Just imagine if your feline friend developed a cat urinary blockage.  This condition is a serious complication of feline lower urinary tract disease, also known as FLUTD.  It’s often caused by cat bladder stones blocking the urethra so your male cat can’t pass any urine.

Why Does This Happen To Male Cats?

A cat blockage is rarely seen in female cats.  This is because the urethra in females is much shorter and broader than it is in males.  Although this puts females at greater risk for cat bladder infections, this does protect them somewhat from a feline urinary blockage. 

Because male cats have a much smaller urinary opening than females do, it doesn’t take a very big feline bladder stone to cause urinary blockage in cats.

How Your Vet Treats A Urinary Blockage In Cats

If your cat is unable to pass any urine, or can pass very little, this is an emergency.  Your cat’s kidneys stop functioning when the urine has no place to go, which allows toxins to build up in the body very quickly.  This toxin build-up causes death within a few days if it’s not treated.

Your vet will insert a catheter to allow the urine to drain out of the bladder.  Your cat will probably need to stay at the animal hospital for a few days, as the catheter may be stitched in place.  Treatment may include flushing the bladder with fluids to wash out any bladder stones that are present. 

Your cat will be given fluids, either by IV or under the skin, to prevent dehydration.  He’ll also be assessed for any problems related to the toxic build-up in his system.

Most cats can go home after a few days.  But you’ll need to feed your cat a special diet for the rest of his life to prevent bladder stones from forming again.

What If The Blockage Happens Again?

If your cat continues to have problems with a cat urinary blockage, surgery may be the next step.  This operation, called a feline perineal urethrostomy, enlarges your cat’s urinary opening to prevent blockages from recurring. 

This operation only prevents cat blockage, not FLUTD.  A cat who has had this operation is more likely to develop feline bladder infection and bladder stones.  He should have urine cultures done three or four times a year to be sure he’s not suffering from a feline lower urinary tract infection.

Prevent Cat Bladder Stones

You can nip this problem in the bud by preventing cat bladder stones in the first place.  Cats with very concentrated urine are more prone to developing stones. 

The key is to feed your cat canned food instead of dry.  Cats are meant to get most of their water from the food they eat.  A high quality canned food has a moisture content closer to what a cat in the wild would eat.  A cat who is always fed dry food is probably chronically dehydrated.

Be sure your cat always has access to plenty of clean, fresh drinking water.

Herbal and homeopathic remedies for cats are now available.  These remedies are especially formulated to treat and prevent cat urinary problems.  It’s essential to purchase these safe, effective remedies from a well-known company with a great reputation for manufacturing the highest quality pet products.

Now that you have this information, you can take steps to protect your kitty from ever experiencing a cat urinary blockage.

Darlene Norris
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/do-you-know-how-urinary-blockage-in-cats-is-treated-707677.html

Are you sick and tired of dealing with feline bladder infections?  You’re not alone.  Cat urinary problems are probably the most common reason for a vet visit.  In this article, we’ll take a look at how your vet treats a cat bladder infection, and what you can do at home.

Cat Bladder Infection Treatments

Your vet may want to do a urinalysis to check your cat’s urine for the presence of bacteria, blood, white blood cells, or crystals.  White blood cells indicate an infection, while crystals can show that bladder stones are forming.  If your vet suspects bladder stones, x-rays or an ultrasound may be the next step.

Most bladder infections are treated with antibiotics.  If your cat suffers from frequent feline bladder infections, your vet will want to do a urine culture to try to identify the bacteria involved.  This will help to determine the best antibiotic to use.

If your cat has a bladder infection, it’s very important to treat it.  If you don’t, it can progress to a feline kidney infection, cat bladder stones, or other cat urinary problems.

Home Treatments for Bladder Infections In Cats

Diet is very important for cats with urinary problems.  If your cat eats only dry food, you probably don’t realize that chances are good that he’s chronically dehydrated.  A dehydrated cat has very concentrated urine, a common cause of cat bladder stones or a cat bladder infection.

Some cats don’t drink enough water either.  This is because cats in the wild get most of their water from their prey, so they don’t have to drink a lot of water.  However this leads to big problems when cats are fed only dry food.

What can you do?  The best answer is to feed your cat a good-quality canned food.  Canned food has a moisture level similar to a cat’s natural diet in the wild.  

Be sure that your cat always has access to clean, fresh water.  You wouldn’t want to drink water that’s old and has stuff floating in it, and your cat won’t either.

