My male cat has had chronic cystitus for a long
time. THis is very dangerous because if his bladder shuts down he may die. He finally had to have surgery to enlarge his urethra. He is still having problems and I am so worried about him.
He strains to pee but just a dribble comes out and it usually has blood in it. He is constantly licking the area. The vet has tried him on all types of antibiotics and it always comes back. After the surgery he had a staph infection and that was treated with antibiotics.
He is the sweetest guy very gentle. He is on Science Diet CD-S cat food, dry. He is an outside cat so probably eats other food from the neighborhood. I never see him drinking water though. Please help me find the remedy to help him! Also, please tell me how to give a cat a remedy. Thanks, JJ

Hi JJ,
The first thing I would recommend is to get him off that poor excuse for a food you are feeding him. Cats are carnivors and their diet should comprise mainly of animal protien, they do not voluntarily graze in corn fields -so why the heck do we feed them grains?! Studies have actually shown that high carb diets will cause all sorts of problems (kidney and urinary) in cats, it is thought that they can not maintain their optimum pH (5.5-6)on this type of diet. Cats need this more acidic pH, it helps to keep bacteria at bay in the urinary tract, among other uses.

I too have a cat with chronic cystitus which was greatly helped by firstly altering his diet to a more natural one, that consists of raw meaty bone, organ meat and a few ground up raw veggies.

Antibiotics are useless in this condition and many of the vets have come to realize this; the fact is that there is no allopathic cure.

I have been treating my cat homeopathically, but here again a cure can be difficult to achive, especially if the problem has been long term and might also be bigger than realized (ie bladder tumour, kidney disfunction etc). After much treatment, I found Arnica to be palliative (still reoccurs but arnica will settle the "flair-up"). GPM (another contributer here) has used Aconite in high potencies with much success. However every situation is unique, and of course the remedy must fit the individual's symptoms.

Finally; I assume that if the vet enlarged the opening to the urethra, that the cat might have history of crystal blockages or stones. This needs to be clarified by your next post, because its different. If there is a history of blockages, changing the food and naturally lowering the cat's pH will go a long way if not cure. If there is no known crystal formation, don't worry so much. Urinating is uncomfortable for the cat (and irritating for the owner, if he strains outside the box)but its usually not a life threatening situation and studies find that the accute will resolve itself in a few days.

Please post more information on the specifics of the case, if you want possible remedy suggestions from others on the board.

Remedies generally come in dry little granuals or pellets that can be given in this dry form, and also disolved in water (preferred).

Good advice, Krista.

One thing I've found helpful is one teaspoon of parsley juice per day, in the food or via syringe if refuses the food.

Krista is right about my high dosing of Acon (10M) but that would be at the first glimmer of a problem, hoping to stop progression to more serious situation, then follow after emergency is thwarted (hopefully!) with homeopathic treatment suited to the individual kitty. I have an elderly gent who suffered terribly from triple phosphate formations for years, now on regular diet (though did use the Science Diet for some time like you are) who gets very occasional doses of Lyc in LM 1, when I notice he's spending too long in the litter box or taking too long to urinate. For him, this has been beneficial....but he does get his parsley juice daily.

Just drop a bunch of parsley into boiling water, turn off heat, cover, steep and strain. Make ice cubes with the excess for future use.

__________________
Sometimes on Earth, you can find something that resembles a little piece of Heaven. And sometimes on Earth, a little piece of Heaven can find you.