Cat Kidney problems

Question
Dear Dr. Connell,
Our 2 1/2 year old cat is currently in the hospital on catheter & IV. He was brought in yesterday and his urinary tract was clogged and bladder swollen to size of avocado. He's been drained and is staying tonight. His tests from yesterday showed Creatinine of 9.6 and BUN of around 138. Today his test show Creating of 9.7 and BUN of around 146. I have read that this could be recoverable and that he should stay on IV for 72 hours to have a good chance. Healing of the muscles & nerves needed for urinated may be an issue too.
In your experience, if his urinary function recovers, is there a chance of successful kidney recovery?
Thank you.

Answer
Hi Matt,
I am not a doctor, just a vet tech but I can tell you that most of these cats recover fully and that these kidney values are pre-azotemic from the blockage causing the kidneys to be overloaded with urine and toxins.

Azotemia is basically toxicity. You are also correct about the nerves and the muscle of the urethra being an issue as well as the tone of the bladder.

Now an avocado is quite small- I have felt plenty of cat bladders that size before prepping a cat for a spay. It's a bladder the size of a large navel orange that is the problem. I have seen too many of those on very sick male cats. So his chances of recover here are quite good also. The catheter he has in him can cause some temporary spasming or relaxing of the muscle causing some tone loss afterward and thus the cat might have some incontinence issues. But seriously, in over 29 yrs, I have only seen that happen once and that cat eventually regained control as well.

As long as this cat is on a good food such as Hill's C/D for life he has a good chance of never getting this again.

He should NEVER be put on commercial grocery store food or you will see him clogged up again really fast. Diet and a lot of water are imperative to keeping him healthy. The addition of canned food to his dry (in the am and pm) will also help. I give mine two tablespoons of wet am and pm and have no issues with blocked cats.
Keep fresh, clean water out all the time for him as well.