Help needed. We recently took in a stray cat. He is about 8 months old. We assume he has been neutered before he came to us. (actually he invited himself in) because one of his ears has been clipped. He has been checked by our vet and vaccinated. The vet said the cat (Hunter) was healthy. He is very active and very people friendly. The problem is that while he uses the litter box to defecate and may use it to urinate(hard to tell because there are two other cats in the household) he seems to leak urine at various times mostly in little amounts. He doesn't appear in pain or unhealthy in any way. To the contrary he is a ball of energy and is almost absurdly athletic even for a cat. When he leaks he isn't attempting to urinate. We thought this was because he was an outdoor cat and therefore urinated at will wherever he was but it is becoming a concern. If he were a human and much older I would think he was having stress incontinence. The urine has no special odor and he doesn't have any unusual discharges and doesn't lick himself. We are wondering if something happened during his neutering although it doesn't seem that this should have created a problem. I have researched your articles as well as many other sites and nothing seems to fit. Before I take Hunter back to a new Vet and put him through a bunch of tests to see what the first Vet missed, I was hoping to get some idea what might be the problem. Please help. I have done more research and that has raised the issue of stress. Hunter was an outdoor cat and is now a house cat. He does the most amusing things to keep his hunting (hence the name Hunter) skills sharp. He gets lots of attention that he soaks up and has lots of toys including humans he uses for chew toys. anmd two other cats It's been 4 months so I thought that if stress was the cause he would have adjusted.
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Incontinence In Cats Stress??
- Thread starter Rich K
- Start Date
Hi. Has he always 'leaked' since you've had him, or is this a more recent issue? More recent could be something like the beginnings of a UTI, or kidney/bladder stones. There are number of other possibilities as well.
Longer term leaking, also could be a variety of things, such as bladder scarring resulting from a previous left-untreated UTI (before you got him), that can cause the bladder to hold less urine.
In any case, best to be safe than sorry with a vet visit.
Longer term leaking, also could be a variety of things, such as bladder scarring resulting from a previous left-untreated UTI (before you got him), that can cause the bladder to hold less urine.
In any case, best to be safe than sorry with a vet visit.
I would get him to the vet to make sure there's nothing medically wrong. He might have some kind of inflammation or bladder irritation going on. Then, you might want to invest in some calming agents, such as Feliway diffusers to help him de-stress. Also, make sure you have enough litter boxes. Ideally, you should have 1 more box than number of cats. If your boxes are closed or covered, you might want to offer open litter box options as well.
Hi! Thank you for taking this boy into your home and hearts!
That he's not doing any extra cleaning of himself, which is one of the symptoms of an active urinary tract infection, could be a good thing in a sort of backwards way.
You'll need to set up litterbox watch because you need to know if he's actually peeing.
If you decide to set up another vet appointment, and I'm with
FeebysOwner
, you're better safe than sorry, just as a headsup you might want to think about trying to capture some urine in a super clean glass container (as close to the appt as possible) because they need a urine sample to test for crystals etc. If not they will likely keep him until they can get a sample.
I don't think it's related to stress, personally. However you could try music, there's an app called Relax My Cat as well as other sources of music that will help cats relax.
Also you need to get him to stop biting. Stand up and walk away when he starts, utilize a sharp hiss like his mama would do, put a soft toy in his mouth, whatever it takes.
Hang in there, let us know what happens
That he's not doing any extra cleaning of himself, which is one of the symptoms of an active urinary tract infection, could be a good thing in a sort of backwards way.
You'll need to set up litterbox watch because you need to know if he's actually peeing.
If you decide to set up another vet appointment, and I'm with
FeebysOwner
, you're better safe than sorry, just as a headsup you might want to think about trying to capture some urine in a super clean glass container (as close to the appt as possible) because they need a urine sample to test for crystals etc. If not they will likely keep him until they can get a sample.I don't think it's related to stress, personally. However you could try music, there's an app called Relax My Cat as well as other sources of music that will help cats relax.
Also you need to get him to stop biting. Stand up and walk away when he starts, utilize a sharp hiss like his mama would do, put a soft toy in his mouth, whatever it takes.
Hang in there, let us know what happens
