I had to rush my 2 year old cat butters to the vet this evening as he was struggling to urinate. This has happened before and I was luckily able to notice the symptoms earlier this time and get him to the vets.
I've spoken to the vet and they have put a catherter in him but won't know if it's worked untill the morning. The last time he had this he had to have a operation to clear out his bladder of gunky stuff (sorry not very technical) and he took a very long time to recover and was in an awful amount of pain that was heartbreaking to see it was also not cheap and the bill has only just been paid off (he is totally worth it though).

He was just starting to get back to his normal self albeit he wet himself when ever he was in a deep sleep (vet said this was due to a weakened urethra)) and it happened again and i am heartbroken. We tried him on the special diet food but he wouldnt touch it and he had lost so much weight that we fed him what he would eat.
I'm rambling but I'm at a loss of what to do have to wait until the morning to hear how he is and i'm sick to my stomach thinking its effected his kidneys.

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of this and if they managed to keep their cat from getting it again. I've read so many things on the internet that contradict each other i don't know what to believe.

Sorry for going on and sorry for the terrible spelling and grammer!

What exactly is the problem? Is it crystals? I don't have any direct experience but as far as I am aware, the best prevention for this is the special diet. If your cat won't eat it, then you would need to ask the vet, what other things you can do. What if you warmed the food up slightly or added a little gravy if the vet advised?

I hope you get some good news in the morning and your cat is feeling better.

I'm sorry to hear about your cat and really hope he recovers well.
Could it be that stones have formed? A slightly different situation was when one of my little dogs had a problem urinating last year and they had to flush her out. She was blocked up with quite large stones and it was a good job we got her to the vets promptly.
Fortunately they were able to get them out without surgery and every now and again she passes tiny ones in her urine. They have kept her on 'Uropet' paste which we add to her food. I believe it is suitable for cats but whether it would aid your cat's problem I don't know. I believe it helps prevent the formation of stones by aiding the acidification of urine. They also advised us to add extra water to all her food as not drinking enough can encourage these stones to form.
All the best with your little one. Let us know how Butters is.

So sorry to hear about Butters - I can empathise as we had similar with ours three of years ago which necessitated a 2.30am dash to the vets. Ours will also not touch the special diet. The vet told us that commercial food is too high in ash for a cat with this condition BUT we found the Asda pouches in gravy had a lower amount that the special food the vet prescribed. So, we immediately put ours onto this which was a win win because he ate it and the gravy meant he got lots of liquid inside him - he has two pouches a day. We also put lots of shallow trays around the garden to catch rain water as he prefers to drink from them and finally, I got some Cystease S (these are the same as the vets sell you but much, much cheaper) capsules from Vet UK and he has one sprinkled and mixed into his food every day. Touch wood, things have been fine for nearly three years now.

Really hope this has helped and that Butters makes a full and speedy recovery.

Spoke to the vet this morning they found crystals in his urine which caused a block. He is responding well the blockage is clear but they are going to monitor him for another 24 hrs to see how he is without the catheter. He isn't eating though, he's a really picky eater. He eats little but often and i think the vet is putting it down to him not being at home.
He should be home tomorrow my only worry is last time this happened and he came home it happened again 24hrs later so we are insisting that they are as sure as they can be about him urinating.
Thank you for the advice i read somewhere about ash content in food. I'm going to get some pouches from asda. The vet is also looking to see if there are any other brands who make the special diet Butters wouldnt even look at the hills or the royal canin his brother on the other hand ate the lot!! Sods law that!

I'm glad he seems to be a little better. I might be in the same situation with my dog in a couple of weeks (he's recently had bladder stones removed, and we are awaiting analysis of them). It is looking likely, he will need a special diet too and is also really, really picky with his food.

Good luck with the Asda pouches, and I really hope he improves quickly and fully.

Odd it seems to happen to animals that are picky eaters isn't it. Mine absolutely insists on me supervising him eating and I have to keep encouraging him otherwise he wouldn't eat anything, drives me nuts. He does like drinking milk which I know isn't really good for him BUT I'd rather see him drinking milk than nothing at all seeing as it's a problem with their liquid intake that causes the crystals to form.

If by any chance your vet finds another palatable special diet brands please would you let us know on here. Hope Butters is feeling much better.

If you want to give milk to your cat, try Lactofree, it works out a lot cheaper than 'cat milk' but is much the same.

If the cat wont eat at all, try Lectade. It's a powder you add to their water & it has all the nutrients they need. (see a vet of course)