Idiopathic cystitis in cats

wiltslass

My 20yr old female cat is experiencing repeat bouts of cystitis which our vet thinks is caused by stress, although we have no idea why she should suddenly feel stressed. She seems fine in herself, is eating and behaving normally. We only know she is unwell because of the sudden appearance in her litter tray of pink mucus when she has weed and her doing 'pink' wee in odd places on occassions. I take her straight to the vet when it happens. She was intially treated with long lasting antibiotic injection but the problem would return when it had worn off. She then had a course of cartophen which seemed to solve it for about three weeks then it happened again. She cannot have a top up injection for another week. She is currently on anti-biotics. I was wondering what medication was used by others for cats with this problem.

Sooz00

One of my girls was fine after the ABs so I'm not much help on other treatments, although you could try both feliway and zylkene (check with your vet first but then buy online as much cheaper - I use Animed Direct as they are quick & reliable with free postage), neither are POM-V so no prescription needed.

It might be worth posting on the cat forums, cat chat and purrs though as I think there will be more people who can answer :

http://www.catchat.org/forum/discus/discus.cgi?pg=topics

http://www.purrsinourhearts.co.uk/

hotcookie101

to be honest, in a 20 yo cat with recurrent cystitis I would be recommending further investigation to look for the causes rather than just assume its stress.
Old cats are more likely to have dilute urine due to a number of reasons, and in a case like yours I would be advising bloods, full urinalysis incl culture and poss a bladder scan. Costs money, but may well find it is not idiopathic cystitis, and there may be more exact treatment to be given. Has your vet not discussed further investigation with you? I always say to people with older cats we give them one "just one of those things" episodes, but if it is recurrent, or frequent then work up is advised

ItchyFeet

I don't wish to worry you unnecessarily, but my cat was diagnosed with recurrent cystitis which unfortunately turned out to be something much more serious. Perhaps think about requesting a scan sooner rather than later if it doesn't resolve itself?

wiltslass

Thank you all for your replies. I am going onto the other forums suggested now.