Update - Took Tabitha to the vets, it was just a urinary tract infection.
By nancyrowina
@nancyrowina (3850)
July 15, 2008 7:16am CST
Took Tabitha to the vet yesterday evening who confirmed it was just a urinary tract infection, she gave her two injections one an anti-inflammatory that also treats the infection and the other a pain killer.
These injections last four days apparently so I don't have to try and give her pills which is a relief. She had improved loads from Saturday anyway I hadn't seen anymore blood and she hadn't peed outside the litter tray but I still took her because she didn't seem totally comfortable. She seems much happier now and isn't licking her stomach as much which suggests she's getting better, if after 4 days it comes back I have to go back to the vet and discuss changing her diet.
I'm already checking the ash content of the food I buy to make sure it's the lowest possible, I'm still mixing water with her wet food and giving her a cranberry supplement once a day. There's lots of information on the internet about this type of thing and now I know it is definitely just a urinary tract infection I know what advice to follow and research.
So the outlook is pretty good the problem is not with her organs it seems so she should get better and be back to her spoilt self again soon. 
5 people like this
17 responses
@rowantree (1186)
• United States
15 Jul 08
I'm glad to hear Tabitha is feeling better! My cat has renal insufficiency - the vet suggested a prescription diet. Salem doesn't really care for the food though! She was on canned prescription food for about 3 months before I finally just gave in and asked the vet what else could I give her. He recommended Fancy Feast because the cans are small and there's such a variety of flavors.
I originally thought prescription food would be very expensive, but it turns out it's really not any more expensive than the canned food in the grocery store. I was paying about $1 a can (the big cans) and some of the Fancy Feast runs almost $1 - I pay 85 cents and that's for a tiny can!
Hopefully, between you, Tabitha and the vet, you can all find a food to agree on that will keep Tabitha healthy!
2 people like this
@nancyrowina (3850)
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17 Jul 08
This information on about.com is great for cat owners trying to control urinary tract problems in cats with diet.
http://cats.about.com/cs/catmanagement101/f/foodurinaryhlth.htm
also check out the links in the faq section on the bottom of that page as there's some interesting stuff in there.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (157552)
• United States
17 Jul 08
Have either one of you ever considered making your own pet food? I have a recipe book somewhere, that my sister bought for me. I learned about the onions and garlic stuff from an online pet column. I had always been told to give pets garlic to prevent or discourage fleas!!! I also will from time to time put just minute amounts of apple cider vinegar in the cat water dish. It is supposed to be good for many ailments.
@scarlet_woman (23465)
• United States
17 Jul 08
that's good to hear,i'm glad she's doing better.
i had 2 males with FUS that i had to change the diet of-the tuna is usually the worst offender for high ash content.
@nancyrowina (3850)
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17 Jul 08
I read that you should avoid fish flavoured wet food too which is strange to me as I thought cats loved fish and it was good for them. I also read that onions and garlic are toxic for cats too which I didn't know before.
1 person likes this
@scarlet_woman (23465)
• United States
18 Jul 08
you would think..maybe it's the grade of tuna they use.
it's funny the vet told me small amounts of people grade tuna was ok.
maybe because they're better at de-boning the people stuff.
1 person likes this
@nancyrowina (3850)
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15 Jul 08
She seems much more comfortable now so I'm glad I took her, even though it's cost me a fortune. You can't put a price on your pets health though is how I look at it.
1 person likes this
@Loverbear (4918)
• United States
16 Jul 08
Thank you so much for taking Tabitha to the vet. I have been praying for her because it is so horrible to have one of your kitties so sick.
I had to go through the low ash search. What you could do, if you have a pet store like PetSmart or PetCo close by is to go in and see what kind of foods they have with a low ash content. Many of the pet food companies will have their low ash foods marked as "Low Ash". I know I went nuts trying to find low ash foods for one of my previous Siamese cats. I finally ended up with Iams (if I remember right).
Hug Tabitha for me, I am so relieved that she is going to be okay!!!!
1 person likes this
@nancyrowina (3850)
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17 Jul 08
I'm looking into lower ash content foods for tabitha too, I already got a wet food which is only 2%, but have noticed the dry food I still have 2 boxes of is 8% so I must change that. Luckily Tabitha isn't very fond of dry food but my other cat Gizmo seems to prefer it to wet food and I don't want her to get ill as well.
@fifileigh (3615)
• United States
18 Jul 08
did u have to change her food to a healthier food?
1 person likes this
@nancyrowina (3850)
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19 Jul 08
Yes I've changed it to one with less ash and a cranberry supplement to help prevent more infections.
@TessWhite (3146)
• United States
16 Jul 08
Glad to hear Tabitha is doing better. I know my cat Fraggle had one about 4 months ago. The vet told me that once they have one they are more prone to repeat infectiosn. We've had to switch to the Urinary Care diet type food. Costs more, but if it helps kitty and saves on vet bills...
