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We've recently discovered that our 5 year old male cat has been urinating in our dining room corner. At first we thought this may have been because we went out of town and he was mad at us for leaving him with a sitter. After painstakingly cleaning the entire floor with enzyme-cat smell/stain eliminator and placing his food in said corner, he's still going on the dining room floor(only on occasion- he also uses his two litterboxes) even when we're sitting right there. After a lot of Googling, I fear he may have a UTI.
After more Googling, we are immediately switching him out to wet food mixed with water and making sure he's drinking enough as well as taking his food up (we've had him on the autofeeder that keeps food in his bowl constantly ). Is this sufficient, or should we really see a vet? My concern is the only vet near us is the one owned/connected to a very large PetStore chain, and when we took him there when we brought him in when we first got him, they charged us $600 for a clean bill of health (they did give us some amoxicilin as a preventive measure, but assured us at the time he was fine).
Please please take the kitty to the vet. If he does have an infection and it's left untreated, it can be very dangerous. He may also have stones etc. Most of the time all it takes is a urine test, and they run less than $50.00.
If you explain to the vet that cost is a factor for you they should be willing to do a minimum of tests and as mainegirl said, the urine test isn't costly. It's usually the full blood panels that really break the bank.
The males run a higher risk of blockages and can actually die in a very short time if the blockage isn't fixed.
I think your choice to change to wet food is fantastic. The dry foods are what often causes all kinds of bladder/kidney/urinary illnesses, so the wet food will help prevent those but I don't feel it will cure something he may be harboring now.
Our kitty just finished a round of antibiotics for a possible UTI and it was very inexpensive. After 10 days of treatment she is better. The difference here is that the infections are not life threatening with the females.
I just dropped him off, and the tubby weighs 20lbs (he's always been big, but he's gained 3 lbs in the past month)! We had him on an organic weight control (dry) food for indoor cats. Obviously we need to get him exercising more. Do you have any suggestions for a good weight control wet food? Thanks!
Please take your animal to the vet. What you're dealing with is potentially life-threatening if not appropriately (and promptly) treated.
I must agree with this post.
I had a boy kitty that had stones. He almost died from them. When we finally noticed something was up with him and we took him to an after hours animal er, his bladder was the size of a cantaloupe. A couple more hours and it would've ruptured and he'd have died.
The stones are a boy cat problem. I've dealt with UTI's in my girl cats, but when it was my boy cat, it was always stones (he had them twice).
I just dropped him off, and the tubby weighs 20lbs (he's always been big, but he's gained 3 lbs in the past month)! We had him on an organic weight control (dry) food for indoor cats. Obviously we need to get him exercising more. Do you have any suggestions for a good weight control wet food? Thanks!
Our male is a large cat in general, but he weighed in at 26 pounds when he had his UTI infection (and other problems). The vet said he should weight approx. 19 pounds.
Changing him to 3 SMALL meals of Wellness wet food a day has helped his health a LOT, his coat, and his weight. He is down to 22 pounds and still losing.
It took us probably 3 months to get him completely weaned from dry free feeding and onto Wellness wet food. He's a happy camper now.
I want to clarify that we DID take him to a vet. We didn't just change his food. He needed antibiotics and a change in food.
Last edited by Lola4; 02-09-2009 at 01:14 PM..
Reason: clarification
I just dropped him off, and the tubby weighs 20lbs (he's always been big, but he's gained 3 lbs in the past month)! We had him on an organic weight control (dry) food for indoor cats. Obviously we need to get him exercising more. Do you have any suggestions for a good weight control wet food? Thanks!
Did the vet say anything about his problem ?
Regarding his weight, I have found that limiting the cat's intake of food daily helps just as much as what you feed him. Ask your vet to be sure, but mine has me not leave out food all day long. I feed them just over a 1/4 cup sized
portion in the morning before work and again when I get home. My Misty still needs to lose a 1lb and a half. That doesn't sound like much, but the vet told me for every 1 lb a dog or kitty is over weight, it's like 10 lbs to us.
the vet told me for every 1 lb a dog or kitty is over weight, it's like 10 lbs to us.
I'm only 4 pounds over weight!
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). Is this sufficient, or should we really see a vet? My concern is the only vet near us is the one owned/connected to a very large PetStore chain, and when we took him there when we brought him in when we first got him, they charged us $600 for a clean bill of health (they did give us some amoxicilin as a preventive measure, but assured us at the time he was fine).
Thanks!
