(12/18/2008) Update:Within 24 hours of starting the cranberry and apple cider vinegar regimen, Sigyn was able to release an increased volume, if not yet normal, of urine. 3 days later, she’s going normally, behaving normally, and as far as I can tell is completely cured. She’ll stay on that diet for the rest of the week to be safe, but I highly recommend anyone with a cat with a UTI (caught early enough), to try ACV and Cranberry extract before rushing to the vet’s for antibiotics.
If you’re particularly squeamish, you may want to skip this post.
Friday evening, I noticed that Sigyn was almost ALWAYS in the litter box whenever I looked the room. Saturday morning, I noticed that she was in there (every 2-5 minutes), and squatting, but not more than a drop was coming out, and she occasionally was trying to use the bathtub on occasional as well without any better results). I’m no vet, but I know enough about cat health to know that those symptoms mean only one thing, she’s got a UTI (urinary tract infection). Christmas has put a strain on the bank account however so we’re hoping to avoid a vet visit if at all possible (and of course no vets were open til today anyhow and taking her to the animal hospital was out of the question unless it was clearly an emergency). Still a UTI isn’t something you ignore in cats because if you let it go too long and the bacteria get up into the kidneys, it can turn fatal in a hurry.
We have temporarily switched her totally over to wet food to which we’re adding cranberry extract and diluted apple cider vinegar as well as giving her a couple of pellets of cantharis for pain. We started her on that regimen Saturday evening, with the understanding that if she showed no improvement, we’d make a vet appointment first thing today. I’m happy to report that as of yesterday evening, her trips to the litter box are leaving about a teaspoon of urine which, while not yet a normal amount, is a vast improvement from the drop she’d been leaving earlier. I think we caught it early (there was no blood in her urine at all because I’d have easily seen any when she left a drop or two in the white bath tub), and since she’s showing definitive signs of improvement, I think we’ll monitor her closely for a bit longer before calling the vet.