Pee issues

[marcus91]

We took in an outdoor cat that used to wander our neighborhood for the past year. He seems to be around 4 years. He was fixed previously, so he may be an abandoned cat. Turns out he has a bad heart murmur that we are investigating. The other issue is his peeing. 75% of the time he pees in his two litter boxes that we keep clean. On occasion he likes to go and pee in a corner of our basement (read somewhere that maybe the damp basement floor reminds him of the outside).

The bigger issue is that he seems to have small accidents. For example, he used to sleep in my daughter's empty bed (my daughter sleeps with my wife most nights). One day, we smelled the ammonia smell left behind by pee. It could not have been a lot of pee, because it would have smelled worse. Nonetheless, it was very noticeable. Luckily, we had leakproof sheets on the bed. One of our two couches also smelled a bit of pee, where he sometimes lies. Again, nothing huge, but noticeable nonetheless. This morning we saw pee dribble on our hardwood floor. Not a lot, but enough. The last two times that I took him to the vet, he peed in his carry-on - I know that they don't like to pee in their carry-on if they can help it... Not sure what is going on? Could it be a stress-related issue? He seems fine overall. I can't see him being stressed when sleeping on my daughter's bed or peacefully resting on our couch, so not sure? Really puzzled by all of this. Thank you.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. The age old question when peeing issues like this occur - has he been through a urinalysis/urine culture? That would be the first place to start. Ruling out an infection, urinary crystals/stones, signs of bladder/urethra inflammation would certainly help.

It could be from stress, but what stress do you think he is going through? How long ago did you take him in? A heart murmur, unless very sudden in its onset, in and of itself, probably wouldn't cause stress, especially when you say he seems fine overall otherwise - which I take to mean he is eating/drinking fine?

 

[marcus91]

Hi FeebysOwner. Thank you for your response. He has not been through a urinalysis/urine culture yet. We have only had him for about a month, had him checked out by the Humane Society vet and then his personal vet, etc... Other than the heart (which we suspect has been for his life), we were told that he was fine. Having said that, at the time we were not experiencing any issues with pee, so the vet is presently unaware of it. He's being seen by a heart specialist next week, in our vet's office, so I will make sure to bring up the pee issue as well. I'm not a vet, but my suspicion is that it is most likely health-related - he does not pee a lot on the things that he's not supposed to pee on, so to me it seems that it's some sort of leakage issue. When he peed today on the hardwood, it wasn't a lot (maybe 1% of the bladder), so I don't think he meant to do it. Other than that, he is eating fine (he eats mainly wet food). Not sure about his drinking. Does not seem to want to drink out of the water fountain that we bought him (have never seen him do it), does not seem to want to drink out of a bowl, but he does drink occasionally from the tap when we turn it on for him. Today he did not drink at all (at least I have not seen him do it), even though I ran the tap for him several times.

 

[35 year catdad]

Try only filtered water in non stainless wide shallow bowl. Mine dont like the taste of water in stainless steel. Chlorine must have a bad smell to cats...it certainly smells bad to me.. Also after using a little pump last year as they dont like thrie water just sitting there...they cry loud and stare at the non-moving water. ok ok kids heres the new pump for moving water

I had a young boy I adopted at 8 weeks or so that had a loud murmer.
Very experienced vet said 80% of the time nothing to worry about.
Woops Romeow was the 20% and died at age 6 of a saddle clot. I rushed him to two vets and second was a heart specialist but his legs were cold and lifeless so away he went forever....broke our hearts!!
GREAT that hes going to a heart specialist as it can be a very bad outcome. Romeow was very muscular but lower energy than his same aged girlfriend since day one. His replacement is identical and now 16 and PEEING in the bed sometimes. soooo I'm in your boat.

If their body is too acid or alkaline they make crystals which cause small amounts of pee outside the box. blood, straining to go etc I used human ph test strips to check all 3 of my crew's pee as it exits their cute little butts... and they are all about 5.5-6.0 ph range which is normal. I think Martin did not like his new litter so its back to Johnny Cat non clumping. Always wash peed on things twice as they can smell it and will go again on sheets if any residual smells. hope that helps P.S. I bought Wysong U.T diet as its for bladder and urinary health. Chewy has it for about 15$ for 5 lbs 80& of our diet is wet food for better hydration and more peeing.