It’s been 7 years since Furball had a blocked bladder. Unfortunately, it happened again just a few days ago. I noticed the signs early (straining, constant walking in and out of his box trying to pee, but nothing coming out, trying to pee on the floor, etc.) and got him to a vet straightaway. This is one of those times where the allopathic vet is definitely preferred over the holistic vet. A blocked bladder can be life-threatening, so this is not the time to be fussing around with acupuncture points and herbs. It’s time for western medical intervention.
The vet inserted a catheter in Furball and gave him subcutaneous fluids as well as some medications to help relax the smooth muscle of his urethra. That seemed to do the trick, but when I went to pick Furball up, he had blocked up again. This resulted in round 2 of sedation and catheter insertion. Fortunately, he unblocked again and I was able to take him home the next day, but mainly because it was Saturday and the vet was closing for the weekend. They quite happily showed me a small vial of what looked like white powder, but was actually the struvite crystals that they had expressed from his bladder.
Today, Furball looked like he was straining again so I whisked him to the emergency clinic. They examined him and said that his bladder was empty and told me to just take him home and watch him. I’ve been watching him closely and do see small dribbles of urine in his box, but he visits his box every few hours without being able to urinate. As long as I keep seeing some urine, I’ll hold off on taking him to the emergency clinic and will wait until tomorrow morning to take him to the regular vet.
If the problem persists, the recommended treatment is surgery. I won’t get into the details here, but the abbreviation for the surgery is PU, which sounds a lot like pee-ewww (like the sound you make when something stinks). This would be an appropriate description.
I’m hoping Furball continues peeing even if it is in small dribbles. I’ve been rubbing his Back Shu points for the kidney and bladder and even have tried to guess where the reflexology point for the urethra is on a cat.
I don’t take it all the time only when I have consistent anxiety and it does help the awful closed throat, heavy heart feeling I get before Buy Valium I have an anxiety attack.
Please wish him well. Thank you.
