Do you remember Hoyt? Hoyt was from the True Blood Six. He looked like this.
Then he looked like this.
And ultimately, he turned out to look like this.
Then he went to the adoption center.
And then some people came along and fell in love with him and adopted him.
He’s been doing well in his new home, and his people love him. They even trained him to use the toilet!
Recently, he had to go to the emergency vet, and was ultimately diagnosed with Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD). It ended up costing his people $1500 to make him well again. They’ve changed his food and are keeping an eye on him. According to the Cornell page on FLUTD, most cats rarely experience the problem again or will have only occasional recurrences. But for some cats, this can turn into a chronic condition.
The bottom line is that Hoyt’s people can’t afford to spend that kind of money on him on a regular basis, and if this happens again, they would have to put him to sleep. They travel on the weekends a lot, so keeping an eye on his food intake is near impossible (they have another cat). They contacted the shelter saying that they might need to return him, and of course Challenger’s House will always take back any cat at any time, for any reason.
Here’s the thing – Hoyt could go to the shelter itself, but he’d have to spend most of his time in a cage so that he could be monitored, and that’s just no life for a cat. Fred and I talked about having him here as a long-term foster, if need be, but my concern is that he might get lost in the crowd, and we might not notice that there’s a problem until it turns into an emergency situation.
I have no experience with FLUTD (and if you do, feel free to add your opinion/ advice in the comments), but I suspect that if Hoyt were in a home where his people were able to keep a close eye on him and could monitor his food intake and see symptoms of an issue arising in the early stages, even if it were to turn into a chronic problem, catching it before it turned into an emergency situation might make it not a big deal.
(WOW, that was a long, convoluted run-on sentence, wasn’t it?)
What I can tell you about Hoyt is this: he’s a great big sweetheart. When he was with us, he always announced his entry into a room with his funny “Here I am!” meow. He gets along well with other cats, and he LOVES people. And he is GORGEOUS.
Is there anyone out there who might be willing to adopt this great big sweetheart? Do you guys have any advice or suggestions? Feel free to leave a comment or email me!
I mean, seriously – LOOK at that face! And did I mention he’s trained to use the toilet instead of the litter box??
I think I might have some info that will be helpful. It’s long though – so I’ll send an email. I have a kitty with the same issues – I call him my $6000 baby (he’s had 3 hospitalizations for this).
We have a cat with FLUTD, diagnosed about 7 years ago, so I can tell you my experience. It was an expensive vet bill for diagnosis (cat ultrasounds ain’t cheap), but since then it’s been ok to manage. We had him on prescription food for years (hills c/d) which prevented any recurrance at all. The food is more expensive than non-prescription food, especially since we ended up just giving it to all three of our cats – the vet said it wouldn’t hurt the healthy ones, and it was easier than trying to feed different cats different foods – you know they’re only going to want to eat what the OTHER guy has. We recently needed to change foods because one of our other cats developed a food allergy/sensitivity (massively itchy skin/ears), and of course all of the foods that are made for FLUTD – foods that will acidify the urine – are all made with chicken/rice. So we switched the herd to a non-chicken/rice food for cat #2, and cat #1 now also gets supplements to keep his urine properly acidic. Those supplements are SUPER cheap if you buy them online in bulk (Methioform tablets – they’re chewable, and you can also crush them up and mix with a little wet food). I guess the bottom line is, FLUTD is totally manageable if you stay on top of it, and hasn’t required that we watch him like a hawk. While you’re getting the diet worked out (either prescription food or supplements), the cat should get another urinalysis done once or twice more to make sure that his urine is maintained at the proper pH. And annual vet visits are a bit more expensive because they will always include a urinalysis.
This has been a super long comment, but I guess I just wanted to say that (although there are of course exceptions), usually it’s FINDING the problem that is the biggest one time expense, and managing the problem is do-able and not necessarily all that expensive.
Our cat with FLUTD also recently developed IBD, and that has been a HELL of a lot more expensive to deal with! Even though this one is by far the most defective, he’s still our favorite cat… =)
Our cat also had this about seven years ago. I agree with Emily that diagnosing was the most expensive part. He’s on Hill’s now, too. He’s been fine ever since.
My boy cat has FLUTD and my girl doesn’t. They eat the same food (Hills C/D as well as Royal Canin Urinary) which they both love. The food isn’t cheap so it could be very expensive if we had more than 2 cats on it, but we don’t mind wearing the slightly higher cost to make sure that he’s happy and healthy.
Hoyt is my favorite of the True Bloods & has the cutest face EVER. I have an adult boy cat who eats Hills Science food & I could afford to have another on it. I will drive to Alabama and pick up Hoyt if he needs a good home. Please update us on the lil love bug.
Poor Hoyt. Looks like we have a winner already so that’s good.
I would totally volunteer to adopt Hoyt, if you all only lived in Texas. I adopted my second cat, Stanley, because of your site (and Sugarbutt) and everyone – human, cat and dogs are so happy we added him to our brood. Thankfully, it looks like Michelle has already volunteered. So I’ll just make a donation in Hoyt’s honor at my local cat hospital. Thanks for all you do for the cats of Alabama.
I don’t have any experience with FLUTD, but I posted to a chat board full of cat lovers to see if any of them have and will pass along any advice I get. I just teared up with Michelle’s offer to adopt Hoyt. I wish I could take him myself, but 5 if my limit. I sure hope something can be worked out for the little love bug.