So for the second time one of my cats has a’blockage’ linked to struvite crystals in his man bits.

He’s ~4 (RSPCA estimate) currently at the vets and got a catheter in and they’re trying to clear the blockage but aren’t hopeful.

We took him in as soon as we suspected anything as we’d seen it before.

The vet is now talking about surgery and is going to get back to us with a price but we’re looking at £1k+ for what sounds a bit like gender reassignment!

Anyone had a cat with this done or know anything about it? Worried about the recovery with 2 other cats in the house.

We’re feeling massively guilty as they ran out of ‘special’ food a week ago and now this…

Non-emotional response: is any cat worth £1000 of vets bills? What sort of quality of life will it have afterwards and for how long?

Emotional response: difficult situation to deal with. Do the cats have any argy bargy currently? If not they should all be ok together?

If you’ll excuse the pun, I reckon the vet is taking the piss

Our cat has just had his thyroid removed and the bill for that is less than £200

Missus does these and has shown me the videos (as a vet)

What does Your vet say, should be able to address your concerns. Most will be very realistic about prognosis.

There’s the usual friction between 3 male cats in the house but nothing major, they’ve been together now for about 3 years so the dynamic is pretty well settled, just worried that if he’s weakened they’ll get in there and have a go like :/

Financially obviously I’ve got better things to spend a grand on but the vet needs a decision one way or another this afternoon.

After the first blockage he’s been fine, superb quality of life up until this morning…

EDIT: We’re waiting on the vet to get back to us with a price/prognosis as the cat is there at the moment, was just trying to get a heads up

If they get recurrent blockages or they can’t be managed with diet and medicine then the surgical option does work.

Essentially male cats have a narrowing of the urethra about 1 cm from the tip of the penis. The urethra runs from the bladder to the penis under the skin at the back of the cat and the surgery is designed to create a new opening where female cats opening is.

It is usually successful but there can be problems with the new hole trying to heal over.

There are several different diets and it may be worth trying him on a different one and monitoring his urine to see if he is still producing crystals before surgery.

If they can’t unblock him then sometimes you have to do surgery to relieve it. Get them to check it is still the same type of crystals as sometimes they can be affected by more than 1 type too!

Good luck

If you’ll excuse the pun, I reckon the vet is taking the piss

Our cat has just had his thyroid removed and the bill for that is less than £200
PMSL (not laughing at the cat here)

I see your anatomy is spot on. The Thyroid and Penis being located right next to each other.

I could ask the missus to explain why the years of training cost money, or the antithetic, the drugs for pain relief or perhaps the nurses who need paying. Also the cost of having lights on and heating the building. But I’m not stupid.
Bit like saying £1k is steep for changing a gearbox as a tyre only cost £50 to do.

Sorry about ranting there.

Bit like saying £1k is steep for changing a gearbox

Ha i think that’s sealed it (no pun intended), I don’t even like my car but would pay to have it fixed.

I’m really quite fond of my cat and so is the girlfriend so it looks like he’s going under the knife.

Arse – he’s being put down at 15:30, they cant clear the blockage and would have to send him to the specialist which is £800 before the cost of the op is added on.

sad times.

How sad. 🙁
At least he’s had a happy life up until now. I’ll give both of my cats a cuddle when i get home and think of your poor little fellow.

These are the first pets i’ve ever had so i’ve never been through the difficult vets decision, i’m sure it’s not very nice.

I hope you both get to say goodbye to him before he goes. It’s times like these where it’d be nice to be so wealthy that a few grand wouldn’t even register but unfortunately that isn’t most of us and finance has to play it’s part in the decision.

That’s a shame scaled 🙁

I see your anatomy is spot on. The Thyroid and Penis being located right next to each other.

I could ask the missus to explain why the years of training cost money, or the antithetic, the drugs for pain relief or perhaps the nurses who need paying. Also the cost of having lights on and heating the building. But I’m not stupid.
Bit like saying £1k is steep for changing a gearbox as a tyre only cost £50 to do.

Sorry about ranting there.