Cranberry juice is an old remedy for preventing bladder infections in people.  However, most cats won’t drink it.  You can find cranberry capsules at the drugstore.  If you’re good at giving your cat pills, this can be an effective way to prevent and treat bladder infections in cats.  But if you’re like most cat owners, poking a pill down your cat’s throat is not high on your list of fun things to do.

Treat Cat Urinary Problems With Natural Remedies For Pets

Over the centuries, people have learned by trial and error which plants can help heal different health conditions.  Uva ursi and barberry are two herbal remedies for human urinary tract problems that have stood the test of time. 

Homeopathic treatments for people with bladder problems are also safe and effective.  Cantharis and Staphysagris are proven natural remedies to support bladder health.

The question is, how to use these natural remedies on your cat.  It’s very important to find a product that’s specially formulated for pets, not people, so it’s safe for your kitty.  And of course, it has to be easy to give to your feline friend, or you won’t use it for long.

Take charge of your cat’s health by finding a product that’s effective and easy to use, and so safe that you can give it to your cat every day. This is the easiest way to prevent feline bladder infections.

Darlene Norris
http://www.articlesbase.com/pets-articles/what-you-should-know-about-feline-bladder-infections-705686.html

Urinary tract infection is a tern used for an infection, by the Escherichia coli bacteria, of the urinary tract. If you are not aware, the urinary tracts are made up of the urethra (which clears urine from the bladder out of our body), the ureter (carries the urine to the bladder from the kidney) and lastly the kidneys (which filter the urine).

Medical researches have shown that women have a higher chance to getting uti as compared to men, due to their shorter urethra. Although urine is a waste product produced by our body, it does not contain any bacteria.

Urinary tract infection may cause discomfort to the sufferers, but they can be easily cured with a doctor’s prescription or with uti home remedies.

Urinary tract infection happens when bacteria gets into the urinary tract through the entrance of the urethra and slowly multiply themselves in the bladder. An infection occurs when multiplying of the bacteria starts in various parts of the urinary tract.

There are some medical terms given to the infections. A bacteria infection is known as urethritis. A bladder bacteria infection is called cystitis. And if the bacteria reaches the kidney and multiply, the UTI is called pyelonephritis. Should the kidney become infected, medical attention is needed. There are different symptoms for different types of infection.

Urinary Tract Infection can occur to anyone without any warning. However, certain groups of people are more prone to getting this disease.

Women who are sexually active have a higher chance to be infected. During intercourse, the body fluid is mixed with the bacteria outside the body and has a higher chance to entering the urethra and multiplication begins.

Women who practices safe sex by using contraceptives devices have a higher chance to bring infected than women who does not have sex.

Due to the changes in their immune system upon getting diabetes, this group of people are at a higher chance to get infected.

Babies are the next group of people to get UTI easily. As they wore diapers, bacteria could easily spread around and enter into the urinary tract. Thus change an infant’s diaper regularly to prevent this occurrence.

Any objection in the way of the urine path sets the conditions for infection, as urine is unable to pass out of the body. Some of the urine is left in the ureter or urethra, allowing bacteria to grow and multiply. An enlarge prostate, a common medical issue faced by elderly man, is one example of urine flow obstruction.

One of the worst ailments to suffer with is a yeast infection for men. This video explains how to get rid of men yeast infections for good.

Duration : 3 min 35 sec

Welcome to the club!

It’s probably not a club you ever dreamt of joining, but you’re in it anyway. The good news is that chances are, your membership will be short-term. Most kids start staying dry before starting school. Each year after that, the percentage of bedwetters decreases even more. There aren’t very many kids who go off to college needing diapers – it does happen, but it’s really pretty rare.

So what’s up with bedwetting?

What’s the cause? In other words, why you? Why your child? First of all, there are two types of bedwetting. The first is Primary Nocturnal Enuresis (PNE). This describes children who have never stayed dry at night, or at least, never on a regular basis. The second type is Secondary Nocturnal Enuresis. This describes kids who used to stay dry, but who have recently started wetting the bed. The causes for each type are different, and so are the remedies and treatments.

Primary Nocturnal Enuresis

Generally, primary enuresis is a problem passed down from one generation to the next. It’s more common in boys, but happens to girls, too. Even if your whole family is mum on the subject, you can bet some of the nests in the family tree throughout the years were floating! You might not have a line of relatives clamoring to share their experiences, but you can know they’re out there. If the former bedwetters in your family are willing to fess up, it could go a long way toward helping your child’s optimism. After all, if Uncle Joe used to wet the bed, and is now married, employed, and dry, there’s hope!

