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FELINE
URINARY SYNDROME
The
name FUS (Feline Urinary Syndrome) encompasses many
differents illnesses of the lower urinary tract of felines
wich can cause irritation of the mucus that covers the
interior of the bladder and urethra. There are many
different characteristics symptoms (difficulty urinating,
the presence of blood in the urine and in some cases total
obstruction). This process affects males and females
alike, althrough it is more serious in males due to the
characteristics of their urinary system.
Normally
it appears when the animal is between two and six years
old.
Often
the cats that are affected will urinate very frequently
but in small amounts and they will usually do so outside
of their litter tray. In addition, you may notice that the
cats meows in pain when urinating or that it makes several
attemps to urinate tono avail. In many cases, the urine
contains blood. Male
cats will usually lick their penis. If there is total
obstruction the animal will have to make a great effort to
urinate and often will be dehydrated, depressed and may
even suffer from vomiting.
There
are many factors wich will encourage the occurrence of
FUS, one of the most important being diet. Other risk
factors include lack of activity and obesity and therefore
this illness often presents itself in older, castrated
cats that have a tendency to take less exercise and to put
on weight. It's believed that it more frequently affects
Persian cats, althrough there is no speculation that this
could be owing to the lower activity levels of this breed,
rather than a predisposition to the illness.
The
causes of this illness are varied but the principal reason
is the formation of crystals and very small stones in the
urinary tract. These can be up to several millimetres in
size, althrough most commonly they are microscopis or like
a grain of sand. Normally they are found in the bladder
and they ussualy obstruct the peneal urethra in males (ie
the consuit that empties the bladder of urine by means of
the penis.)
It's
proven that these stones are mainly struvite
crystals (phosphate, ammonia and magnesium.) A small
percentage of struvite stones are brought about by
bacterial infections usually owing to Staphylococcus sp.
or Proteus sp. Some cat foods, especially those at the
lower end of the scale can alter the ph of urine and
encourage some minerals that would normally dissolve to
crystallise and form these stones.
Furthermore,
in feline obstruction, the bare epithelial cells, red
corpuscles, bacterial detritus and mucus also come into
play. All of these are a result of the inflammation of the
bladder and provoke the formation of urethral blockages,
thus impeding the correct passage of urine.
Cats
suffering from this obstruction will die if the flow of
urine is not re-established within two to four days. This
is due to the fact that total obstruction produces an
acute renal deficiency (due to the reflux of urine back
towards the kidneys) which causes the kidneys to stop
filtering. They accumulate toxins in the blood (urea,
potassium, calcium and phosphate) which produce heart
disorders, metabolic disorders and encephalopathy leading
to the death of the animal through shock.
To
re-establish the normal flow of urine, the animal must be
probed and depending on what state it is in, serum
teraphy, antibiotics or corticoids will be used to return
the animal to its physiological state.
Once
these measures have been taken, the cat will have to
follow a special diet for life in order to avoid
recurrence. Dietetic foods will regulate the ph of the urine in order to avoid the formation of crystals and
help the dissolution of any that may already exist.
This article was
extracted from the publications of Victoria C. Calcagno in
the free monthly newspaper VIVA!.
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