Need Advice Quickly - Zeus Has A Urinary Blockage, please send prayers Options

[Zita'sMom]

My thread is at Goodbye Rosie Goodbye Family, but I really need all your prayers.

My last 5 year old cat Zeus cat threw up late last night and wasn't purring so I knew he wasn't feeling well. He didn't eat this morning so I phoned the vet. He was acting totally normal until late last night.

He has a urinary blockage and is undergoing surgery. He is 5 years old. I've had a lot of losses, and I really need him to pull through this. The vet said that he may have kidney damage. He appeared really healthy until this.

Unfortunately it's a long weekend and they need me to decide whether to bring him home, to leave him at a different vet's office, one I've never been to, or take him to another city for 24 hour hospitalization. The local vet's office does not have 24 hour surveillance, and I'm tempted to bring him home. But on the other hand, I'm not sure about what complications there could be - does anyone have advice on this?

Need some advice quickly...

thanks

Jan.

[Furkidlets' Mom]

Please see this and this, as well as these:

"It's For the Animals" book excerpt
Dr. Hamilton's book
Holisticat page on FLUTD (some of the many ways this can be addressed, BUT herbals, homeopathics, other supplements should never be tried, willy-nilly, w/o an animal being under the care of an experienced holistic vet; we used a number of these same protocols for Nissa, but ALL were based on HER individual needs, conditions and particulars, as some didn't suit her or would have been riskier or even dangerous for HER -- why you shouldn't do this on your own)
Article on FLUTD/link to diet
Discussion on FLUTD, diet, better canned foods in Canada, links to raw food Yahoo group, other related material
RawMeatyBones site
Basics of Feline Nutrition by Lisa A. Pierson, DVM (of note, her discussion on crystals - I had many educative discussions with Nissa's 2 holistic vets about this, did urinalyses every month for years (by my choice, & learned a lot by seeing the test results verifying their solid knowledge of dif. aspects of cystitis/FLUTD, etc.), sometimes doing a culture as required...and can attest to the validity of bacteria most often NOT being a cause, or even present; a number of other factors play large parts in which natural trtmnts. are needed for a particular case -- but that's what I was paying both vets to figure out and then educate me on; never did do direct-from-the-bladder samples, though, as Dr. H. found them unnecessarily stressful to most cats, and I was instead instructed on properly-done "free catch" methods, with our local holistic vet easily accounting for that in the lab results)
Another discussion from someone with much experience to share (check out her bio. info. on the left)

After you read these, you will see what a huge factor a healthy diet is in both treating and curing many ailments in animals, including FLUTD related illnesses, and why these prescription diets are basically crap, to be blunt. I don't blame ANY cat for having the good sense to not want to eat them. We'd tried these many years ago, for Sabin -- not only didn't do squat for his own irritation, but as most cats do, he hated them. Took him off them w/i a very short time....and began my re-education into diets and never looked back. He never had another urinary episode again, after homeopathic trtmnt. and a good (better) diet change. Had they had as many of the newer research and info. on WHOLE food raw diets back then, that's what my kids would have been eating, I'm sure. I only used Dr. Pitcairns. recipes for homemade foods because at the time, it was one of the best ones available. Now even I know that the grains in it weren't optimum, and wouldn't repeat it if I could help it.

There are also now quite a few online support groups for feeding raw diets (some links were in some of these articles) and I'd suggest you check some of those out as well. Just Google for lots of them. There's little point in asking most people who don't follow such diets for advice on them, as they're not as educated on them as those who've actually walked the walk and seen the proof for themselves, in their own, healthier 'pets'.

If you've not had good experiences yourself with human naturopaths, that doesn't necessarily translate into what working with a GOOD holistic vet. can do for you and your animals. For myself, I've seen good homeopathic &/or naturopathic docs (for humans), and very bad ones, too. This is no dif. than in ANY sector, where you have to do your research to find good professionals, or use word of mouth for recommendations. (I've given my own over and over again, ad nauseum) This is why I not only chose Dr. Hamilton for our primary (distance, homeo.) vet (you can't get much better than one of the TOP ones in the world!); note: his fees were less than our local, $$$ vet's), as well as our local one for certain matters, but also why I've posted so many topics here to finding other GOOD holistic/homeo. vets....and why I KEEP repeating that a homeo. vet need not be living in your location to do great work and help with all aspects of health concerns. You might even try Dr. Gardner in Washington State, as a former member here has been having good success with her, too, and for LD calls (if and when needed; she'll also do some consults via email), she's not even that far from BC, whereas I was calling all the way to New Mexico. Most of Dr. H.'s clients only called him every few months, not needing anything more frequent with his expert trtmnt.....mind you, many clients were already following better, smarter, natural protocols already, so didn't have as many problems anymore (he stresses best diets, too, of course). Whereas I CHOSE, myself, to check in more often, but he didn't ever suggest I needed to, except sometimes during a few acute episodes. I was just erring on the side of the preferred method for ME and MY peace of mind. His service, btw, as you'll find with most really good homeo. vets, was superlative, even if he was away on conference, or sometimes even on his own holidays! What more could you ask for?