Cat Tail Pull Injury & Urination

[Luney]

Hi all,
Our cat Luney is having trouble with his bladder, we were told it was blocked. However, yesterday after requesting an X-ray we found out that he has had a tail pull injury and he has some nerve damage that is stopping him from weeing. We have been taking him to the vets to get them to drain his bladder. His bladder has a high tone (the nerves are keeping it closed I think) so it is not easy to physically drain his bladder so they have to put a catheter in him and drain him. They have suggested we put him to sleep but we have seen stories online where the nerves can get better with time and start working again. We are trying all that we can as we do not want to give up. When his bladder has been emptied he is fine and he behaves normal so it hurts so much thinking about putting him to sleep. We want to try all options within our means before it comes to having to let him go.
We would really appreciate any help and advice to help us to help Luney.

[GoshaTheCat]

Hi Luney, if you can learn how to express his bladder at home this will give you more time to make a decision and see how he recovers. My cat did not regain urinary function (he can urinate a small amount on his own but cannot fully empty his bladder so we have to express him 4x day) but we learned how to express his bladder and once you get used to it, it is not very difficult but it is a commitment that you have to be at home to do it and it makes traveling difficult. You may be able to find a veterinary technician trained in this who can petsit and come multiple times a day or housesit if needed. Gosha has lived over 4 years with this injury and has had a very happy normal life, he just needs our help to empty his bladder. Also you cannot let your cat outside with this injury, it's too risky if they got lost their bladder may become full and burst or whomever finds them would not know they have this need. For me it was totally worth it to care for my sweet Gosha with this injury, even though it is a big commitment he has added so much to my life and if I could care for him I would. Best of luck to you, it is very stressful to go through this with your pet, especially in the beginning.

[CarolC]

That is good advice about expressing at home.

If your cat has a lot of tone, which makes it hard to express the bladder, he may benefit from medication to help with the excess tone. Common bladder meds are bethanecol and phenoxybenzamine. Phenoxybenzamine will relax the sphincters. Bethanechol can help the bladder contract, but should only be used with another med to ensure the urethra is open.

Bethanechol should only be used when the urethra is open, as when a catheter is in place, or with urethral relaxants because bethanechol can cause contraction of urethral smooth muscle as well. Theoretically, the bladder could rupture if bethanechol is given when the urethra is blocked, or in spasm

I have seen where they use Valium (diazepam) or Inderol to relax the urethra in conjuction with bethanecol (urecholine).

I am not NOT A VET, and I am not sure which meds would be suitable for your cat, but a well informed vet will know. These meds have been around for years and there may be something newer they are using. If your vet is not familiar with using medication to make it easier to express the bladder, please get a second opinion from a vet who knows more about it. Sorry, if that sounds a little negative, but I'm surprised at the attitude of your vet.

For what it's worth, my dog had a LOT of tone in her bladder after her injury, and it took more squeezing than I liked and many minutes to get her emptied every time. I wish someone had told me about medication back then! After several months, as her nerves improved with time, her bladder became easier to express. Some of the excess tone kind of mellowed out I guess. But it was a real challenge at first, with so much tone and no meds, so I know what you mean. I hope you can get medication to make it easier.

[Luney]

Hi Everyone,
Thank you both for your responses it increases our hope. An update on Luney is that he has had his tail amputated yesterday following the advice of a neurologist, as it was dead and could impact his nerve’s healing. He has a catheter in him at the moment and he is currently staying at a hospital tonight. He will be coming home tomorrow and we will most likely have to express him which I’m nervous and worried about because if we’re not successful then we will have to take him in to the vets again and they will either express him if they can or they will put a catheter in him again but that would mean he would have to stay at the vets again or be hospitalised again.

I will look into these medications and be asking the vet about them too to see if they can give us anything. Hopefully the vet can give us something because a couple of days ago me and my brother tried expressing him but weren’t able to get anything out so the next day we took him to the vet and they said that we are having trouble expressing him so you would definitely struggle and won’t be able to get anything out.

It’s so good to hear that your dogs nerves improved with time as we are hoping Luney’s will too and hopefully expressing the bladder will become easier.

