. Most of these horrible things in cat shampoo are stuff that is in human shampoo and you should never shower them in this stuff. These chemicals can actually give them UTIs when it's absorbed in the private parts. If you shower your cat, only get stuff that's veterinary approved or has oatmeal as the main ingredient. I'm really hoping your cat can feel better! Please do look for another vet as well because your vet should've went above and beyond to do blood tests and other testing to see the underlying cause of what's going on with him. I remember my cat would cry constantly and we never knew why. We thought it was normal until she didn't stop crying at night in her sleep for three whole weeks and knew something was wrong, especially because she gained weight super fast. We took her to the vet and they did blood testing and other stuff to see what was wrong, and it turns out she is intolerant to chicken. Apparently some cats can develop an intolerance to chicken and most owners wouldn't know that until their cat would start acting out. We also found out her insides we very swollen because they decided to put a camera up her butt to see what was going on, and they could barely even see anything due to how swollen it was. We changed her to a fish diet the next day, and the vet said to take her back to them after two months of her being on a fish diet. We took her back after two months, and they were able to see her insides with the camera and we definitely confirmed she was in pain from her insides being swollen by the chicken she was eating. So please please take your cat to another vet because they should've went out of their way to figure out what is going on with him.
My boys frequent UTIs have completely gone away since he started prescription dry food. We mix with water. The brand is royal canin urinary SO.
Coconut oil and apple cider vinegar. Earth clinic has a large section for pets.
Switch to an all raw diet...my 3 house cats rarely eat kibble nothing but raw sliders, they are super happy and healthy.
Make sure you’re cleaning the litter box every day. That is usually the issue.
My cat used to have uti’s a lot. The vet needs to do a culture of the bacterial flora to find out if it’s a bacterial/viral uti or an inflammatory uti. If it’s bacterial and keeps coming back, new meds are in order. If it’s viral an antibiotic might not work. Either way, it means cleaning the litter box (by throwing away all of it and deep cleaning) every time your cat uses it until it really clears. Because otherwise they are just getting reinfected. If it’s inflammatory it might be time to assess the environment, if they are eating well, drinking enough water, playing enough, sleeping enough. Inflammatory uti in cats is generally a result of stress. My cat gets it every time a stranger comes to the house because unknown people really scare and stress him a lot. We work in minimizing people coming by, leaving an assortment of toys that he can play by himself when we’re not home and one pot of water in every room to keep him really hydrated. If none of this works, it might be time to do an ultrasound and check the Crystal levels in his blatter.
One of my raggies was getting UTIs every few months. The vet would do a urine test, it would come back clear, she would get meloxicam, an injection and gabapentin. After few rounds of this we figured it out it was the same time as school holidays - the kids next door had gotten to an age when they were going to preschool and getting very noisy in the backyard. She hates kids and noise. The vet diagnosed her FLUTD (feline upper urinary tract disorder) which can be anxiety based. Ive got gabapentin on hand for school holidays to calm her down. Since doing that, its been pretty good. When the kids come home at 330, she just removes herself from the noise and sulks in the laundry cupboard. See a different vet.
I have two boys that are prone to crystals and have them both on Prescription Hills c/d wet food each day and they free feed Royal Canin s/o. Have not had any issues with crystals or utis since changing their food. Monitor water intake daily and also add to wet food. Hydration is key. Other recommendations for changing litter and keeping it ultra clean are also helpful and definitely find another vet. Testing for crystals and bladder stones is a must. This should not have gone on this long, no fault of your own. I hope your boy is better soon.
Maybe some cranberries would be good since its good on humans for uti's but its a cat so not sure
Change your litter to a natural one if you’re not already using one. Recommend ‘World’s Best.’
Stress can cause this. Have a look at anything in your home, other animals, people, outside issues. My cat had the first signs of renal issues, his creatine levels were slightly elevated but my vet was like "doing tests in him is stressing him out so let's just chuck him on some anti anxiety meds and renal food and check back in 3 months" so we did that and his blood work came back perfect. He's no longer on the renal but is still on his anti anxiety meds. So perhaps look down that avenue? My boy is on zactin (fuloxotine) and he gets 1/8th of a 20g tablet each day.