1 person likes this
@nancyrowina (3850)
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17 Jul 08
I'm changing her diet too hopefully she won't need the prescription food, there's loads of advice online for what to avoid and what to get.
@GardenGerty (157552)
• United States
15 Jul 08
Thanks for posting this update about your cat. You are also sharing important information with all the rest of us cat lovers here. These shots are newer treatments than what I have seen in the past, and we all feel better knowing Tabitha does, too.
1 person likes this
@nancyrowina (3850)
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17 Jul 08
I found lots of information online on what to feed your cats to avoid health problems, I may start a new discussion about that alone as I found some really strange stuff I didn't know. Like for example did you know onions and garlic are poisonous to cats? I didn't, this means they can't have the gravy we put on our dinners and such. The most detailed stuff I found was on the about.com site it's really worth reading as you could save a lot of money in vet bills in the long run.
1 person likes this
@Katlady2 (9904)
• United States
16 Jul 08
That is such good news that it's nothing serious. Poor Tabitha must have been feeling pretty lousy that whole time. Definitely check the ash content in the dry foods. I used to feed the really cheap stuff to one of my cats, and he got plugged up by it and couldn't go pee. Even though the vet came out and cleared it all out, he still didn't make it...it was just too late. And it happened so fast too.
1 person likes this
@nancyrowina (3850)
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17 Jul 08
I looked at the ash content in the dry food I currently have and it's 8% which sounds a bit high for my liking, I'm definitely going to change it next time I shop.
@pyewacket (43903)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I'm so glad it wasn't anything serious...so it was cystitis like I thought? And glad to hear your giving her the cranberry supplements...I drink cranberry juice myself and helps my urinary tract system
Give her a hug for me and from Pyewacket and Kissy, (my two pampered babies).
1 person likes this
@nancyrowina (3850)
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17 Jul 08
Yes it was, hopefully I've caught it in time to stop it re-occurring, I'm going to change my cats diet to hopefully prevent it happening again in the future. There's some really good advice on about.com, this relates directly to urinary tract infections in cats.
http://cats.about.com/cs/catmanagement101/f/foodurinaryhlth.htm
and the rest of the stuff about what to feed cats is interesting too, learned some things I didn't know, like onions and garlic are toxic to cats so we mustn't give them the gravy we have on our food as it's always got onion in it.
@mcat19 (1357)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I'm so glad Tabitha is on the mend. I feed mine only canned food, Wellness and Natural Balance brands which are made of all natural ingredients. I believe that dry food contributes to UTIs in cats. You can add water to the wet food and most of them come with cranberry in them. My Peaches is getting something called TractEase for her problems. She gets 37 drops twice a day. I don't know if they're helping, but they make me feel better.
Good luck with your baby. She sounds very sweet.
1 person likes this
@mentalward (14691)
• United States
15 Jul 08
I'm so glad to hear that she's on the road to recovery! She's such a beautiful cat!
My cat had to go on Hill's Prescription Diet food at first because it has the lowest ash content of all the brands. I changed it to Hill's Diet food after about a year because of the cost. The ash content was exactly the same as the prescription food, but it cost a lot less. The prescription food was $1.50 a can (way back in the early 90's) and the regular Hill's Diet was only $1.00 a can.
That is really the best food for your cat, but it is so expensive!!! We have two cats now and don't feed them Hill's, but I make sure the ash content is as low as possible because I don't want another episode like that!
Thanks so much for updating us! I love animals and hate it when I read that one is suffering! I'm so very glad to know she's feeling better!
@nancyrowina (3850)
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15 Jul 08
Thanks, I'm so relieved it wasn't anything serious as I thought it might be her kidneys. If she had stopped eating I'd have rushed her straight in but she never did she loves her food especially the expensive stuff. 
@fluffnflowers (1594)
• United States
15 Jul 08
Great! I'm glad to hear that the vet made sure it was nothing too serious. Taking her to the vet before it becomes a big problem makes life so much easier for everyone. I hope your kitty is feeling completely better soon! You sound like a good cat mama. 
@nancyrowina (3850)
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15 Jul 08
she seems much better already, I just hope it lasts after the injections wear off.
@paisleylass (440)
• United States
16 Jul 08
I am very glad that you found out what was wrong. Now your mind will be more at ease and the pain shot will really help Tabitha. Urinary infections are very painful, at least in people so I am sure in cats too. Thank you for letting us know.
1 person likes this
@nancyrowina (3850)
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17 Jul 08
She seems much happier I just hope it lasts and doesn't become a big problem, I'm looking into changing my cats diet for the better to prevent it happening in the future.
