My Cat Has Urinary Tract Infections That Keep Coming Back. 

What Can I Do?

by Christine J. Crosley, D.V.M.

QUESTION: My cat has had problems with urinary tract infections. They’ve been treated with antibiotics, and she eats a special cat food prescribed by my conventional veterinarian. The problem keeps coming back. Is there anything else I can do?

ANSWER: Feline urologic syndrome (FUS), more recently known as feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD), has been a chronic problem with cats for a long time. The kind of treatment you describe has often been successful, but in too many cases cats continue to have relapses. Looking at this problem from a homeopathic or TCM perspective, we can repertorize the cat (the homeopathic approach) or use tongue pulse diagnosis (TCM’s diagnostic method) to find symptoms specific to your individual cat. We can use this information to select a chronic (constitutional) homeopathic remedy or a TCM formula that will help your cat in ways that are very different from antibiotics.

These changes can take time, since natural healing occurs from the inside out. Yet you will probably notice an increased sense of well-being in your cat even before you observe physical changes. These changes can be so subtle that they often go unnoticed. I’m sometimes told during a followup homeopathic exam, "The remedy didn’t work." Yet if I ask, "How is your cat doing?" I’ll hear, "Oh, the problem went away; it’s not bothering her anymore." The owner assumed the cat got well spontaneously, and didn’t link that healing to the remedy I administered.

QUESTION: Then how will I know if a homeopathic or TCM treatment is working?

ANSWER: By being a good, careful observer, taking good notes, and reporting changes to your holistic veterinarian. We are trained to interpret this information, and changes that might not seem important to you may provide important clues that healing is underway.

QUESTION: Well, if I don’t know what to look for, how will I be able to tell that my cat is really well?

ANSWER: It depends. Most cats with this problem (FLUTD) have had it for a long time. So it may be months before we can know for sure that your cat is fully healed. On the other hand, I’ve seen cases that have responded very quickly to a single dose of one homeopathic remedy, and have had a full cure as a result. The range of response is huge, which means that both careful prescribing on my part and careful observation on yours are essential.

QUESTION: How often will I need to follow up with holistic treatment?

ANSWER: That can vary, depending on the treatment modality. Acupuncture treatments may be needed weekly or biweekly for one to two months. Homeopathic followup exams are usually done every four to eight weeks. As a homeopath, it’s important for me to step back and observe your cat’s response over time. After giving the first remedy, we have several choices in following up. We can wait longer, giving the remedy more time to act; repeat the same remedy in the same potency; give the same remedy in a different potency; or move to a different remedy.

We do want to see overall improvement, but many patients can take three or four steps forward and then one step back as healing takes place. Dr. Timothy Dooley, in his excellent book, Beyond Flat Earth Medicine, gives the following analogy: "Sometimes healing is a bit like cleaning house – it’s a little messier when you’re in the middle of cleaning than before you started." (You can read Dr. Dooley’s book online at www.beyondflatearth.com.) This is another reason it’s so important to stay in touch and keep the follow-up process underway.

I should add one important note: In male cats, neutered or unneutered, frequent trips to the litter box need to be observed closely because it is easier for males to become completely obstructed and therefore unable to urinate at all. This is a medical emergency and should be treated at the nearest 24-hour emergency clinic with conventional medical treatment. This treatment will not necessarily disrupt any homeopathic treatment that’s underway.

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