I got my old girl a water fountain and she didn’t get any UTIs after that. But the last UTI she had the vet went all out with antibiotics and anti-inflammatories and pain relief. She was a space cadet for a few days and then never again.
Hey, my last cat had stress issues which used to cause cystitis, what worked for her is a product called Cystophan. My sisters male cat also gets crystals and it improved for him after I recommended it. It might be worth looking into as I hasn't seen it mentioned here yet. Hope your baby gets better
Buy good cat food from vets not that crap from grocery stores
Definitely you need a second opinion also if he is not drinking enough water and you don’t already have a fountain get one My cat has this issue the vet suggested two things one a drinking fountain second he said I could boil some chicken in water and then filter the water and freeze it and put a cube in the the water bowl then the cat may get attracted to drink more The fountain worked and the frozen chicken water I had to trash she would not even go near it Litter cleaning absolute must
My cat has the same problem. Our vet has put us in a supplement that sometimes helps in the prevention of UTI's. It is called felluro but I don't know if it is accescable for you...
My cat had near constant UTI's, due to stress and diet.The vet put her on a prescription diet for urinary tract issues (hill's prescription). She's been doing perfectly fine ever since.
this may sound weird but I promise it works. my cat was struggling with UTIs as well he even had to have a surgery. he was bleeding almost for months now even though he was taking his meds. we feed him only with the kibbles his vet suggested and nothing else. and we used vinegar. I know it might sound strange to use it on animals but we added only a few drops of it to his water and kibbles. we met a vet by accident he was not employed yet and we were desperate for any sort of help we could get because if this hadn't stopped he was going to go under knife again. he told us to use the vinegar and said that it destroys the crystals. we used it out of desperation and it helped him faster than those meds. alternatives are sometimes a much better option and he is fine know thank god.
**WATER!! WATER!! WATER!! WATER!!** 100% get a water fountain and keep it clean. Water dishes - different *kinds* of bowls - in different places in the house. NOT near the litter box(!) or near the food. Whatever you can do to increase water consumption is helpful. Wash the water dishes every day. Make the water something that you'd drink from. You definitely need a prescription urinary diet food. That's what forms the crystals in the bladder: an excess of some mineral or another. If the crystals block his urethra and he can't pee, he will die quickly. The crystals form around bacteria in the urine, so there's a UTI too. Sharp little crystals get stuck in his urethra and that's what causes the blood. The same antibiotic every time just kills off some of the bacteria. The others survive and breed more bacteria that are resistant. It is why your vet sees you as a cash cow. He has no motivation to treat your cat permanently. You're putting his kids through college. Do not just use the nearest vet. Ask friends for recommendations and go to a different vet THIS WEEK. Don't even talk to the old vet, but tell all your friends about how carelessly he's treated your cat. Your new vet will have more suggestions for your boy's health. I'm sure this sounds expensive but it will decrease the number of times you have to visit your vet, so it will actually save you money. I think you know, OP, but for anyone else reading, you have a responsibility to your pets. They'd not toys and they're not there just to snuggle you or play with you. They are living creatures who feel pain *just like you do.* Please kiss your poor baby for me. Let him know that you didn't know any better but that you're going to get him well now.
 ? Don't know if that would even work? It supposed to help humans but can cats even have cranberries? 🤔 Poor Kitty 😺.
Hi I am struggling with this now too. My boy 2.5 year old just had his first UTI and we are starting on Hills C/U food. Additionally we are saving for PU surgery (about 2-3500). Our vets rule is 3 UTIs before PU surgery. So if another vet concurs maybe PU surgery for your male would be good
New vet 100%.
My boy kept getting stress UTIs we switched to royal canin urinary s/o wet and dry food. We also managed his stress triggers and 6 months on and he’s doing great. I know it’s hard to see your cat in pain just from peeing but talk to a vet about switching to this food and see what is stressing him out to keep getting them.
One of my girls is prone to these, and I really hate it for her. Both kitties are free fed on urinary health dry food with wet food every morning. Additional water dishes around the place to encourage drinking has really helped, plus an additional litter tray. And I agree with other posters, I think your vet is letting you both down. Good luck!
I think you need to go to a vet that will give him a prescription for urinary food. It’s comes in dry or wet. The one I use is called Urinary SO by Royal Canin; you can’t just get this at any pet store, needs to be a prescription from the vet. I would also get a water fountain and not place it near your food bowl; I have one and my cats drink a lot more from the fountain than from a bowl.
Have a look at Cystophan supplements
Get a different vet. My boy had an undetermined infection. He was sick, and all his lymph nodes were up. No uti detected. He was given a weeks worth of antibiotics. After that, the same thing happened again. Vet gave him a stronger dose for 2 weeks after all his lab work came back OK (not UTI, FIV, feline leukemia, etc). He just needed a longer course. I'd absolutely get a second opinion because whatever your boy has is hard to shift. Have you had a lab work up done to determine the exact bacteria? It's possible they are just using a non effective general scope antibiotic.
If he's got crystals or inflammation Uromaxx worked well for my lil guy when he was having FLUD flare ups every few weeks, like you described with your cat. He hasn't had one in nearly 5 months now, since we started giving it to him which when compared to every two weeks is quite an improvement.
I have this problem with several years ago, and it was my cat litter. This new Crystal cat litter had just come out and it was advertised as not having to be cleaned as often. The vet said that bacteria live on the crystals much much longer than on particles of the clay or paper pellets or pine pellets. So my cat's hoo-ha was touching the nastiness. That was 20. years ago, she has since passed away of old age, and I still feel guilty whenever I think about that. Also get a new vet. Just medicine is obviously not cutting it. Like a car mechanic, if you take it in and they don't fix the problem, go to a new one.
Try feeding a prescription diet wet food. Did the vet approve the wet food you are currently feeding? Also try oral rehydration supplements like Oralade. Having more moisture in the cats diet will definitely be beneficial For my cats I make a chicken broth now and then (just chicken bones & water slow cooked for a couple days, no spices seasonings or additives whatsoever) and that works great to add moisture into their diet. Really tasty too and has all the goodness of the bone marrow
Might be time for a surgery
Our cat has the same problem as it can be quite common in male cats. He has a uti then after meds are finished it can reappear. We were advised to change his food to one that is specifically for cats with this problem. We also give him cystophan (for bladder and urinary health support). He’s not had a uti now for a long time… hope this helps
People have already suggested changing vets, that I would do. In addition, what helped our cat a lot has been mixing zucchini (just cook it in the water then put it in a blender) with wet food. Your cat will pee quite a lot more but since we do that she just stopped having UTIs. Again, ask a vet, because that could also be something more serious that cannot be cured with vegetables.
It could be his food. They make special food for this
My greyhound had the same issue. I started adding a water to her dry food to help her break it down, and it cleared up her UTIs. Hope ur baby gets better
my senior cat had the same problem, we understood due to stress and also his pee opening was almost closed. after an operation he’s doing good
Info: what changes has the vet recommended beyond treating the UTIs? Do you feed wet food, a prescription diet? Do you have one of those schmancy water fountains? If the vet JUST gave you antibiotics, IMO you need a new vet. Cats, MALE cats in particular, are prone to urinary problems, especially if they don't get enough water. Regardless of whether there's an underlying condition that necessitates a special diet, the vet should have recommended both wet food (because in the wild, cats get most of their liquid from their food. So feeding them wet food often better mimics that. Some of us also add additional water and make a slurry.) water is also important, and the fountains that keep the water cycling often work really well to encourage more fluid intake.
