Cat peeing on my bed when I sleep. Urinary problem or bad habit?

kreyessa · Aug 4, 2016

Loki is my 1.5 year old neutered male tabby. He has never had any issues peeing anywhere other than his box, until last week. I noticed he was making a lot of trips to his box, and was only peeing a small amount (dime-quarter sized spots). Same day, he peed on my bed and on my kids book bag. I saw it was tinted pink so I rushed to take him to the Vet Hospital. they did an ultrasound, no blockage. They couldn't do a urinalysis due to him not having any urine in his bladder at the time. I left with pain meds for him and an antibiotic to give him twice a day for 2 weeks. They said it is most likely a UTI, but that this will help a broad spectrum of issues. And vet had me switch his food to Nutro indoor adult formula.
I have a follow up appt next week with his regular vet. It has been 5 days since, and he is peeing better, in his box, but all of a sudden he peed in my bed again this morning while I was sleeping. He just jumped up, squatted on my blanket and peed. Could he be in pain still and/or trying to get my attention. Or is this just becoming a bad habit?

Since this all started, I brought him a water fountain bowl to get him to drink more water.
I've changed his litter to a natural walnut kind, thinking maybe his litter was what deterred him from using his box.

I switched from Orijin cat and Kitten, to Nutro indoor adult cat (vet request)

catlover73 · Aug 4, 2016

I would call your vet and let them know that has stopped using the litter box again. I have a cat that does not drink a lot of water. I fed him a can of wet food right before his vet appointment and also gave him his own cup of water to drink from. You could also try feeding him watered down wet food before the appointment. Perhaps this would be helpful to you. You might want to take him back sooner rather than later because it is possible that if you are dealing with a UTI the antibiotic did not get rid of it completely. One of my friends had a cat that required two different antibiotics to get rid of his UTI. Also some cats can get crystals with a UTI which can cause pain issues. One of my friends went through this and the crystals went away with a diet change. He is on prescription food for the crystals.

Another thing you could try is setting up a 2nd litter box in a different location. My vet told me to do this when my cat was being treated for a UTI. The new litter box and new location are supposed to help break the association with pain from the UTI and his original litter box. My cat peed on a chair in front of my hubby and had never peed outside his litter box before this.

I really think he was trying to get your attention because he may still be in pain.