Whole family is ill including our cat

It all started about a month and a half ago. Mr.A got his flu jab and came down with what we thought was a severe case of the post jab illness. But he got worse and worse. My MiL had her jab and got ill after as well, so ill in fact I was worried for her life the weekend before last. It turned out she had developed a really bad chest infection. It's obvious now that this had nothing to do with the jab as everyone in the house either has it or is getting over it.

I managed to fight it off until a few days ago. I used to never get ill, but I catch everything here. I just got over a horrible ear infection last month.

During this time, my cat has had two bladder infections. The poor thing is in so much pain. We've taken him to the vet twice, but I am so worried. Those of you with cats probably know that what appear to be UTIs can be urinary blockages and can be fatal. He's never had UTIs before.

Despite being achey and exhausted from the plague or whatever eveyone has and taking care of everyone when they were sick, I am awake, waiting to hear how my cat is managing when he uses the box or to hear if he vomits. Last night I even dreamt that I had to rescue him from a woman who kidnapped him. After I found him, I was having a hard time getting out of the kidnapper's house because it was full of water. :-/ 

Illness:my grievance of the month or so.

Poor you!  Hope everyone feels better soon.

That is all a very rough time, sorry to hear you are all going through this.

About your cat's UTI, sometimes it's the brand or type of food that gradually causes a build up of crystals in a cat's urinary tract and the big mystery is, not all cats will react that way to that particular food.

If you're not using them already, you might want to switch to one of those types that pointedly mention urinary tract health on the package specifically, as some cats need this while others stay fine forever on the brands that don't particularly mention this as a benefit in their brand. I think the brands or types that promote UTI-safety have a lower ash and magnesium count than the regular ones, as those are the ingredients the UTI-prone cats can't handle while other cats can.

I once had two cats together eating the same brand, one of the ones that do not specifically promote themselves as being safe for UTI-prone cats; one of my cats was fine and never had a moment of UTI related trouble, while the other developed a blockage and had to have emergency care; I thought I'd lose him but he survived.

Per my vet's advice he had to be fed one of those specifically "urinary tract care" foods in order to avoid a repeat crisis, for the rest of his life.

Hope I'm not stepping on your toes, you've probably been through all the research and food switches and vet advice, etc, but I just thought I'd tell my story as I had a cat who suffered UTI too. 

It
I managed to fight it off until a few days ago. I used to never get ill, but I catch everything here. I just got over a horrible ear infection last month.

Whenever you move to a new enivonment you will be exposed to new bugs/infections that you haven't been exposed to before and therefore have no resistance to so it is not at all uncommon for someone new to this country or any other to be sick more often than they normally are.

Hope you feel better soon.

Thanks, everyone. 

Yeah, I talked to my vet yesterday about the special food, but he didn't want to try them yet because he's not sure if it's crystal formation that's causing it or a bacterial or stress thing.  I guess that if it's not a ph problem that's causing them, it can actually make things worse.  Although we didn't switch brands of food when he moved, the formulation is probably different, so it could very well be that.

We're switching to clay litter because he used that without issue in the States, although they don't sell his brand here (Hartz PH 5, cheap but the best stuff for his particular chemistry).  It may be the wood litter we've been using.  My cat has Pica, and he's taken to eating the wood pellets if we're not careful, so this might help.  His non-food of choice is paper, though.

He's on an antibiotic, Cystease, and Metacam.  After he gets better, we need to have him lose more weight, but he's not eating much right now.  The vet is covering all bases in terms of cause because he couldn't get a urine sample due to my cat's bladder being empty. 

Regarding me, I know a new environment is probably the reason, but I was hoping to escape it because I do have a great constitution.  I've moved around a lot, including other parts of Europe with no problem whatsoever after minor adjustments to water changes (a huge sensitivity of mine).  It's probably age because I started getting ill more often a year or two before the move.  However, this family is ill all the time, so I am begining to think there's something in the environment (their pets maybe). 

Yikes, I sympathize with the Pica too -- my current cat has Pica! It can be hard to live with when you have to make sure they are not chewing on something horrendously hazzardous, I know so well! he goes for plastic wrapping and bags, cables although not all of them, cardboard, sometimes a newspaper....it's not fun...

Best of luck with all these issues both human and feline; sounds like a good vet there being sure of what's going on.

Oh dear, you have my complete sympathy. We went through a couple of nasty bouts of cystitis with our cat recently. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown! He was checked out for crystals and infections, and nothing showed up. We hadn't changed his food or litter--best we could figure out was that the neighbourhood bully cat was stressing him out. What seemed to help the most was letting him out less plus saturating the house with Feliway. It's taken a couple of months, but he finally seems to be using his box normally again, and he's back to acting like himself.

Hugs to all three of you--hope you're all feeling better soon.