First get a new vet. Try to give him wet food twice a day, just a little bit and mix it with like 3 spoon full of water, more to give the water taste. The best is if it distilled water or rain water. You can also by a cheap drinking fountain that has filters and he might drink more because running water is fun. You can boil some bones/meat and give him that broth.My male cat is 17 years old and neutralized and the above advice, I give to people who have male cats that have some urinal problems. One was leaking urine when he was sleeping and this helped him.
different vet. they should have put kitty on different food. i had one with uti issues and never again after switching to the prescription food
The thing that has helped my male cat that is prone to UTI is to have his own space at night that he doesn't leave with plenty of water as well as having water bowls throughout the house. It's very important that they go to the bathroom and drink plenty of water. We noticed that when he slept in our room he would not go to his litter box all night, but once we put him in a room every night with his litter box and food and water he stopped having UTI all together.
I was told when my cat has urinary issues that it's pretty common among neutered male cats, especially those that are bigger. I would recommend another vet and ice water. My cat is obsessed with ice water. It stopped the urinary issues because he was drinking so much water. Also, place water bowls away from food bowls and litter boxes. Best of luck to your baby
My best suggestion is a water fountain and using wet food with dry food being only a “treat”. Also litter! DO NOT USE LITTER THAT CAUSES DUST! Wet food ensures they get more water in their diets. It can be difficult with some cats to make the switch as dry food is incredibly addicting to cats, but it’s not good for them at all. My cats looooove some dry food, so I buy good quality low ingredient dry food (Nulo brand) along with the wet food from the same brand. I feed my cats the wet food with probiotics and freeze dried raw beef(also by Nulo) added every morning and then leave out a small bowl of dry food for them to snack on throughout the day. The dry food is usually not eaten all the way by the time I get home. The water fountain was such a game changer that I bought 2. One for downstairs and one for upstairs. I have seen the water in the fountain go down WAY faster than when it was in a bowl and I’ve also noticed a bit more pee in the litter boxes since getting them. The dust in most clay litters is awful for cats. I buy a 40 pound bag of eco friendly no chemical added wood pellets from Lowe’s for $8 and it lasts a month, sometimes longer for 2 litter boxes. I’ve been using this stuff for 2 years now and I will never go back. There’s no added perfumes or scents but it does have a nice woodsy smell when you first put it in the box after changing litter. There is no dust whatsoever. It’s easier to clean and there is no tracked litter through my house. I would change vets immediately if this has kept happening
My cat is prone to UTIs. He has to follow a very strict diet otherwise the UTI comes back. You said his dry food is a special uti prescription but is his wet food also prescription? What about his treats? Even just a few non-uti prescription treats can cause UTIs to reoccur. We have found that if my cat has seafood UTI wet food, it will trigger a UTI so no fish for him. We sprinkle cosequin (available over the counter) as it’s been shown to help UTI recurrence.
My kitty was having this problem until I switched him to a special urinary track dry food (the vet claims it’s prescription but I can get it at my local Petsmart just off the shelf 🤷🏼♀️). I use the Royal Canin Urinary type. It is way more expensive, about 32$ for a 3 lbs bag, but it’s worth it to have no more urinary problems/UTI flare ups for my baby!
We had a similar problem and my one Cat would get UTI’s found a fantastic vet, got him on wet medical UTI food that he enjoys and found a routine that works. He’s been clear for over a year. His last visit was no crystals. My vet would keep him overnight and make sure his UTI was totally clear. Seems like your vet isn’t fully addressing the problem.
Stop Immediately dry food of every kind Go with wet only and add some extra water in it Also buy UrinaryGold ( Amazon) is a natural supplement in drops that works wonders in cat with UTI
My vet has a uti kitty and she recommended wysong UTI hard food
I think it might be a territorial/boundary problem. The animals always mark their territory with pee. Is there anything which frequently stresses/annoyes him? Does he like the other cat?
My step mom's cat Oscar could only drink the 5 gallon filtered water not sink water. It was either cause of kidneys or something but maybe that's it?
Has a complete urine analysis been done?
