Cat Health

Fluffy hasn't been acting quite like herself lately. This of course is making the family parakeet feel a little safer but stoking your concerns that something could be wrong. So as a preventative measure you load up Fluffy in her pink pet taxi and head to the veterinary clinic. After arriving your vet palpates, tests, an probes. Finally, he comes to the conclusion that Fluffy may have a thickened bladder wall perhaps driven by her chronic urinary tract infection. OMG a cat bladder thickening what could be worse!

I think most pet parents would have a similar reaction but when you get right down to it cat bladder thickening sounds a lot worse than it really is; that is in the early stages.

Quick Biology Lesson - The Bladder

The bladder is the sac that hold urine produced in the kidneys until is expelled from the body. At the base of the bladder, a circular muscle called a sphincter is located that can be opened to allow urine to flow into a tube called the urethra, which exits the body in the genital area. The walls of the bladder are muscular and can stretch and expand to either accommodate more urine or contract to expel it.

The Problem with Cat Bladder Thickening

When cat bladder thickening occurs the muscle fibers of the bladder wall thicken and become shorter resulting in loss of suppleness. This of course creates problems in both accommodating more urine and/or effectively expelling urine.

When a feline urinates but is unable to completely empty the bladder it creates a sense of fullness even though some urine has been expelled. The condition may continue to increase in severity is left untreated as the already flexibility challenged bladder wall deals with the pressure and constant need to urinate.

Initially, cat bladder thickening is nothing more than an inconvenient symptoms but as the condition worsens it can become a condition in itself capable of trigger a number of health concerns.

Two of these health concerns are bacterial infections of the urinary tract and bladder stones. The frequency of both conditions is greatly increased by pooling of bladder urine. The worse the bladder functions the greater the risk!

What Can Be Done?

The chances of bacterial infection of the urinary tract and bladder stone/crystal formation can be greatly reduced through a specialized diet, basic pet care, and supplementation. You might even want to consider asking your veterinarian to prescribe one of a handful of cat foods specially formulated to prevent bacterial infection of the urinary tract and urinary crystal formation, which can worsen bladder thicken and inflammation.

At home make sure to keep those litter boxes clean, provide plenty of purified water, consider an eye dropper or two of cranberry juice a day to help keep bacterial away, reduce any stress they may be under, and provide your cat with a convenient private place to urinate.

Another helpful idea is to add a homeopathic pet urinary tract tonic containing Berberis, Cantharis, and Staphysagris to your pets daily routine. These formulas have a number of benefits including reconditioning the bladder wall, discouraging bacterial infection, soothing sore swollen tissue, and quelling inflammation.

In conclusion, when it comes to cat bladder thickening there are no easy answers since what you are trying to do is turn back the clock on what has already occurred. That said, by working with your veterinarian and implementing the at home steps above you will likely be able to stop it from getting worse and with a little luck possibly reverse the damage over time.

Robert D. Hawkins is an enthusiastic consumer advocate for natural pet health and natural living with over 10 years experience in the field. To learn more about cat bladder concerns along with information about a safe and effective herbal and homeopathic urinary tract tonic specially formulated to promote bladder health and treat bladder thickening Click Here.

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert