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Cat Peeing

The Menagerie
#1

This is a long tale. We have an 8-year-old Ocicat (a breed created by crossing a Siamese with an Abyssinian and later adding American shorthair). About four years ago we had a new roof put on and the noise was tremendous the whole day. After that, he began to pee outside the box. His littermate brother had no reaction.

Under the assumption that his nerves were shot and he somehow associated the horrible noise with using the box, we have tried Feliway, Prozac, Paxil, and Dr. Elsey’s Cat Attract. Maybe more I can’t remember now.

We have had him checked repeatedly for a urinary tract infection and he’s never had one. The last time he was tested, about two months ago, he had some blood in his urine but no infection. He had an ultrasound that was negative. Based on this, we have been thinking in conjunction with the vet that he’s in pain, maybe inflammation. He sometimes yowls a low guttural sound and then we see that he’s peed. He’s now on gabapentin for pain.

He continues to pee. If anything, he seems to have gotten worse on the gabapentin. I called CSU vet school in Fort Collins and an internal medicine vet is willing to consult with our vet. If they decide it’s worth the 90-minute trip, I’ll take him in for a workup.

We are working with two great cat vets, both at the same practice. They are very understanding and really listen and give us things to try. Unfortunately, we’re not getting anywhere.

Any ideas?

Edit: I should make clear that he does pee in the box just not reliably.

#2

Cosequin can be useful for sterile cystitis. Doubtful that will be the magic bullet here, but perhaps could be part of the solution.

Gabapentin is an interesting choice. Have you tried buprenorphine?

I like the pheromone collars better than the sprays or plug ins, since they stay with the cat. Will he tolerate a collar?

Have you crated him, or confined him to a small room? Sometimes along with everything else there needs to be a period of retraining to the box.

One more thing to try: play around with different litter, and different boxes. Perhaps even types than aren’t the usual “preferred” in cases like these. He knows peeing hurts…giving him a really different environment might be helpful. Also, have A LOT of boxes available to him, far more than you really need. Gradually decrease once he’s reliable again.

Good luck. Betting this’ll take quite a long time to resolve fully. Don’t lose hope!

3 Likes
#3

Any chance of the tests coming back false negative? You could ask the vet to humour you and out him on a round of antibiotics to see if it clears up the problem. The other thing I thought of is has he been tested for diabetes? If he is eliminating large amounts of sugar in his urine it will act and feel like a UTI but not test positive for one because it’s not an infection causing the inflammation…it’s the highly concentrated sugar leaving the system.

Hope he feels better soon.

2 Likes
#4

Thanks, Simkie, for the suggestions. I’ll talk to the vet on Tuesday about the sterile cystitis, Cosequin and the buprenorphine. We had decided against the Feliway collar but could reconsider it. He is opinionated. Our only small room is occupied by another problem cat! (The pee cat wants to eat her.) As far as the boxes are concerned, the beast has one upstairs and two very large ones downstairs. I can rethink the box strategy though.

Canadian Trotter – Asking the vet about a round of antibiotics is a good idea. Also the diabetes testing. Thanks for the ideas.

#5

You might consider crating. Even one of those large cat condo crates, with the different levels. Like this. (Lots out there! Kinda $$$, but less than replacing furniture and carpet.) Wow, check out this one!

Cosequin is cheap, easy and available. No reason to not try it :slight_smile: Open capsule, sprinkle on food. Dose up for his size (ocicats are sizable, aren’t they?) Are you feeding wet? Going to an all-wet diet might help, too, if you’re feeding any dry.

I’d at least do a box in every room he’s peeing in. Preferably OVER the favorite pee spot, if you can.

Have you spoken with a behaviorist?

Good luck! Cat pee is the worst :dead:

2 Likes
#6

What does he eat? My female had repeat bouts of cystitis. We did amitriptyline for a short while which helped but it wasn’t until I pulled her off of dry kibble completely that the episodes ended. She has never had a bout since getting her off the kibble. She now gets a combo of canned and raw.

Susan

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#7

Simkie – Love the expensive cat condo. No place to put that one, but I wonder about crating itself. I’d have to figure it out. I really wonder how he’d do with it. He really is opinionated.

Wet food: I wish. He will not eat wet food, which is too bad. His taste for dry might indicate diabetes?

Boxes over wet spots: He was peeing in our bedroom, so we put a box over one of the spots. It worked for a while.

Behavorist: Interestingly, we asked the vet and she said that there was only one she knew of and she didn’t think much of her. I can look into this more on my own, a google search probably.

Kryabee – Same on the dry food. Even though it didn’t work long for you, I’ll mention the amitriptyline with the vet. Maybe an older anti-depressant would work better than the Paxil or Prozac.

By the way, I’m sitting here with the problem child snuggled next to me.

#8

Have you seen the catinfo.org site? She’s got a really extensive run down on how to get dry food addicts on to wet food. It’s worth the frustration to get him eating wet!

I did speak with a cat behaviorist when I was in Colorado. Can’t recall her name and it was years and years ago, but the conversation was useful, imo. You don’t even need one in state–a phone consult is enough.

Buspar is another oldish anti depressant that’s used on felines that could be worth a try.

2 Likes
#9

Simkie – I just got off the cat info.org site. Now I’m very interested in weaning him onto wet food. We’re giving him Royal Canin calming dry food right now, but I see that they also make a wet calming food. The site also got me a little jazzed about making cat food. Not sure that will ever happen though.

1 Like
#10

Consider Adequan injections.

#11

Haha, right?! I also get jazzed about making my own cat food every time I read through there. :lol: (Have never done it, really get wrapped around the axle about nutrition. I leave it for the people with degrees in that field!)

But getting him onto wet food would really be a good idea. Dry is just not awesome for kitties for so many reasons.

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#12

Justmyluck – Thanks for the Adequan suggestion. I looked it up and it’s very interesting. I’ll talk to the vet on Tuesday.

Simkie – I got so jazzed about making cat food that I checked on Amazon and found brand of meat grinder she uses on the cat info site. I want one. (Don’t have anyplace to put it.)

#13

Vet will be out for two weeks. I’ve emailed her all the suggestions I’ve gotten, so I’ll know more later. Thanks, everyone.

1 Like
#14

You’ve already started reading www.catinfo.org That is good. What you describe is most likely sterile cystitis. This is largely tied to hyperconcentrated urine (plus I suspect underlying autoimmune issues) The odds of resolving it without getting him off of the dry food are very low. When I had more time, I made homemade raw. These days, we use Honest Kitchen

3 Likes
#15

Marshfield – I see that several local shops sell Honest Kitchen. I’ll see if I can get a sample. Thanks

#16

Royal Canin also makes the prescription Urinary SO dry and wet.

#17

Talked to the vet today. We are going to try the Adequan, improve the box situation with a bigger box and deeper litter, and start weaning him off dry food and onto wet. Thanks, everyone, for all your help.

#18

Diabetes has been ruled out?

#19

The vet looked at his chart and said that his tests have not shown diabetes. She didn’t suggest having him checked again.

#20

What tests, and how long ago?

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