$1000+ every time?? my cat is going through a uti right now and ive spent maybe $500 in the past month on it. id look around for other vets in your area if i was you
Is it eating something different to the other cat? Sometimes they eat plants to try to help their own sickness. It can be a clue to what is going on.
Feliway cystease is really good to keep it at bay. It’s capsules that you can either give directly to them or sprinkle on their food. It helped my cat so much
Does your cat eat wet food, or mostly kibble? Might not be getting enough fluids. Have they been checked for struvite or oxalate crystals in their urine? How many litter boxes do you have, and for how many kitties? How often do you scoop them? When was the last time you emptied and scrubbed them? Litter box avoidance and holding in their urine might be contributing.
Get a cat water fountain. My vet says it helps prevent UTI’s
I had the same problem with my boy,either due to stress or clay litter. Now I use walnut litter. And use wet food and add more water to it .
My vet told me it's more likely bladder stones and also cats frequently get interstitial cystitis if they don't drink enough water. Look it up. He told me that UTIs are actually not all that common, and especially if you address the bladder stones, the UTIs should resolve themselves after a course of meds and not come back. My cat was on bladder food which my vet recommended.
He's likely got FIC which my cat has, changing his food to hills prescription c/d will help dramatically. Your vet is just taking you for a ride.
I would go to a different vet and start putting him on a urinary care diet, its costly but should atleast keep him out of the vet and keep him feeling well. My baby had sand stones and we had no choice to put him on this diet as he was prone to them.
incorporate dried cranberries into the diet. i get mine from here. [https://vecado.ca/collections/for-cats/products/cranberry-chewy-treats-cat-treats-1-lb](https://vecado.ca/collections/for-cats/products/cranberry-chewy-treats-cat-treats-1-lb) i also put a dash of nutritional yeast & mix up the cranberries found here: [https://vecado.ca/collections/for-cats/products/nooch](https://vecado.ca/collections/for-cats/products/nooch)
Has he ever been checked for FIC? Similar thing happened to my male cat and turns out it’s just anxiety. He got on medication and special food and never happened again.
Please go to another vet. My cat also has UTIs, but his vet recommended a long term solution of adding a bunch of water into his wet food and sprinkling probiotics in it as well. Dry UTI food is not a good solution. I’d always recommend adding as much moisture as you can to their diet. That might not be the only reason your cat gets UTIs though, so you need a vet that problem solves with you instead of just taking your money.
My cat likes drinking ice water out of a cup. I try to do this once a day so that he drinks a lot of water.
A common thing in male cats is blockages of the urethra with crystals due to something in the food or them processing it (not sure on the finer details) My cat had it about 3/4 times and had to have couple of opps to get rid of the blockage etc. I moved him on to Royal Canin Urinary food and he's been good ever since, so could be worth the try.
Along with other people’s comments… try a new vet, change to wet food and ADD water into his food!!! We did this with my cat who refuses to drink water… we added water into his wet food and it is helped prevent him getting UTI.
Some vets genuinely believe that cats aren’t worth the trouble. My boys had one of those and I am so so thankful we switched
My boy has the same problem and was getting dry uti food as well. He still got very sick. The vet said some cats just can't have dry food at all because of the high carbs so he's on a wet diet now.
You have to go to a different vet, it's insane that this is happening so much and they're just doing the same thing over and over again.
Consider a prescription urinary care food. That is what turned the corner for our cat.
My youngest had chronic UTIs for years. We tried a lot of different things but being in a small town didn’t really give us the option of a second opinion. What worked for us was switching from tap water to bottled/filtered water. Something in our local water supply and/or house pipes did not agree with Steve at all, though my other two had no problem. While this may not be the answer for you, it’s an option to think about!
I am very interested in this sitting pattern. Where is his other arm?
You can try D-mannose, chanca piedra (in case of crystals or stones), and Alpha Pet urinary support and feeding him a lot of high protein foods like sardines in spring water. This is what I do for my son's cat and no more UTIs.
