Urinary blockage

My cat, Max is a male, one year and eight months old. About a week ago, Max developed a urinary blockage, my vet said to bring him to the clinic that very night ... he is thank god, very good and very dedicated. There was a great deal of blood in the urine. To make a long story short, we have ruled out stones with an x-ray, with Diazepam he was peeing - but it is touch and go.

He is also on antibiotics. But a test a week later showed some blood in the urine, though not as much, and a much lower creatinine. But the same day as the second set of tests, he was really blocked again ...

Terry said that to be honest he is not sure what is causing the blood, and that the blockage may be due to the blood thickening the urine or coagulating in the tract - at least that is what I think he said.

Here is my question. Max is an outdoor cat - we have a cat door - Just before he developed this acute problem I had treated grass in the front garden with Round Up. The instructions say to "keep away from pets and children," but that is all - a few days after spraying tufts of grass, I did see Max chewing on some, though not what I had directly treated.

Also, in the neighborhood there are many signs on the lawns warning people not to walk on the lawn, that is had just been treated with insecticides. Could ingestion cause acute kidney damage, or to the walls of the bladder?

Terry did not think this a high possibility, but I feel awful about having possibly been the cause myself. I check Monsanto's own website and whatever else I could find about Round Up etc. but there was nothing too specific.

The fact that his creatinine level is back down at least shows that the kidneys are functioning again, and that he is on the mend. But the blood is worrisome, and he still needs the diazepam to help him pee ... and there is always the possibility of another blockage episode in the coming days. So, could herbicides/insecticides cause the blood in the urine?

Dan Sherman ANSWER

Dear Dan
Thank you for your long history on Max, I would agree with your vet that the Round-Up herbicide is not likely to be the cause of the problems.

With cats most problems are stress associated or due to diet with crystaline formation or due to infection. My understanding of roundup is that it is intrinsically safe and that the problems are more associated with direct irritation and gastrointestinal symptoms rather than anything else.

When the bladder becomes blocked it is common for everything to swell and this residual swelling can lead to further blockage. Also the damaged bladder becomes spastic. Things that can helps include things like Cystaid which helps repair the damaged tissue and also possibly looking at things that decrease stress like using Feliway on top of the Valium.

Urine samples are also best sent to an outside lab for culture and fursth sediment microscopy. My own cat had the same problems at a similar age when we went away on holiday for 1 week. It was the first time we had left him for more than 1 night and I put that down to stress.

Most often it turns out to be a dietary problem that is the underlying cause. This should be investigated depending on the pH of the urine and adjustments made to aim for a urine pH of 6.5.

Paul Wilson