I have a much loved and very characterful 9 year old tabby cat called Austin. Sadly he suffered some spinal trauma about 5 years ago when a relative pulled him down a chimney. At the time he became almost paralyzed over a couple of months, then we treated him with prednisolone and he gradually recovered and has been almost normal for about 5 years on a low dose of prednisolone, though with an odd gait and slightly reduced mobility. About 2 weeks ago he started being unable to urinate. We took him to a vet who said that it was likely to be the spinal problem preventing him from urinating and catheterized him. We then brought him home for a few days, he was still unable to urinate but on a high dose of prednisolone began to spray a couple of times. The vet was emptying the bladder every morning. I asked for special advice on diet but was just told to feed wet food, which i continued to do. Unfortunately one day last week, we had to leave him from about 12 midday to 10.30 pm, though we didn't think this was a problem as the vet had emptied him in the morning and he had been fed mid morning and had access to fresh water. When we got home he was very miserable, didn't want to eat and on taking him to the vet to be emptied the next morning it was discovered that he was blocked again, this time with urinary crystals. He was catheterized again and got through it. He's beginning to spray again a little but I'm very worried about managing this strain on his bladder and kidneys. How often should his bladder be emptied, and how often should he be given food/fluids to prevent any crystal blockages? I'm worried about giving him too much fluid while he's unable to empty the bladder himself. We want to give him a chance to recover as he recovered from the spinal injury before, though i don't want to cause him unnecessary suffering if he's unable to recover function, i think it's worth a try though.
MANY THANKS
