UTI's in male cats?

[StillandSilent]

Our male cat has just been diagnosed with his first UTI. For those not familiar with cat anatomy, the urethra of a male cat is very narrow and can be blocked by something as tiny as a grain of sand. Although he did not block, it was touch and go for a while. Our vet took x-rays that showed large crystals in his urine. He put Greystone on a special diet to raise the acidity of his urine and hopefully dissolve the crystals. If this does not work, he said the other option was a major surgery. Basically, the penis would be amputated and the urethra threaded back through a hole created near the anus. This prevents blockages totally.
Has anyone had a cat go through this surgery? It is so extreme. What was your cats quality of life afterwards? Still good? Or has someone found something else that helps? I have seen many sites online advertising natural products, but I have no idea which, if any, actually help.
To further complicate matters, Grey is about 5 years old and we have owned him about 6 mos. He was a pound kitty with no medical history, so we have no way of knowing if this is his first infection or his 100th. The vet believed that it is not his first due to the large size of the crystals.

 

[Scotia]

Hi StillandSilent

Glad to hear Grey is okay, they can get really ill with a blockage.

I've not had a cat for years, so haven't had personal experience. However, I will say I've seen cats on the special diets still block. Some people swear by the special diets, some people add urinary acidifiers to a cat's regular diet, some people revert to a "natural" diet of raw bones, as a carnivorous cat would eat in the wild. I'm not sure of any statisticst to show whether one is any better than the other at prevention. I'd suggest you be guided by your vet as to where to go from here. As far as the surgery, I've seen it done, I've also done it myself once or twice, and the cats do fine. The idea is that the urethra through the penis is the narrowest and that's where the blockage occurs, so removing that allows them to only have the wider part of the urethra near the bladder, and they tend not to have a blockage after that.

Hope this helps, do let us know how Grey gets on.

Scotia