Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / December 2005

Please help us and our 7 year old female cat.  She has an antibiotic
resistant strain of e coli in her urine (culture and resistance test done
twice).  Only about 4 extremely potent and potentially damaging antibiotics
are all that the bug is susceptible to.  She has chronic kidney disease
(held at bay with K/D dry formula; her blood levels are not too bad right
now so no other treatment is necessary), kidney stones, and bladder stones
(both confirmed by ultrasound).  The problem is this: most all of these
potent antibiotics either create kidney stones, bladder stones, or aplastic
anemia; all are dangerous to her health and most require a hospitalization
we might not be able to afford.  Clinically she is straining to urinate
about every two days, bouts lasting an hour or so.  Her bloodwork is
otherwise fine, no elevation of white cell count, etc; a little blood in the
urine, pH is okay. So---we don't know if it's the bladder stones or the e
coli that's causing the straining; according to my vet, it's chicken and the
egg.  She said we can't operate on the bladder stones until the infection is
cleared.  My questions are: Do we place her health in jeopardy by hitting
her with one of these antibiotics?  Is it possible that we should just treat
the symptoms with diet (if its struvites, I need to find out) and ignore
this infection for awhile?  My vet is acting as if this bug has to be killed
NOW, but the given her health---compromised kidney function especially---I'm
really afraid to proceed.  Any advice would be appreciated.

JB
brancatoREMOVE@rcn.com