possible urinary tract infection in barn cat - what can I do?

[snapshot]

I just found this on a natural remedy website. Makes sense to me!

Try having 2 teaspoons in a cup of water with half a teaspoon of honey, I have just read from alot of people it is really hard to keep down, after having it now for a few weeks, it almost tastes like weak cordial, and its all a mind over matter. I discovered Apple cider vinegar when my cat became sick with a Urinary Tract infection, upon giving him a teaspoon in his wet tuna mix, and a bit of water, he was happier in a matter of hours and is completely normal now. To everyone seeking a detox or a trying to lose weight, I can assure you this works. But make sure you use only pure water."

 

[Marianne]

okay, this is weird...

I'm usually not one to say that ACV is a magic cure all. But after reading a bunch of posts on the Earth Clinic website and Snapshot's post about giving a bit of ACV to cats, I figured there was nothing to lose at this point. Frank didn't seem to be in any obvious distress, but he just wasn't himself. DH was still blaming the excessive heat wave we're experiencing.

Our well water is extremely alkaline, so I figured the ACV would help make his system a bit more 'neutral' if nothing else. So I gave him a few drops in some homemade chicken chow yesterday morning. In the afternoon, our grandson and I went outside and here comes that bonehead Frank, all playful and purring like he used to be!

I'll continue to keep an eye on him, but I was almost stunned by the rapid change.

 

[tortoise]

I think my barn cat, Frank, might have a urinary tract or bladder infection. His behavior has been different lately, etc (been through this before with an indoor cat, so I know the drill).

I just gave him the homemade cat chow with extra broth so he had plenty to drink then and there are water sources all over the place outside. I'd really like not to have to take him to the vet at this point as I have my own medical $$$$ going out the door now.

Are there any home remedies I could try? Or even something that I can pick up at the farm and ranch store? It'd be cheaper than $100 to walk into the vet with him.

Frank is less than 2 years old, not neutered...I'm only willing to bleed so much while trying to stuff a cat in the carrier.

If a male cat is not urinating, it is a veterinary emergency. It can be fatal in jut a few hours!

 

[Marianne]

This I know. :/
He must not have had a blockage or he would have been dead some time ago. Our daughter's cat had a blockage years ago, Frank's symptoms were not like that.

All I know is the goofy cat was the holy terror he usually is yesterday and this morning when I went outside. That's a good thing!

 

[Beekissed]

Amen! I once had inherited an inside cat that had to be fed low ash food due to renal problems. He took off the day after we got him and we would occasionally glimpse him around the neighborhood...thriving on wild food. We saw him around for several years, fit as a fiddle.

So...I took that info and applied it to another inside/outside cat we inherited in later years. He was staying inside too often and eating primarily cat food until one day he started peeing blood. I immediately placed a ban on his coming inside and on eating of cat food. He was forced to hunt for his food and this did the trick! He was soon glossy and thriving well.

After that we were really careful about making sure he had a chance to catch his own wild game and we never had a problem with his kidneys again. I've read that there is importance in consumption of rodents in their diet to insure good renal health. I don't know about that but I've never had an outside cat that hunted for his dinner to come down with renal problems.

When I was growing up we only bought cat food for when they were kittens and then no more. Our cats always stayed quite healthy and fat on their own foraging...when did we start thinking cats had to have cat food?

 

[MetalSmitten]

i'm glad to read that he's feeling better but i just wanted to say, a few drops of ACV did not cure him; more than likely this is either coincidental timing, or a placebo-effect type situation (on your interpretation of his behavior, not on his ability to comprehend being medicated hehe).

UTI's in cats are complicated and caused by a wide variety of things. acv may help in some cases, depending on causation, but it will NOT help most of the time, and should therefore NOT be a recommended replacement for vet care. i can't stress this enough. those of you who have personal experiences with acv "curing" a cat were -lucky- pure and simple.

i just gotta say this, and this is NOT directed at any of you in particular, i promise it's just a PSA type thing for future readers.

the most common cause for the "UTI" blanket term as applied to cats, in my experience, is diet. as Free mentioned earlier, dry food and especially cheap, high grain-content food can cause UTI symptoms very easily, because that's not what cat bodies were made for. cats in general do not drink enough fluids, even if you think they do. really. if you see them drinking all the time, it's because they're desperate for hydration. their bodies are really designed to get much of their water intake through their food, not by drinking. compare a mouse at 70-80% water content to dry kibble at 15-20%, and this is why even when drinking normally, they are still not getting enough liquids. this in turn causes their urine to get concentrated, and on top of that, their urinary tracts also aren't flushed out as often as they should be because they're not peeing as often, leading to infections and/or stones. now, there are two main types of stones which are made from different minerals. one of which (struvites) can often be treated through diet change, the other of which (calcium oxalates) cannot be treated with diet. if you treat for home-diagnosed "UTI" by giving ACV (and most other home remedies), you ignore the possibility of there being an infection, and you ignore the possibility of there being insoluble stones. and you also ignore the possibility that they don't actually have a UTI at all, that it might be something else. IF this is the case, you are taking a huge, huge risk by not seeking vet care, and allowing the animal to suffer unnecessarily over a medical condition that is usually not even all that expensive to treat if caught early. even the insoluble stones, treated early while small, can usually be simply flushed out by a vet. treated late, after failed home remedies, they can be too big to flush and require surgery. the difference in price between these treatments is usually a deal-breaker.

clumping clay cat litter, loose dirt, fine sand, etc, especially for male cats (smaller urethras), can cause urinary obstructions which have symptoms very similar to late stage UTI. except they can kill the cat much more quickly. sometimes, cats can get urinary obstructions just from a buildup of tissue cells or discharge within their tract that doesn't get flushed away. if they can't pee, it is a medical emergency.

idiopathic cystitis in the urinary tract doesn't involve stones or infections, but can also cause similar symptoms, and often will "cure itself" only to recur later. so you "treat" the cat, think it has worked, and then the problem comes back later because the actual cause was not addressed.

some cats are also just prone to UTIs. genetics play a factor, just like with people.

prevention is really the key for these things... in a perfect world, you'd live someplace where there were no predators, cars, diseases, or neighbors with beautifully mulched gardens and shotguns, so that you could let your cat safely and responsibly hunt for its natural food. most people now don't have that luxury. so high quality wet food is probably the best way to prevent most UTIs. the extra water content really, really makes a difference in preventing many of these problems, just by helping keep the urine pH correct and the tract continually flushed with dilute urine. ---high quality--- kibbles have recently started getting better about their mineral contents, which helps marginally with preventing struvite stones, but wet food is still better if you know your cat is prone to such issues. store bought or carefully-researched homemade, either way.

 

[alice559]

Urinary tract infections can cause severe damage to the urinary system but it is easy to treat those disease.