10 year-old cat just underwent prepubic urethostomy surgery

[quote=BuddysMom] Is he likely to regain continence over time?[/quote]

In my experience, yes. It can take a week or more however. Talk to your holistic vet about supporting his healing with optimal nutrition and indicated supplements. Have you been working with a veterinary homeopath?

Dr. Jeff

[quote=drjeff][quote=BuddysMom] Is he likely to regain continence over time?[/quote]

In my experience, yes. It can take a week or more however. Talk to your holistic vet about supporting his healing with optimal nutrition and indicated supplements. Have you been working with a veterinary homeopath?

Dr. Jeff[/quote]

We had been until we moved from Boston to FL. The veternary homeopath in this area is retiring in January and thus would not take our cat on as a client :( We need to find a good one locally now because I feel that our cat will need this support in the future. We are on the Space Coast of FL in case you might be able to recommend anyone here. We have a good allopathic vet locally, but of course he's of the Science Diet/antibiotic-pushing variety (not that we would ever feed such a thing!). We have agreed to the antibiotics in the post-surgical period, though.

Our cat has been an ill kitty since we adopted him at 8 weeks-old. He had terrible gastro issues for the first 3 years (due to a poor commercial diet), and he ended up on prednesone for 18 months. He was in crisis when we finally learned about good animal nutrition, and we found our former holistic vet shortly thereafter. He saw her from the ages of 3-9, but even she couldn't stop the blockages from worsening to the point that he had to have this serious emergency surgery this week.

The happy news today is that our cat has come home at his surgeon's insistence (he was depressed in the hospital), and he urinated a tremendous amount in his litterbox this morning. I do not want to jinx anything, but we are cautiously optimistic. I'm still very sad that we had to put him through this "salvage" procedure instead of the more common P.U. surgery. Hindsight is 20/20. We didn't want to put him through a suppressive surgery which is why we treated the blockages with fluids/vitamin C/cranberry for so many years. We just didn't expect things to worsen so precipitously as he aged. If I had it to do over again, I'd have insisted on the P.U. surgery 7 years ago and then treated him nutritionally and with remedies.

[quote=BuddysMom]We are on the Space Coast of FL in case you might be able to recommend anyone here.[/quote]

You can consult with any of us over the phone. Homeopathists can work very, very effectively this way as long as you have a local, relatively open-minded, vet.

If you really want someone to see him you will have to make the trek down to Boca or Miami (when they dry out). Check the referral guide to see if there is anyone else more local.

Good luck. I'm glad that he already seems to have more urinary control. A homeopathic remedy would be very helpful as well.

Dr. Jeff

My four year old cat Derby just had to undergo PU surgery on Tuesday. In the past three weeks he has gotten blocked three times. When Derby got blocked the third time the vet did x-rays and found ten stones in his bladder. The doctor was going to prerform a surgery to remove the stones but found out that his urithra had too much scar tissue and that something else needed to be done. My vet suggested having the PU sergery to prevent any other blockages. My vet could not perform the surgery and reffered us to another vet whom he felt comfortable with to perform this surgery. Yesterday, the day after the surgery i am sure that the surgery went well because derby is looking very lively and back to his old self. When I visited today he was very eager to see us and just wanted to come home. The doctors say if everything goes well then he should be ready to come home tomorrow. :D
Best of luck to other pet owners who have this problem and i hope that everything works out well.