Theories abound about the causes of primary nocturnal enuresis. Small bladder. Immature bladder. Deep sleeper. Brief REM cycle. Too many fluids before bedtime. Too little fluids during the day. Too much caffeine. The list is endless.

The list of what doesn’t cause bedwetting is just as long. Enuresis isn’t caused by emotional problems, how you potty trained your child, a serious medical disorder, or your child’s laziness or apathy.

Enuresis of either type merits a visit to your pediatrician. But chances are you’ll hear that it’s a problem your child will outgrow, that it’s a hereditary problem, and that you should try different remedies to see if any are helpful.

Some families find bedwetting alarms helpful. For others, it’s just a really loud interruption of a good night’s sleep. There are medications, including pills and nasal sprays that can help in some cases. Again, they work for some kids, sometimes. Same thing with homeopathic or herbal bedwetting remedies, hypnosis, and biofeedback. They’re all worth a try. Just do your research first, and follow the directions exactly.

Secondary Enuresis

This is the type of bedwetting that catches you by surprise. Your child’s been dry for years, when all of a sudden, you’re getting that midnight knock on the door. “Mommy, I wet the bed.” What the heck is going on?

Good question – and it’s one your pediatrician may be able to help you with. It’s important to rule out bladder and urinary tract infections. If something simple like this is causing your child to wet the bed, you’re really in luck! A few days on an antibiotic, and you’re out of the bedwetting club!

If there’s no evidence of infection, take a look at your family’s recent circumstances. Have you moved, had a new baby, lost a relative, changed schools, or had something else stressful happen? Some children have trouble processing these events, and their worries intrude on their sleep enough to bring on a cycle of bedwetting. Provide the support your child needs to get through the stressful time, and the bedwetting will end sooner than later.

Susan Lewis
http://www.articlesbase.com/parenting-articles/so-your-child-wets-the-bed-why-131885.html

Kidney infection, also known as pyelonephritis can damage your kidneys for good, or cause a life-threatening infection if it spreads to your bloodstream. That is why it must be treated properly, so medical help is needed immediately.

Usually, kidney infection starts when bacteria enter the urinary tract through the urethra, and multiply.

There are some symptoms that are caused by the infection. Abdominal pain or pressure, the need to urinate during the night, cloudy urine with a strong odor or frequent urination are some signs that show you have a kidney infection. This fact can be also suspected if you have a burning sensation or pain when urinating, pus or blood in your urine, urine retention, back, side or groin pain, or fever.

In the severe kidney infections, there appears also nausea, extreme fatigue, chills, and high fever.

It is known also that young children have other symptoms too, such as irritability, loose bowel movements, enuresis and loss of appetite.

Usually, the bacteria that provoke kidney infection enter the urinary tract through the urethra, and starts multiplicating. Kidney infection can appear in other way too, through the bloodstream. That happens due to another part of the body that is infected, because infection travels through the bloodstream and affects the kidneys.

Not always, having bacteria in the urine means you have an infection. There are known many cases of persons, especially older adults that have bacteria in the bladder, but that provokes no symptoms and no harm, no treatment being needed. This is the so-called asymptomatic bacteriuria.

Studies revealed that women have more chances to develop kidney infection than men. That happens, because women have a much shorter urethra, and the bacteria will travel a shorter distance from the outside of the body till will reach the bladder.

Sexuala activity at women rises the risk of kidney infection, because bacteria can be introduced into the urethra. The risk also rises at women that use diaphragms or spermacides for birth control.

Other factors that increase the possibility of developing kidney infection in men and women too, are medications that lower your immunity, diseases, such as cancer, diabetes or HIV, prolonged use of tubes used to drain urine from the bladder, a kidney stone, structural abnormalities in your urinary system, or an enlarged prostate gland in men.

Vesicoureteral reflux is also a condition that rises the posibilitu of developing kidney infection. That condition allows urine flow from the bladder back up into the ureters and kidneys.

It is important to go for a check up as soon as you suspect that something is wrong with your kidneys. The doctor might suspect an infection localized in your kidneys and will ask for a urine sample in order to test it for blood, pus and bacterial presence. There are no tests for finding out whether the infection is in the kidneys or inside the bladder but if you complain about upper back pain and fever you might have a kidney infection.

