Comment by ddtaylor | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ddtaylor | Hacker News Reader

At least she was well loved. I'm going to use this as a reminder for me to give my kitty urinary tract support supplements. They aren't super expensive and are basically cranberry or root extracts.

I had a scare years ago where my kitty wasn't able to go to the bathroom and was becoming lethargic and she looked miserable. I took her to the veterinarian and I was shocked by how few options they had. They were very experienced and genuine people, but it was clear they had a very limited set of options and sadly most roads don't lead to great places. What the vet did determine by poking a small plunger thing up her butt (no joke) is that what very likely happened is that she jumped from something and fell onto something which caused temporary swelling. The plunger thing pulled some discharge from her rectum that shouldn't be there and is basically what causes the swelling. Thankfully she was back to normal in a day and I've never seen her that miserable.

(For anyone wondering, she is an outdoor kitty with fields and trees to climb and mice to hunt)

Obligatory cat photos of her now:

https://i.imgur.com/W1M2hzW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Jz9K65a.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DFPpFfy.jpg

My cat started to get mouth/gum problems at the age of 13. She stopped eating and already was very thin to begin with (2kg).

The vet gave her antibiotics, but it always came back. I had to sit down with her while eating and cuddle her to make her eat while she cried in pain. Was an awful time.

Somehow the problems went away after a few months and she went on to have a happy life.

Years later she died in my arms of old age with 20.

We had the same; cat was lying down in the litter box, lethargic, etc. We were only able to take him to the vet the next morning. Turns out he had bladder stones and grit that blocked the way out; he got a catheter and had to be flushed out with fluids for three days in a row to restart the kidneys (which had failed) and bring the urea and potassium levels in his blood back to safe levels. Some of the levels were off the scale. He should have died, if it wasn't for my girlfriend helping him to drink some water.

Anyway after the few days with a catheter he had surgery to remove the stones and eventually he was back to normal. He gets regular tummy massages now and loves it.

Still though, it's a constant concern now; supposedly it's quite common in male cats, and one possible cure or mitigation is to do a sex change surgery, rerouting the urinary tract so it's a shorter path / wider / less likely to get blocked. I never knew that was even a thing in animals.

I would be very interested to know what breed of cat that is, as it looks just like one of our rescues: https://i.imgur.com/Mbe89HT.jpg

I'm pretty sure she is a Maine Coon and some of the other kitties from the same litter ended up looking like a Bombay. I could be entirely mistaken since I'm not an expert.

http://www.catsthatlooklikehitler.com/

Our beagle had frequent UTIs, our vet recommended 500mg of vitamin C 2x daily. No UTIs since. Don't know if this applies to cats, I know UTIs are much more lethal for them.

Good Catte, thank you for the photos

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