Tinkle Tonic?

[onipar]

Hi all.

So a few weeks ago my cat, Jerry, got really sick. He started out being constipated, then went on to start peeing a little blood. I brought him to the vet and they tested his blood for kidney trouble. According to the vet it wasn't his kidneys, or crystals. So he administered antibiotics (the injection because Jerry will *not* take things orally).

A week passed and things only got worse. He was peeing completely RED urine, through and through. And he started going on these plastic bags in my living room instead of in his litter.

The vet gave him more antibiotics, but he said if it didn't help, it was probably a bladder tumor.

Now, Jerry is 16, and we don't have hundreds to thousands of dollars to test and see if it's really a tumor (or get surgery if it was, for that matter). But the antibiotics didn't do anything, and he kept peeing all red. It was scary.

Finally, after some internet research, I came across this stuff: Tinkle Tonic. It's an all natural liquid that is supposed to help all urinary troubles. Amazingly enough, Jerry ate the food with Tinkle Tonic in it (something he never does with medicine.

After a little over a week (maybe closer to two), he has no more blood in his urine! He's acting like he's feeling good too!

The reason I told you all this is because I have some questions:

First, if this *was* in fact a tumor, would it just stop making him sick out of the blue? Or was my vet possibly mistaken, and/or the antibiotics simply weren't doing the job?

Next, for anyone familiar with this Tinkle Tonic stuff, is this something I should continue to administer to Jerry? Or now that he's feeling better, discontinue use?

Finally, even though Jerry is getting better, he still pees on the plastic in my living room. What can I do to get him going in his litter box again? I understand he started to associate the pain he was in with his litter box, which is why he started going other places. And he does still use the litter box on occasion. But I need to get him to stop doing it on the plastic. Any tips?

Thanks for all the help!

[Buggzter]

No idea about the tonic...

An idea for the peeing in the wrong places tho, would be to get a different litter box - different type, maybe, too. Fill it with a different litter to start, and put a plastic bag in it - place the whole thing in a random place in your living room where he normally goes now.

Then, once he uses it, you can first move it to a more appropriate spot, then take out the bag, then slowly switch to the old litter only. It's possible you may even be able to start moving the box later towards the other box, then finally just have the one again... You may just have to deal with the second box in a weird spot, or might have to switch to a different litter permanently to get him to be OK with peeing in it...

I'm very glad he's feeling better, and hope you can get things figured out. Gandolf also has peed on bags before, but that was just after coming into our home, and just once. Good luck!

[onipar]

Thanks for the ideas! It sounds like that might work. i did start mixing a new litter with his old one, and I actually do have two litter boxes side by side for him already, so I could maybe just take one of those and do as you suggested. Worth a shot.

Thanks!

[MowMow]

If you were giving him the 'Tinkle Tonic' at the same time he was on antibiotics I'd say that the antibiotics finally killed off whatever infection he had and it was a coincidence.

[onipar]

Originally Posted by MowMow

If you were giving him the 'Tinkle Tonic' at the same time he was on antibiotics I'd say that the antibiotics finally killed off whatever infection he had and it was a coincidence.

I started the tinkle tonic at least 2 weeks after his last antobiotic shot (maybe more, because I had to wait for it to get shipped). And it wasn't until another almost 2 weeks after that before he cleared up.

I'm not totally ruling out the antibiotics, but it seems unlikely. The vet said the antibiotic shots only stay in the system for 1 week.