Try not to leave this infection resolve by itself because you can develop serious complications like permanent kidney damage or even septicemia if the bacteria get inside your blood stream.

The most exposed to these complications are the children and the pregnant women. Due to such an infection, pregnant women can give birth to underweight babies or can have a premature birth.

Treatment for kidney infection consists of antibiotic drugs. The period of administration and the quantity will be decided by the doctor, depending of the level of bacteria in the urine. The most used antibiotic drugs are: amoxicillin, nitrofurantoin, trimethoprim, and quinolones. It is important to let your doctor know about other medication you are taking because some of the antibiotic drugs do not match with other drugs.

You will feel better after a few days of treatment but it is important to follow the treatment as prescribed by the doctor, not to give up on taking the antibiotic drugs as soon as you feel better, because this could only lead to an incomplete treatment and the disease will eventually return. If the kidney infection is severe, you might be administered the antibiotic drugs intravenous and be hospitalized for a few days.

Sometimes recurrent kidney infections are caused by urologic abnormalities and in that case your current doctor might advice you to go to an urologist for a check up.

In order to prevent kidney infections you should drink a lot of liquids, especially water and you should urinate often and not retain your urine because bacterium will develop.

It is indicated to take a shower after intercourses and also to drink plenty of water after intercourses. Showering is better that bathing because it prevents excess moisture which can increase the bacteria level from your organism.

Be careful when wiping. Try to wipe from front to back after urinating in order not to bring infections towards your urethra.

Hygiene is very important but be careful to wash your intimate areas gently in order to prevent skin irritation.

At home, if you have a kidney infection you can place a heating pad on your abdomen in order to reduce pain. Also, drink a lot of liquids in order to keep well hydrated but avoid citrus juices and alcohol because these liquids will only irritate your kidneys.

For more resources about kidney infection or especially about please review kidney infection symptoms please review http://www.kidney-infection-center.com/kidney-infection-symptoms.htm

Groshan Fabiola
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/ways-of-preventing-urinary-tract-infection-109789.html

Duration : 5 min 21 sec

For the average person, getting a kidney infection is relatively uncommon. There are some conditions, however, that can lead to kidney infections. The medical term for this kind of infection is called pyelonephritis. It can lead to kidney failure and also to spread of infection from the kidneys to the bloodstream, leading to a dangerous case of gram negative sepsis, which can be fatal in the elderly.

Kidney stones can be a cause of chronic or recurrent kidney infection. Stones are foreign bodies inside the “pelvis” or urinary side of the kidney and can allow bacteria to seed onto them. The kidney stones then become a reservoir for bacteria, leading to recurrent infection.

Prostate disease can cause kidney infection. When the prostate is enlarged or inflamed, it can result in a back up of urine from the bladder all the way up to the kidneys. This can trap bacteria in the urinary tract and can lead to both bladder and kidney infections. These can be very dangerous because prostate enlargement is most common in elderly men who often do not fight off infection well. The mortality rate from kidney infections is higher in the elderly than they are in young people.

Any kind of narrowing or blockage further down the urinary tract can cause kidney infection. Children can be born with abnormal ureters that cause them to develop kidney infections at a very early age. Only through X-Rays involving dye can the blockage be found and repaired. Anytime a child gets frequent bladder or kidney infections, especially boys in which infections are rare, an X-Ray should be done to determine whether or not the child is born with an abnormally placed ureters or ureters.

Women in pregnancy are prone to kidney infection. They often present with blood in the urine and extreme pain on the side where the infected kidney is. This can cause irritability of the uterus and preterm labor.

Most kidney infection problems occur when bacteria come up from the outside through the bladder and up inside the ureters. In rarer cases, however, the individual can have infection first in the bloodstream, a condition called gram negative sepsis. Because the kidney filters blood, it can collect bacteria and cause infection in the kidneys themselves.

The signs and symptoms of a kidney infection are often unmistakable. The individual experiences a fever with flank pain on the side where the kidney is infected. They also have bacteria, blood and sometimes kidney cells showing up in the urinalysis. This is a very painful infection and must be treated aggressively.

The primary cause of a kidney infection is that of bacteria called Gram negative bacteria. They are the type of bacteria found in the stool and because of the proximity of the rectum and the urethra, bacteria from the stool can come up through the urethra, into the bladder and up through the ureters to the kidneys.

Michael Webb
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/causes-of-kidney-infection-106604.html