My post seemed to have a bit missing there – don’t know why
Anyway, as well as the thyroid @ £200, he’s also a bladder operation for a similar amount, can’t remember the breakdown in costs but something like £60 for the anaesthetic, £100 for the op +bits and pieces. Hope that helps you square the anatomy riddle a bit better 🙄

Other vets wanted a lot more for the same work, some wanted excessively more i.e. some of them are really taking the piss

He’s now 19 BTW, skinny as **** but managing just fine on his budget veterinary care.

Not looking like i’ll make it to the vets on time – bad day for it to happen as i’ll be in work till 1730 then back again at 2130-0300

Gutted to lose one at ~4 years old, the last one checked out at 20+ we’ve got his brother at home too so that’s going to be a bit weird.

Thanks for all the support 😕

🙁 Sad news.

Non-emotional response: is any cat worth £1000 of vets bills?

This doesn’t even make any sense. I think most people only keep a cat for the emotional content, not for mousing these days, so that sentence just doesn’t fit any usable context.

He was well worth a grand (well he was last time we paid it!) but we couldn’t commit to £800 + a blank cheque for op/aftercare.

I think most people only keep a cat for the emotional content, not for mousing these days, so that sentence just doesn’t fit any usable context.

He was well worth a grand (well he was last time we paid it!) but we couldn’t commit to £800 + a blank cheque for op/aftercare.

This probably isn’t the thread to have this conversation, tbh, the OP has my sympathy and has clearly had to make a difficult decision of the likely cost of curing his cat and decided that whilst £1000 was ‘ok’ £800+lots wasn’t – there is a clearly a point at which the money involved does become an issue – it’s just a different point for different people?

I wasn’t trying to say it’s not worth spending *any* money, just askign if there was a ceiling it was inappropriate to go beyond.

I wasn’t trying to say it’s not worth spending *any* money, just askign if there was a ceiling it was inappropriate to go beyond.

That’s fine, clearly there’s a limit but the question isn’t “worth a grand” – more “what can you afford?” Very hard to put a price on a loved pet.

I was in a similar situation a little while ago.

Presented with the option of a large bill or a small final one, my question was “will he be alright afterwards?” The answer was emphatically “no”, he’d require ongoing treatment and not be particularly well even then.

After that, it was a no-brainer of a decision. The cruel thing to do would have been to prolong his illness for my own selfish reasons.

Sorry for your loss. *sadface*

Might be a good time to look into insurance costs for the other two. Once bitten and all that.

Hope you have a better time ahead. Sun’s out at least…

Insurance was a no go for this as he had a bout of cystitis when he was in the RSPCA home, that at the time was put down to stress. Of course meant he had a pre existing condition as far as insurance was concerned (turned out to be a good shout from their side of things!)

Compared with a thyroidectomy, which is a piece of piss, a perineal urethrostomy in the cat is technically quite tricky hence the price.
Ring a few other vets up and get a price, meanwhile the cat can be maintained with fluids IV and cystocentesis ie draining the bladder through the skin.

You can certainly tell the schools have broken up

I’m sure that’s just what the OP needs to read after having a loved family pet put to sleep. Prick.

What. A. Dick.

I was going to give him The Wiggins Response

Scaled – as one cat owner to another, who recently had to say goodbye to a much loved moggie – very sorry to hear about the outcome.

I’ve reported Alex222’s post for being nasty, trolling and arsehole-ish.

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Scaled – so sorry to hear this news, as we were only talking about your cats yesterday 🙁

our cat had crystals, special food etc too. sorry to hear about your situation, whatever you do you’ll be doing with the best intentions though 🙂

have a cat-hug

Sorry you’ve lost your little man. They can mean so much.

Our little boy cat got the crystals a couple of years ago. Luckily he’s quite vocal so we knew something wasn’t right, then all of a sudden there was a blood filled pool of urine on the hallway floor. We have since changed his diet to make sure he stays well hydrated, but essentially I guess it is an anxiety thing, which is quite hard to manage in cats.