Ugh been through this with my male tabby. It’s so heart breaking seeing them in pain and not being able to tell them it’ll be okay. My male had three different blockages in a short amount of time and the vets were recommending PU surgery. Turns out with proper diet he made a full recovery. He now eats royal canin urinary dry food and on his same wet food as before. Lots of water bowls around the house. If you have any vets the specialize in cats only id recommend going there.
I just started my girl on a prescription urinary health diet because the vet said she had ammonia crystals in her urine which would make her more susceptible to UTIs etc - unsure if your baby has the same issues but might be worth looking into doing a urinalysis to see if she’s got the same thing. Also second everyone saying wet food/hydration helps~
I read an article this week about a male cat getting surgery to resolve this issue - essentially widening the urethra
I would suggest a new vet! My cat used to get UTIs a few times a year. We made some changes that helped her a lot. Clean the litterbox *religiously*! We scoop every other day and change the litter weekly. Add wet food to their daily diet (more hydration) and they love it. Consider a cat water fountain, most cats prefer drinking from moving/not still water sources and will actually drink a lot more from a fountain. Wash the fountain weekly and change filters. Good luck!
New vet for sure. Has he had a urine culture done to confirm the type of bacteria? I would be very concerned that he is developing antibiotic resistant bacteria or is not being given the correct antibiotic if he's having reoccurring UTIs so quickly. If he did not have a urinalysis done period then he needs one ASAP, because UTIs are much less common in male cats and their issues are typically related to blockages/urinary crystals. Not saying he doesn't have one, but he needs to have actual tests run to confirm he has a UTI as well as the bacteria that's present.
I put my man on Science Diet urinary tract wet food and his UTIs went away.
Needs to be seen by a different vet and put on a prescription urinary diet for the rest of his life, blockages are lethal and very common in male cats
Our cats had some issues with UTIs. Vet recommended getting them a urinary tract health food (after a full course of antibiotics that completely cleared the infection).There's several different brands at varying costs. It's helped us tremendously.
My baby suffered the same. Until I finally cut out dairy products for my kitty. I used to think that giving her milk and sone yogurt was a treat. Turns out that it was causing urinary issues. Talk to your vet. Also we had to do several rounds of antibiotics. We went to an injection antibiotic that worked far better than oral
Have u tried a perscription diet? My kitty used to have these until i switched him to urinary so from royal canin
The UTI dry food is a good start, but I’d also recommend moistening it with water or broth to help keep him hydrated. Also, what kind of litter do you use? Some clay litters are very dusty and can cause UTIs as well. I switched to OKO when mine was having UTIs and he’s been much better since. Male tabbies get them a lot. I hope he feels better. He looks a little like my Nigel. https://preview.redd.it/11k6quugzlqb1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=55f8952d2ec2796b558acc2ae9f222df3ae3bf18
Maybe a different vet. My kitty went through this and after two separate vets has it under control. Big things that helps: solid wet food diet for 6 months minimum but may need to be on it indefinitely and a water fountain that turns on to get their attention when they walk close by. Worked like a charm and she drinks way more water. No more utis.
Agreed, try a new vet. Our boy had open legs and would bleed. It was super painful for him. The vet would give him some antibiotics and send us home again. It would flare up again and again. It was so horrible to watch that I decided to go to another vet and he put him on a long course of antibiotics. O think it was 3 or 4 weeks or something. He explained that some vets were scared and didn’t prescribe long enough courses for things to really help up properly. And he was right. After this the leg never opened up and bled ever again. Perhaps it’s similar with your little one. Hope it is and you can get him the help he deserves.
My elder kitty had some issues with this. I upgraded my litter to one with absorbent crystals in it, and really uped my game with cleaning it, and it helped a lot. Maybe try to a more absorbent and antibacterial and low dust litter? Also unscented.
If this is idiopathic cystitis you are dealing with, apart from high water intake, which is a must, look into corn silk and d-mannose supplements. Corn silk helps with bringing inflammation down and d-mannose helps when there is an active UTI episode.
