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	Cat with Cystitis Q: A friend of mine has a cat who is nearly 4 years old. she obtained the cat from the Blue Cross and it has had cystitis ever since she has had it. She has recently been told that the reason for the cystitis is polyps (I assume that this is the correct spelling) and she has been told that if an operation to remove the polyps is unsuccessful or if any of the polyps cannot be removed, she should "call it a day"? Can you tell me what polyps are and whether she should go through with the operation,. what the consequences are if she does not and whether there is anything else which can be done to help the cat? Thank you in anticipation of your response. Sam

A: Dear Sam, I am sorry to hear about your friends cat. Without knowing the cat and the full medical history, it is a bit difficult to answer your questions. I have to say bladder polyps are a very unusual thing to find in a cat. Many cats suffer from cystitis repeatedly {but not continuously, as it sounds in this case} but it is due to a problem with crystals in their urine which can group together to form bladder stones. This is connected to the cat being unable to cope with the mineral {salt} levels in their diet. I assume that this has been ruled out on urine tests. The other causes for recurrent cystitis would be things like Diabetes and Bladder tumours, both unusual in a young cat. I presume that your friends vets have seen these polyps on X-rays or can feel them in her bladder. A polyp is simply a lump of benign cells that grows outwards. They can occur anywhere on the body - on the skin and in the rectum probably being the most common places. They can interfere with the passage of urine and may bleed occasionally.The only way to find out more would be to do surgery to investigate and try to remove these polyps, as they are suggesting. This would be difficult and dangerous surgery, with no guarantees of success. Cystitis is terribly uncomfortable and it would not be fair to leave her struggling with it all the time, especially being so young, if they have tried everything else. I presume the cystitis will continue if they cannot get all the polyps out. As to whether anything else can be done to help the cat, she really needs to sit down with her own vets and discuss that. They will only want to do what is best for her cat. Hope this helps, Maeve Moorcroft MVB MRCVS {PetPlanet Vet}

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