Post Punk Kitchen Forum

So my dear beloved Lola (who happens to pee in my bathtub) started having blood in her urine the day before yesterday. This morning, she went to the vet and a stone was found. The vet wants to surgically remove it so she is undergoing surgery on Thursday.

I just started including wet food in her diet but the vet wants 50% wet at least. Lola hasn't seemed to be in pain and hasn't been showing any signs of urinary distress. I am a little worried about the surgery though.

Any tips would be helpful. We are looking at buying a cat fountain again as well.

Cat fountain is a good idea. One of my cats never used to like wet food and didn't drink much water. She never had an infection or stones or anything but did have some discomfort so she'd peed out of the litterbox sometimes. The cat fountain got her interested in drinking water (and splashing it everywhere).

We also added water to her kibble when she refused to eat the wet. Eventually she did eat wet food, though I'm not sure exactly what caused it - could be she got used to the texture after eating wet kibble, or she saw that her siblings liked it. Anyway, once she was eating wet food regularly we stopped adding water to the kibble as it was no longer necessary and the dry kibble is good for her teeth.

Poor Lola! :( Cat fountain is a great idea. I like having water bowls in a couple of different rooms, and I fill them at least once a day with fresh, cold filtered water from my fridge. Wishing Lola a great surgery and a swift recovery!

Yeah, we had a fountain before but it was the plastic one and the motor broke so I'm looking at the stainless steel/ceramic ones. Lola drinks out of the cat bowl (upstairs), the dog bowl (downstairs), the faucets (any dripping water) and wherever else she finds water, including my drinking cup (she is a crazy girl). I was worried she wasn't drinking enough water so I started the wet food but she never had any stones or anything. I think we'll add another water bowl for her as well.

I'm just glad she doesn't seem to be in any pain, nearly a week seems like an eternity but the vet only does surgeries on certain days and only in the morning.

We've had two plastic fountains now, the first one lasted for almost a year and the second one died after just a few weeks. So annoying. Ceramic is a good idea.

Her name was Lola, she was a showcat
With catnip carrots in her paw and a bowl of kibble there

I have this one from petco.com:

http://www.petco.com/product/112616/Petco-Premium-Ceramic-Cat-Fountain.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch

My cats love it and it's relatively easy to clean. I just soak all the parts but the motor in water with a little vinegar and spray my sink hose through the little motor.

I hope Lola feels better soon.

Sorry to hear about Lola, and good thoughts for the surgery. I highly recommend this cat fountain. It's not the most beautiful, but it's easy to clean and the parts that are plastic are food-grade. My cat likes it a lot.

I hope Lola makes a good recovery, it's scary when our kitty friends get sick.

This article has tips on transitioning cats from dry to wet food:
http://catinfo.org/docs/Tips%20for%20Tr ... -14-11.pdf

Thanks for the info!

A slight issue we are having is our other cat is getting hair balls now because both of them clean themselves more with eating wet. She had 2 this weekend, versus the 1 or 2 a year.

So my husband talked to the vet on Friday and saw the xrays. The doc wanted to talk today and see how Lola was doing. Lola is still acting normal and loving her wet food along with her urinary care dry food. The vet said the stone is as big as a dime and Lola is a tiny cat (7 lbs). It is incredible that this is the first indication of this stone.

I'm so sorry your babygirl has a stone :( I'm sure she'll recover just fine with your love.

I didn't realize that cats could get stones as a result of not drinking enough water.

for the hairballs, you might just have to start brushing them more. my thomas started getting more hairballs after this summer and i've had to up my usage of the furminator. he freaking hates it, but better than cold mushy hairballs under the feet at 3 am.

i feel kind of stuck, actually. laura had a really stubborn UTI this past month and the vet put her on medicated food. but it's dry food. she drinks water pretty often, but i feel like wet food is better for both their health. however, the vet also said she had the beginnings of gingivitis and the wet food won't help that either.

oh, and sorry for threadjacking.... i hope your kitty's surgery goes really well!

I give my cat wet food with a little dry kibble mixed in. Maybe you could try that combination if your cat will eat it. It can be really hard to know what to do! I think wet food is probably healthier for cats, but I also recognize that if a cat had to hunt for food it wouldn't be like the stuff they get in a can.

Lola got dropped off this morning. And I have to say that wow the surgery is expensive. Neither my husband nor myself asked how much the surgery was going to be. I kind of figured it wouldn't be too far off from the cost of a spaying but I guess spaying is a more regular surgery. I trust that my kitty is in good hands though.

I hope the surgery goes well!

Hope Lola does well! Surgery is so expensive...when Effie had surgery it was $2400!

Lola! I was thinking about her on my run this morning. I hope she is a trooper.

She is awake and doing well according to the vet! We pick her up in a few hours!

Hooray!

excellent.

So another update. We went to pick her up and the first thing we noticed is there was no elizabethan collar on her AND the actual cost was $600 less than the estimate (wow).

Anyway, the vet sat and talked with us for 20 minutes or so about her and her recovery. She said Lola was very agitated and stressed and they thought putting a collar on her would make it worse. She said she also didn't reverse some of the anesthesia due to the agitation. It doesn't surprise me though because Lola definitely has her limits and will let you know. We set her up in our spare bedroom with water, litter box and food. She went by the window and fell asleep.

Of course I feel like maybe I did something wrong that caused this. The vet said that if we wanted, we could get a urinalysis in a few months to see if the diet we are giving her is forming crystals or not. We will probably go that route because I really don't want to have this happen again.

oh, no, you can't think you caused it! :( we had a cat who formed calcium oxalate crystals without any concurrent infection or anything; it was just a strange metabolic issue in that particular cat. three other cats in the house were eating the same food as him, and they were all fine. sometimes these things happen. it's definitely good to follow up with some diagnostics, but you shouldn't feel like you did something wrong. i'm glad she's home and better for now!

I'm glad Lola is home and recovering from surgery. <3 <3 <3 Please don't think you did anything to cause this, some cats are just more prone to forming stones.

My cat had surgery today also to remove a tumor on her chest, and the final cost was $200 under the estimate. Sometimes I think vet clinics inflate the estimate for treatment as a kind of worst case scenario, or maybe I just got lucky.