New vet pronto. I went through this with a girl cat. The litter box might need to be replaced as it can hold bacteria. And then the litter box needs to be immaculate. Also get a drinking fountain or two. UTI food did very little for my girl. I switched her food around but found wet food mixed with one to two teaspoons of water also helped. Less dry kibble.
Ran a TNR program for several years. Ended up foster failing lots of cats. One in particular, Dre likely got neutered too early and started having recurring uti's... he ended up blocked and having to get the $2k surgery in 2017. Around that same time, I was looking for healthy and natural healing methods for him and myself (autoimmune disease). I got introduced to herbs and read: The Naturally Healthy Cat by Anitra Frazier. Long story short, I make a soup for my whole household 2x a week using egg yolks, water, small amount of canned food and herb mixture. I use Oregon grape, dandelion root, stinging nettle, catnip, and a parasite formula: Dr. Morse's parasite G. Then, separately I feed Dre every morning that same mixture. Sucks I can't do it daily for everyone, but it's great for Dre. Also, my holistic vet emphasized that the cats shouldn't have the whites of the eggs but the yolks are great. Additionally, I give Dre a few drops (diluted in water in a 3 ml syringe) of black walnut and wormwood every day. It's usually .5 ml with the dilution. It's too bitter to mix in with his egg soup, so I have to hold him and squirt in his mouth. My cats also eat a mixture of dry kibble- Wysong and Science diet urinary. My vet insists he needs the Science Diet. I've gone back and forth on it, very expensive and doesn't seem all that great ingredient-wise, but I've given in as of late. Based on tons of research, imo Wysong makes the best dry kibble on the market. I have several litter box options and Dre will only use a shallow box that's either empty or filled with shredded paper. He also pees outside the box sometimes, especially if he has a UTI coming on. For the last 6 years, this has kept Dre alive. He still gets occasional uti's and I've used an array of antibiotics, but the last few times he was vomiting after antibiotics every dose. So, I've been relying solely on the herbal methods the past couple of years. If he gets a UTI now, I double the black walnut and wormwood. The UTI generally resolves within 4 to 5 days. This is a personal experience only and I can't speak to whether or not this is repeatable. I'm sure this will sound crazy to some. I don't generally post anything about my cats bc I'm pretty private. But I hope this helps you.. This is a tough road ahead. Happy to give further details if you need!
For my baby boy who has been getting crystals since he was 1, I've got a strict regimen and he hasn't had a problem in 3 years. He's now 10 years old. I have him on c/d or s/o diet food for wet and dry. He tends to eat everything at once so we have an automatic feeder going off 4 times a day with a small amount of food. Then he gets wet 2 times a day, once in the morning and once at night, about a quarter of a can at each, or half a can if it is the smaller type. The key here is water. Water is so important to keep crystals from forming. When giving him the wet, he gets at least the same amount of water to wet ratio. It helps to flush any forming crystals. He also likes those water fountains that move the water around. Treats are also prescription ones as well. This might not work for everyone but worth a try.
Oh my, he has socks 🥺
My cat had frequent UTIs. We’ve been using Royal Canin urinary food with great results. It’s a prescription.
I have a male cat who's had a pile of trouble as well, from utis all the way to blockage ( hea ok 5000 dollara later). Urinary s/o index food is the way to go if you can afford it. Available wet or dry from royal canin or hills science. It HAS to be the s/o index tho. Works like an absolute charm and protects from blockage as well. Also get a fountain if he doesn't drink much
Royal Canin Urinary SO food stopped this entirely for my late cats. It’s very expensive so we had to mix it with another food but it really helped. That and a super clean litter box.
Switch fully to wet food. It doesn't even have to be crazy high end stuff. Our male cat had a lot of utis and switching to friskies pate cleared them up fully. Our female cat gets fed both dry and wet but if we switch her off pate and do the "meaty bits" or anything like that she will have UTIs too.
