Urinary tract Blockages

[mary]

Kris, thankfully, has not had this problem. But my family's other cat, now passed on, Jake, had blockages a few times, he had to be on special food and he had surgery and eventually part of his urethra and penis had to be removed. The vet said that these blockages are fairly common. Anyone else ever heard of this?

[LoveMyKittyDuke]

mary, I was actually going to post about this last night. Our cat Dice had this happen to him once and I felt so horrible for him. He was in a lot of pain. We were lucky that we caught it fairly early, so he did not have to have surgery. It's caused by crystals in the urine, and is very common in males. He's now on a special food designed for urinary blockages and hasn't had problems since. My cat Duke has been on that type of food since he was a kitten, so he's had no problems. I personally feel that it's better to just take all preventative measures, such as food types.

[nenella]

I had a female cat who developped crystals in her urine too and she then went onto the special urine food (dry)... I agree with LoveMyKittyDuke I totally believe that prevention by giving the 'good' food from the start is better.

[FaunaFreak]

My husband lost his first cat to this. We had had Masquerade treated for tapeworms, and assumed his weight loss problem would clear up accordingly. We also were feeding him food labeled "good for urinary tract health." By the time we realized our mistake, it was too late.

[**Sapphire**]

I'm sorry to hear about this everyone.

I have to watch my male EJ then, maybe a change in his food is called for now that he's getting older.