Hello:
This is not a very descriptive term - thus your question. It is quite common for cats to develop signs of lower urinary tract disease manifested by increased frequency and decreased volume of urine, blood in the urine, crystals, stones, discomfort on urination, and urinating in unusual places.
Over time, we have realized that these signs can be caused by a whole host of different underlying causes including urinary tract infections, dietary issues, stones, crystals, viruses, anatomic abnormalities, and others.
One subset of these potential causes includes abnormalities in the bladder wall that mimics what is called interstitial cystitis in women. These problems are poorly understood pathologies in cats (or in women). They are diagnosed by biopsy of the bladder wall. So far, there are few to no specific treatments that have proven helpful in these cats - and none are really in the works until we get a better idea about how these problems are caused.
At this point we are still treating them symptomatically with spasm reducers, anti-inflammatory medications, sometimes antibiotics (though this problem is uncommonly bacterial), supplemental fluids, diet changes, and the two best doctors in the world, Mother Nature and Father Time.
Hope this information helps. Good luck.
Dr. Coston
Cat Veterinarian
22 years of experience as companion animal veterinarian. Practice owner. Author of: Ask The Animals
Hi again,
There are two categories of anti-inflammatory medications: Non-steroidal Anti-inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDS) like meloxicam or steroidal anti-inflammatory meds like prednisone or prednisolone. We want to aoid pred unless and until we rule out any infectious causes like viruses (no currently available tests other than FeLV and FIV) or bacterial infection with urine culture and sensitivity. We will sometimes also use straight pain medications in addition to the pred or NSAIDS like butorphanol or buprenorphine.
The antispasmodics we use are amitriptyline or phenoxybenzamine.
Hope this helps.