Medical Management of Male and Female Cats with Nonobstructive Lower Urinary Tract Disease

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This case is typical of recurrent urolithiasis managed by repeated surgery. Retrospective assessment of the disorder indicates the need for quantitative analyses of uroliths removed by cystotomy. Compliance of the owners with recommendations to minimize recurrent urolithiasis might have been beneficial. Results of medical therapy designed to induce dissolution of uroliths in this case are representative of preliminary findings of medical dissolution of naturally occurring struvite uroliths in ten other cats. It is of interest that the uroliths dissolved even though no effort was made to induce diuresis. The underlying cause of UTI in this patient may have been damage to the lower urinary tract induced by previous diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and/or sterile struvite uroliths that compromised local host defense mechanisms. Lack of urease production by the uropathogens suggests that they did not play a causative role in formation of uroliths. The need for preventative therapy of recurrent formation of uroliths after their medical dissolution is worthy of further comment. In this patient, specific measures to prevent urolith recurrence were not initiated because it is a part of a prospective clinical study. In the event uroliths recur, medical therapy designed to induce dissolution of uroliths would be repeated. Need for long-term preventative therapy would be dependent on the time interval between recurrent episodes (weeks, months, or years), and the effectiveness of medical therapy for urolith dissolution. Long-term prophylactic therapy would include urine acidifiers and diets low in magnesium.