| dc.description.abstract | In this thesis I chose to review the Literature of Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disorder (referred to as FLUTD) in cats and study the reoccurrence rate of obstructive FLUTD relating to the specific gravity of the urine. I tried to find weather the veterinary practitioners can decide systematically which case is a surgical case and which is a dietary management case based on specific gravity results. All the results I got were collected from two clinics which are located in two different cities in Israel. The data was collected from the computers of the clinics, which each of them works with different computer program. I searched in each clinic for all the cats FLUTD patients from the last 9 years and collected the results, as mentioned previously. The age, sex, breed and reproductive status (castrated or not) related to crystaluria are important criteria, although they all were studied many times before. I wanted to find if the Israeli climate has any influence on the results compared with previous studies which were done in other countries. I concluded that male castrated cats between the ages 3-7 years old are at risk of urolithiasis. And that from the pure breed cats, the Hymalian and Persian cats are predisposed to urolithiasis. Older cats appear to have only struvite crystals. From the data I collected, I found that contrary to struvite crystals and Ca-oxalate crystals are less frequent to precipitate in cats' urine and that struvite precipitate mainly in urine with pH level of 6.5-8.0 I was very interested to find that the sub-tropic climate in Israel has a role in the frequency of the urolithiasis among cats throughout the year, but mainly during summer and spring seasons. Taking into account that the cat is a lazy animal which doesn't drink very often and the fact that in Israel is the temperatures are relatively high, these commonly results in dehydration of the cats, which leads to a concentrated urine that predisposes to crystaluria. Unfortunately, the main part of my study question wasn't so fruitful, because I didn’t find any relationship between specific gravity and reoccurrence rate of urethral obstruction, and this might have happened due to intervention of other data which couldn't be controlled during the study. Finally, I wasn’t able to find any system of specific gravity level, which might help other veterinarians and myself in the future, to decide with a certainty what specific gravity level belong to a reoccurring case, and must be solved surgically. I also couldn’t conclude what specific gravity level belongs to an un-reoccurring cases and can be solved by urohydropropulsion technique and diet change only. Instead of that I can safely say that there is a direct relationship between the specific gravity level and the veterinarian choice of treatment. The results I got show that as the specific gravity level increases, the urine concentration goes higher and the urethral obstruction is more severe. The treatment is more invasive as the specific gravity increases. In my opinion, it may be better to pay more attention to the specific gravity results, and take them into account by deciding the best way of treatment for lifelong healthy cats. Important point is that urinary diet is used almost with any case, if the owners can pay for it. The nutrition of the obstructive animal seems to be very important to prevent recurrence of obstruction or crystaluria and help the animal to leave a much more comfortable life. | en |
