Cynthia, Thanks so much for sharing your happy tale (tail?). I'm glad to hear that Katie is doing so well and that her family is expanding. Ask Katie, Monty and Dannie to send some good thoughts to some grey friends in my area. My friend's brother and his wife adopted two retired greys a few years ago. About a year ago, he lost his wife to a long battle with breast cancer. He has battled his own demons and after a couple of rounds of detox he has been diagnosed as bipolar. He's in treatment, but is unable to care for his dogs right now. My girlfriend has taken them in for now, but the two greys are joining a household that includes one cat, two golden retrievers (one a rescue adoptee herself) one significant other, and the SO's adult schizophrenic brother. In other words, she has her hands full and can't handle the extra dogs for very long. I hope that the two greys can find as happy a home as you've provided for your three musketeers! Good to hear from you!!! V.

seems odd. I would definitely get an ultrasound of this dog's abdomen, or go someplace where they can send a little endoscope up the urethra to see what's going on... stones don't always show up on radiographs (urate stones are often invisible on radiographs). Seems sort of young for a mass, but bladder or urethral tumors are pretty common in older dogs (and can occur in younger ones, but far less often). Usually dogs with UTIs urinate MORE often than normal. Am concerned. See a specialist if possible. What area of Florida are you in?

If the bladder was over distended then the tone can be lost. It is usually temporary but the trick is to keep the bladder small - in other words they need to leave the catheter in place. My guess is they should have him catheterized for several days before pulling it. I would not be in a rush to get the catheter out of him. Another thing that should be considered is putting him on IV fluids - this will increase his urine production and with the catheter in place will aid in flushing the crystals out of his bladder. The crystals are very much like a fine sand and will settle to the bottom of his bladder so these cats are at a risk of reblocking in the first few days after the catheter is pulled if the bladder has not been adequately flushed. He should be on antibiotics and pain meds they can even add another drug to decrease the urethral spasms - ask about this. The Hills c/d diet is an excellent food for cats to prevent crystal formation but it is not a diet that will dissolve crystals that are already present. For this he needs s/d or another diet called urinary S/O. A wet food is better than a dry food at this stage. He should stay on a dissolution diet for a good month before switching him to c/d. He can stay on urinary S/O indefinitely. In Todds case, because he has had several episodes of blocking, I would not chance putting him on anything else than a prescription diet formulated for this problem. If the vet is reluctant to try additional meds and measures before going to a PU then I would get a second opinion. BTW - if the catheter is in place and not kinked then urine will flow independent of bladder tone. Ask if they flushed the catheter with saline to see if the crystals have just blocked it. Also ask what the results of his urinalysis showed and what type of crystals were present. Two types commonly seen are struvite and oxalate...struvite will dissolve, oxalate not so much. These are the acronyms in the S/O diet . HTH. Good luck to poor Todd I hope he gets this sorted soon.

My dh's prostate cancer was found @ age 65 after elevated PSA. He was treated initially with antibiotics for possible prostatitus, but the follow up PSA did not decline. The cancer was not felt on exam. Next step was prostate biopsy, 3 of 14 specimens were +for cancer. The choices he was given: radical prostatectomy surgery, external beam radiation, implant radiation of "seeds" in the prostate, or "watchful waiting"...all viable options. He opted for the surgery via the surgeon using the DaVinci robot (very important to have surgeon who has performed many of these procedures). It was very successful, margins clean (no spread, caught early). No post op complications. Had incontinence of urine for a few months (typical), but now has full control. It will be 2 yrs in Oct that he had surgery. Like most men past age 50 he had prostatic enlargement, actually pretty severe & he had symptoms related to that (urgency, hesitancy, slow/poor stream). Even without the cancer he would have eventually needed some form of treatment. But that was a bonus of the complete prostate removal...goes like a race horse, as Jasdip says. LOL Prostate cancer is #1 most common for men & #2 killer cancer, but if found in very elderly, it is usually not deadly, they die with it, not from it. I had a dear friend whose dh died from prostate ca, age 67. Having screening PSA's is not without controversy. It seems valid to cease doing them at your dh's age 75, Chisue. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to try to answer.