Many thanks for your help so far.

[GoshaTheCat]

Hello,

Definitely you could see if there is a medication your vet recommends to ease the bladder expression. Gosha was on prazosin for a period of time but we found that we could express him well without it so he eventually got off the medication. I believe it is supposed to relax the sphincter, but ask your vet.

When you say Luney is difficult to express, it could just be that it's difficult because you are in the learning process and not because it's actually difficult. It was very difficult initially to get the hang of expressing Gosha, we were shown at the vet and we also had a vet technician offer to come to the house during the first week to help/show us. There were times where I couldn't get it and the vet offered for me to bring him in and they would do it there. Eventually, maybe after the first month, it became more intuitive and now I find it is not difficult at all and it is not much of a pain aside from needing to be home regularly to do it. My cat is fairly good natured too so that helps because he doesn't fight me when I do it.

Gosha's tail is also limp and we had been advised to amputate but we opted not to because we were afraid of phantom pains and wanted to see how he'd recover, and also he does have a small amount of movement at the very base of his tail, but he can't lift it and the tail itself is limp. So it sounds like our cats have similar injuries.

Best of luck to you and feel free to reach out if you have other questions, and of course, consult with your vet.

[critters]

My boy with the spastic bladder was hard to express because it took so much pressure to overcome the bladder's muscle tone. He squirted like a fire hose.

[FrannyStephLux]

Mine been in very intense pain that leaves me so helpless. So bad

[critters]

Is your baby blocked by something? Yes, that's terribly painful.

[CarolC]

FrannyStephLux!

[MikaelaLinnea]

Hello,

Definitely you could see if there is a medication your vet recommends to ease the bladder expression. Gosha was on prazosin for a period of time but we found that we could express him well without it so he eventually got off the medication. I believe it is supposed to relax the sphincter, but ask your vet.

When you say Luney is difficult to express, it could just be that it's difficult because you are in the learning process and not because it's actually difficult. It was very difficult initially to get the hang of expressing Gosha, we were shown at the vet and we also had a vet technician offer to come to the house during the first week to help/show us. There were times where I couldn't get it and the vet offered for me to bring him in and they would do it there. Eventually, maybe after the first month, it became more intuitive and now I find it is not difficult at all and it is not much of a pain aside from needing to be home regularly to do it. My cat is fairly good natured too so that helps because he doesn't fight me when I do it.

Gosha's tail is also limp and we had been advised to amputate but we opted not to because we were afraid of phantom pains and wanted to see how he'd recover, and also he does have a small amount of movement at the very base of his tail, but he can't lift it and the tail itself is limp. So it sounds like our cats have similar injuries.

Best of luck to you and feel free to reach out if you have other questions, and of course, consult with your vet.

How would having them both hurt? Amputation and skin...

[GoshaTheCat]

Hi Mikaela, I'm not sure I understand your question, feel free to clarify. I'm not saying amputation is not an option if this is the vet's recommendation. We were recommended to amputate the tail as well with the reasons that he doesn't have feeling in his tail and if it gets stuck somewhere he wouldn't know and could possibly injure himself further, and also that the weight of it could potentially cause further nerve damage. But he had already been through so much with his pelvic fracture and nerve injury and the recovery, we were anxious about putting him through surgery, he does have some movement at the base of the tail so we wanted to allow more time to see his recovery, and also we were concerned about the possibility of phantom pains. We asked our vet if it was ok to not amputate and they said that was fine as well and just cautioned of the risk that he could pull his tail if it got stuck because he won't realize (I have a Roomba vacuum and won't put it on un-monitored for this reason, if it happened to get Gosha's tail he might not realize). In the end his tail is still limp with some movement at the base only, but he has been fine for the 4-5 years since his accident. Whatever decision you make at the advice of your vet I support, just wanted to share our experience in case it is somehow helpful. Sending best wishes to you and your kitty.

[critters]

BTW, I recently saw on a human wheelchair page that they're using Botox injections for SCI humans with spastic bladders with good results. Sounds great to me!!