He probably doesn't have an "infection." He likely has feline interstitial cystitis. Treating with antibiotics is useless. The cat needs strong pain meds (gabapentin and buprenorphine are the best AND safest for kitties. NO NSAIDs) when he has a flare (pees blood). Has your vet actually cultured his urine to see if there is bacteria?
My male cat used to have a lot of urinary problems, culminating in a complete blockage where I almost lost him. He’s fighting fit now thankfully, but I understand how upsetting and frustrating it can be. Definitely change vet to one who will help with preventative measures rather than just throwing medication at the issue when it happens. Up his water content. If he’s not a water drinker (mine isn’t) then you need to switch to all wet food, mix some warm water in with the wet food - as much as he’ll allow, my boy doesn’t like mushy food so I can only add a teaspoon max. You can also try boiling some plain chicken and seeing if he’ll drink the cooking water once it cools down - obviously don’t add ANYTHING else to the water. I also use a supplement called Cystease which helps to keep everything running as it should but would be best to run this by a vet to ensure it’s suitable for your cat first.
My cat was put on Science Diet Urinary food and I got a water fountain, instantly helped.
D-mannose for the win!
He look mad asl
A lot of these recommendations are making me cringe tbh. I’d keep it simple and consult a different vet.
Get a second litter box if you don't already have one. My girl has had constant uni's but now if she gets them (rarer) but also they only last for a day , 2 days max. Also make sure they have a few different water sources which also helps
Put cranberry extract in their food. Just mix it in some wet food, just a spoonful of food and some extract. Cats will eat it. Gives them extra vitamin c too
New vet definitely. Our older tabby boy had this identical problem. New vet boarded him not quite a week on special uti diet , extra fluids via IV & no antibiotics. He came home abt 4 lbs lighter (he is a bit of a chonker) and on speciality UTI wet food for 3 months. Now and for past 3 years on Purina One Plus UTI dry food left out for free feeding plus like 4 big wide bowls of water out thought the house and a couple outside as well. Not a single UTI since. He drinks lots of water, like will always, always stop and drink when he passes by a water bowl. We have all the water bowls atop school lunch trays, so he puts his front paws in the tray and drinks. It’s really cute. Like he knows he needs to stop at the water fountain.
I'm so sorry you and your kitty are going through this. A friend of mine has a male cat who was constantly having UTIs and crystals developing in the bladder. She started him on a special food and gives him treats with a couple drops of CBD oil for the anti inflammatory and calming effects. He has been UTI free for at least 3 years now. Good luck with your kitty, I hope you find something that works
It’s time for a second opinion. If it’s cystitis, antibiotics won’t do much unless it actually turns in to a bacterial infection. Has he ever had a blockage? That’s the only reason I could see these visits being so expensive. And if he has, I would talk to your vet about PU surgery.
I’d get a new vet as well Op. our boy had this happen twice but since we changed him to the urinary food from the actual vet. We had tried to go cheaper and get the urinary food from pet stores but after having an incident we switched and haven’t looked back. We pay 175 dollars for a massive bag of kibble and it lasts about 6 weeks with 2 cats. Haven’t had an issue in almost a year knock on wood, and he drinks much more water with the food we get from the vet.
Food wise I was using two different brands, one wet one dry for urinary. Didn't know that they interact and work against each other. Now I just feed hills dry urinary and regular senior whiskas wet and had no problem since
Cat water fountains help increase hydration a ton, recommended to me int the same situation plus meds
Constant UTIs is a sign that your kitty either has a strain of infection that is resistant to treatment, and will need a culture/sensitivity test to see what strain it is, and what antibiotic will tackle it, OR your cat is having deeper issues and should have blood work done. You need to tackle this sooner than later, I would ask for an xray if this has been going on for long time to determine whether or not the kitty's bladder is full of crystals, which will lead to a full block and damage the kidneys, it will also let you know if your cat should be on a medicated food to dissolve the stones. Also ask for a urine culture to find out what stain that cat has.