Is cat FLUTD non-infectious? Why is its cause often a mystery?

Feline Urologic Syndrome (FUS) is now called Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD) or Feline Idiopathic Cystitis (FIC). It is a condition involving, as the name states, the lower urinary tract (bladder, urethra). The condition presents with inflammation, difficulty urinating or crystals in urine. A major cause is thought to be stress. You can read more about the condition here: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?c=1+2134&aid=214

I'm so sorry that you are dealing with this with Fred. Since there is blood in her urine, I would first continue to look for medical causes of blood in the urine if she doesn't have a history of urinary tract problems. Here is more information on FLUTD. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&C=&A=611&SourceID= From that handout, in older cats (over 10 years old), here is the distribution of why they have FLUTD... 50% will have true urinary tract infections. 10% will have bladder stones. 17% will have a combination of infection and bladder stone. 7% will have urethral blockage. 3% will have urinary tract cancer. 5% will not have a cause that can be determined despite extensive testing. 66% will be in some stage of kidney failure. 5% will have urinary incontinence. So, my first recommendation if there is still blood in Fred's urine is to have your vet run a urine culture. That requires the urine to be sent to the lab to see if they can grow any bacteria from the urine. This is sometimes needed if the bacteria does not respond as expected to antibiotics. If that is negative, then I would recommend an abdominal ultrasound to evaluate the kidneys and bladder for any abnormalities (including stones that don't show up on x-rays). I would not consider blood in the urine to be idiopathic until I have done all that testing. Then, I would consider treating Fred for Feline Idiopathic Cystitis (FIC). http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&C=&A=612&SourceID= Good luck! I hope that was helpful and that Fred feels better soon. Thanks for using PetCoach.

FLUTD and FUS are describing the same set of symptoms. They used to call it FUS, but have changed the name over the years to try to better describe the syndrome. I have included a handout below with more information. https://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&C=&A=611&SourceID= I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

A true urinary infection with bacteria is much less common in cats then dogs, and less common in males then females. Unless there is a disease process predisposing to infection like diabetes or kidney disease. I would not expect a link between allergies and urinary issues unless as you say it is stress related. There is a syndrome in cats (many names) called feline lower urinary tract disorder (FLUTD). Basically it causes symptoms of a uti but there is no infection. In can be more problematic in males. It could be triggered by stress (changes in the house, change in litter, new food, not enough litterboxes, etc.). The Ohio State University has a good web site for indoor cat owners called the indoor pet initiative. There are other causes of urinary tract issues as well but it would be quite odd for both your kids to be affected. It is very important to make sure cats are able to urinate though because obstruction of the urinary tract can occur, more common in males, and this is an emergency if this happens. I hope this helps and thank you for using PetCaoch!

Stress related (idiopathic type of inflammation) infection and presence of crystals are the most common causes of it. Struvite crystals are very common and usually comes from alkaline urine. Specific diets can be given to acidify urine like s/d by Hill's. I would recommend to have a look at this link to have more informations about FLUTD (feline-lower-urinary-tract-disease): https://www2.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/feline-lower-urinary-tract-disease. Hope this answer was helpful, but please do not hesitate to contact us again on the forum or by requesting a consultation if you have any more questions or to discuss it any further. Please find the time to give us a feedback about the consultation as that will be used to improve our service.

Unfortunately no, there are no surgical procedures to prevent a reoccurrence of FLUTD. My own cat just had a bought of it, and I had to have him on pain medications as well as increasing his fluid intake. The best things you can do to prevent future occurrences with Ozzie is to make sure he is drinks plenty of water, keep feeding him the prescription diet, and have him lose weight if he's overweight. To encourage him to drink water, I would consider getting him a pet water fountain. It provides a continuing source of fresh water at all times, and cats love drinking from it. Prescription diets help maintain a healthy urinary tract, so it's important to keep feeding that. Try to get him some exercise as well, as that will help Ozzie maintain a healthy weight. Play with him twice a day to get him this exercise.

Your vet is right, this could very well be stress induced. It does seem that your vet has done the necessary screening tests to rule out some other common causes of symptoms like this. I don't know what your pets test results are specifically; however the only other test that could be ran be absolutely sure of the diagnosis, is an abdominal ultrasound. Salem may be suffering from a condition called Feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD), which causes blood in the stool and inappropriate urination in response to stress. This condition is typically managed with a diet change (Rx diet Urinary C/D multicare stress is my favorite to use in these cases) and sometimes anti-anxiety medication is needed. Here are some websites that also talk about environmental enrichment things you can implement in the home to de-stress your cat: indoorpet.osu.edu, jacksongalaxy.com Here is another website link that discusses FLUTD more in detail to inform you about this condition. http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=611 And again, if you feel that your pet is not improving with the diet change and other recommendations OR you want to make absolutely sure this is the proper diagnosis, then I would recommend getting that second opinion or requesting an abdominal ultrasound be done on Salem in the near future.