Pepper’s Case of Urethral Blockage

Pepper celebrated his 2nd birthday two weeks ago last May 5. Although I had known about this medical emergencies in male cats, I never thought Pepper would have it at an early age. Yesterday, we had to rush Pepper to the vet because he had a difficulty in peeing.

While Pepper used to be the most loving cat, he has been so distant lately. Lately, his normal days would include trying to sneak out of the house and returning by night time. Then sleeping by himself on top of a box (he used to sleep with me on my bed all the time). I almost never see him anymore, compared to the rest of my cats.

Yesterday, we heard him let out a loud cry while sitting in a corner, positioned as if he was about to poop/pee. I was then told by our house help that Pepper’s not able to pee. I knew this might be urethral blockage, something that I have been avoiding for my cats to experience since they were babies. So we rushed Pepper to MACE to give medical attention.

Luckily there weren’t much patients at MACE at that time so Pepper was taken inside immediately for checkup. Pepper was sedated for catheterization. The doctor explained to us the scenarios: 1) if we’re able to put in the tube, then we can flush out Pepper’s bladder and give him meds and he’ll be fine; 2) if we can’t put in the tube, he has to undergo surgery.

I was really hoping Pepper’s case would fall under 1.

After minutes of trying to catheterize Pepper, the tube is still not going in. We had to choice but to leave him confined in the hospital for surgery. I knew there was no other option because the longer we take the more his bladder and kidney might suffer.

We left Pepper at around 6pm plus and went home. At around 7:30pm MACE called us back to let us know that Pepper’s okay (Thank God!). They have successfully flushed out the urine, which was already milkish–meaning it had been there for days, and took out the sandy things that was blocking his urethra.

Pepper has to be confined in the next 2 days for proper monitoring and medical healing. But I’m excited to get him back and feed him better food.

By the way, we’ve been feeding our cats Tri-Pro from S&R. The vet told us that this brand is too salty as is not advisable especially if your cat is not drinking enough water. Since Pepper is out most of the day and only comes back to sleep. We realized that he may not be getting enough water daily. Nevertheless, we were advised to switch our food to Nine Lives or boiled food (chicken, fish, etc.).

Anyway, I hope you learned something about this post. If you have pets at home, don’t forget to give them water, especially now that it’s summer. Consuming little amounts of water can cause crystals to form in their bladder and may cause blockage.

Right now I am doing my research on getting the best food for Pepper and my other cats. I wouldn’t want this to happen to any of my cats again. The pain that they have to undergo is really heartbreaking </3.

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