PU Surgery - long term post surgery behavior? (kitten, eating, weight)
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Hello - my cat had PU surgery about 4.5 months ago, and while he has pretty much returned to normal, he now has the habit of obsessively licking his backend on/around the surgery site. I know that he does not have a bladder infection, as he isn't running to the box every two minutes, which is what he was doing after he got a UTI shortly after his sutures were removed. Has anyone else seen this behavior in their post PU cat?
Hello - my cat had PU surgery about 4.5 months ago, and while he has pretty much returned to normal, he now has the habit of obsessively licking his backend on/around the surgery site. I know that he does not have a bladder infection, as he isn't running to the box every two minutes, which is what he was doing after he got a UTI shortly after his sutures were removed. Has anyone else seen this behavior in their post PU cat?
We have no Lic veterinarians on this Forum unfortunately. I think you need to take him in and let the vet have a look at the area he keeps licking.
Thank you for the response - we have taken him to the vet to see if there are any issues, but they can't find anything. I was just wondering if anyone else had experienced the same sort of behavior in their post-PU cat.
My guy had PU surgery in Dec. 2007 and is doing great still. Obsessive licking 4.5 months out seems like a lot. Is his licking harmful, or is he just consoling himself on his missing bits? How old is yours? Mine was relatively young, about four.
My cat was (is) a little overweight, so we actually had the opposite problem, he wasn't licking back there often enough. What fixed that (unintentionally) was getting a younger cat and they like grooming each other. Problem solved
The younger cat has an obsessive grooming problem in a couple of problem spots, she'll lick her arm or a couple of other spots so much that she licks off the fur and makes it raw. We fixed that with expensive food and keeping an eye on her grooming.
Hi Jaimilyn! My guy doesn't seem to be licking his fur away, but he'll plop down and lick himself for about 30 seconds, then carry on with whatever he was doing. I was thinking it might be because the area itches in the way any surgery site I've ever had has itched. I have a scar on my shoulder that itched for the longest time after I got the stitches out, so I was kind of applying that logic. It could be that his misses his boy parts and the new plumbing is just weird to him. Poor kitty was just 2.5 years when he got blocked. It was so bad they couldn't even get a catheter in him.
I guess if this keeps up, I might try and find a cat specialist in the area to have them check him out, just to be sure. After he had the surgery he was peeing all over the place (including on me at night), and the vet determined it to be a behavioral thing. I hope that's the case with this!
In my admittedly non-professional opinion, as long as he's not hurting himself and doesn't seem to be in pain or having inappropriate eliminations, and the vet has already looked at it and not found anything, you should be ok to just monitor it. The PU surgery is pretty invasive (re-routed plumbing, if it were a person it'd be on par with gender re-assignment), so I'd give him the benefit of the doubt and just distract him if you see him licking.
My guy had been blocked twice before and the vet told us that if we didn't do the surgery then, he'd probably be too damaged if it happened again if be needed the surgery, so we went ahead and did it. I always swore I'd never do extensive surgery for a pet, but since he'd have a normal quality of life afterwards, we went ahead and did it. He hasn't had a problem and it's been over 5 years now.
My Marley does this sometimes too, and it's been 2 years. He healed just fine and hasn't had any problems at all. If he was showing any of the symptoms he had before the surgery, when he had the blockages, I would rush him to the vet immediately. But he's healthy, full of energy, and his litterbox habits are normal. Sometimes I think it's kind of a psychological thing for him.
Also, since he had the surgery and we cut out dry food completely, he got healthier in general. He lost the excess weight he was carrying and he's not getting the respiratory infections he used to get a couple of times a year. Once he recovered from the surgery he started acting like a kitten again.
The bad part is how much it cost. I would do it again in a heartbeat, but there's a couple of collection agencies out there that would not support that idea.....
So glad to find your post. My 3-year-old kitty had to have the pu surgery about three months ago. He does seem to be cleaning (licking) the area lots more than before (or maybe I'm just more aware of it now). He seems to feel great and he's eating just fine. I'm guessing it's scar tissue or just new anatomy. No reason to think it's anything else when he seems very healthy and happy now. What a stressful time that was. So glad to have my kitty happy and healthy again!
Just an update on my original post - we took kitty in for a 6 month, post-op check up. This time we took him to a cats only vet for a reliable opinion. He had no crystals in his urine, and no bladder infections. We've had him on the Hills c/d, and we've now increased his diet to almost all wet food. The vet said he might be licking a lot because of the way his fur has grown back at the surgery site, so she gave him a, uhmm, very personal haircut. It didn't seem to make a difference in his licking, though.
The one thing that sticks in my craw a bit is that he doesn't get a steady stream of urine when he pees - it's just quick dribbles. I asked the vet and she said she wasn't sure, bit it didn't seem an issue. I read that cats who have had PU surgery can develop muscle problems around their bladders, but I'm not sure what the symptoms are and the vet wasn't too concerned. I'm going to take him in for another check up in 6 months, so I will just continue to keep an eye on him.
I hope this thread can become a source of information for those who need it! When my guy was recovering, I couldn't find anything about long term behavior of post-surgery cats and it was worrisome!
Exactly, Pywaket. Just after my post above from a few weeks ago, my kitty has quit eating his canned c/d food. He will eat the dry c/d food. What's up with THAT? He seems a little lethargic, but he is using his litter box, he purrs, and he will play very actively with the laser pointer. Doesn't seem quite the same though. A little more independent. Anyone have any ideas?
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