Enzo's Story

ENZO and THAT BLADDER

“Enzo” is typical of many cats we see through the spring time in Auckland. He started as an after-hours emergency case because he was vomiting, had diarrhoea, had been straining to go to the toilet the previous day, and had a history of having had bladder problems in the past.

Sure enough, when his abdomen was examined, his bladder was felt to be huge and hard.His bladder was blocked.

It was uncomfortable for Enzo when we touched it so he went straight to surgery where he was anesthetised and his urethra cleared of the sludge crystals that were causing his obstruction.

An indwelling urinary catheter was placed because it was thought he would have trouble urinating post surgery. Very often the bladder muscles lining the bladder have been over-stretched because of the obstructed, ballooning bladder and the damaged muscles are unable to contract afterwards, and allow the cat to empty his bladder voluntarily. This is even after the initial obstructing crystals have been cleared. So it was with Enzo, and he required a catheter to allow the bladder to drain whilst the muscle junctions repaired themselves.

An Elizabethan Collar(EC) was placed on him, to stop him pulling the catheter out. Enzo stayed with us for a whole w eek before he was able to urinate normally by himself. During that time he removed his EC and prematurely pulled his catheter out –twice!

Normally these cats go home on a special prescription diet after these episodes to prevent the obstructing crystals forming in the bladder again. Enzo however did not like thesediets despite trying several different brands.

As a result he presented again 2 weeks later-obstructed with crystals yet again!!

This time he was difficult to clear under anaesthesia and his penile urethra was damaged form the crystals and the obstructions. Getting a catheter in was difficult and so it was decided to amputate the penis. This is a procedure
we used to do commonly back in the 1970/1980s but with the advent of prescription diets, this is no longer ca common procedure.

If the penis is removed, the surgery can spatulate the urethra out and create such a wide opening that even if they have crystals in the urine, the urethra is too wide now for these crystals to re-block the patient. Female cats never get this obstructive cystitis because their urethra is never too narrow to obstruct.

If Enzo had eaten his prescription biscuits he would have avoided this surgery; but with this surgery he won't need to be constantly on the prescription diets either and he won't block again.

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