Cats with lower urinary tract or bladder complaints.

Feline Lowe Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD):

Compound name for bladder and urinary tract disorders in the cat.

Feline Lowe Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD) describes several conditions affecting the bladder and urethra of cats. The most common bladder complaints are bladder stone formation, cystitis and stone formation in the urinary tract conductors that not infrequently cause urethral occlusion.

What do you see in cats with lower urinary tract or bladder complaints?

Cats with FLUTD often have difficulty urinating and also it is often painful which makes the cat even less eager to urinate. They often show that it is painful by meowing while (trying to) urinate. Often, the cat will urinate more frequently and the urine is often somewhat cloudy and sometimes there may even be blood in the urine. Owners often also notice that the litter box smells different because the urine has a different smell than normal or that the cat no longer sits on the litter box at all but starts peeing all over the house. Cats with bladder or lower urinary tract complaints will also wash the abdomen more often than usual. When the cat no longer seems to urinate at all, this is always an emergency and the vet should be called for consultation.

What are the causes of FLUTD?

In cats, many complaints are caused by the formation of cystitis and stress. In cats, bladder infections are very rarely caused by bacteria as in dogs. Actually, it is only older cats or cats already treated for other diseases or previous urinary tract surgery that sometimes have cystitis caused by bacteria.

Diseases of the bladder and urinary tract caused by cystitis and/or stress

. So much more often the complaints arise from bladder stones such as struvite and stress or from accumulation of inflammatory tissue (a plug). We see this in both female cats and males and the chances of a bladder infection or the formation of bladder stones are the same. However, the likelihood of the urethra becoming occluded due to stone formation or accumulation of inflammatory tissue (clumping of proteins, inflammatory cells, red blood cells and other material) is higher in male cats than in female cats. Male cats have a narrower urethra and it therefore gets blocked more quickly. It also happens that the plug is not very large, but the combination of cramping due to pain and swelling additionally closes the tube. A male cat with a blocked urethra often does not urinate or urinates much too little and is a patient who always needs to go to the vet and cannot wait until the next day.

Diagnosis is always made by the vet.

If you suspect your cat has a bladder infection, bladder stones or other lower urinary tract problems, it is always necessary to have the cat checked. The vet will first feel whether the bladder is heavily filled and whether any other physical abnormalities are present. If the bladder is enlarged, this may be an indication of a bladder infection or blockage of the urethra. Next, the urine brought or the urine obtained on site will be checked for bladder stones and urinary crystals. Collecting urine yourself is often excellent with Katkor cat litter.

Treatment of Bladder Inflammation, Bladder Throat or Urinary Tube Occlusion

. Depending on what the vet finds, treatment will be instituted. If a more or less occluded urethra is suspected, the cat will be admitted and treated immediately. Urethra blockages should always be resolved as soon as possible to prevent worse. If it turns out after urinalysis that cystitis is present in the urine, the advice is to adjust the diet to a special diet food against cystitis with or without additional support against stress such as Royal Canin Urinary S/O, Hill's Prescription Diet Feline c/d Urinary Stress or TROVET Urinary Struvite ASD. If there is no cystitis in the urine then it is more likely to be a bladder infection from another cause perhaps stress. Then painkillers and sometimes bladder relaxants will be given. It may then help to prevent recurrence to start giving the cat the dietary supplement Cystease. If stress is suspected as a cause, efforts should be made at home to find out what is causing the stress, unfortunately this is not always easy.

-This is an automated translation-