Strange urine pattern

[F+V]

Since last month my male cat has started this weird habit of visiting two toilets back and forth to pass a small amount of urine in each litter (pees twice) followed by a large amount of pee in either of them in as little as 15 mins. And this always takes place between 5 and 630AM like clockwork. We have two litter robots and one conventional litter box but he only uses the litter robots. When he poops, he squeezed that in between one of his pee visits. On top of that, he keeps going back to the toilets just to dig and scratch till I manually cycle the robots. I've disabled automatic cycle because he sticks his head in the robots and triggers the cycle timer all the time. So between 5 and 630AM, he visits the toilets 6 to 9 times.

Ultrasound didn't find any abnormalities in his kidneys or the bladder, and urinalysis came back negative. He's been on Zylkene for 3 days, but I see no improvement. Will this ever stop?

 

[ArtNJ]

I am sorry for giving you the haha emoji and having nothing productive to add . . . but I lol'd! Hopefully someone actually useful will be bye soon.

I do think it could be non-medical. Cats do a lot of weird things! Your cat might just be fascinated with it! As far as the timing, cats do have their rituals. We drink coffee . . . they do . . . this? Maybe. So hopefully its just cat weirdness!

 

[susanm9006]

Just wondering if your vet ran blood work in addition to his other tests?

 

[F+V]

I do think it could be non-medical

I'm also beginning to think that this is purely behavioral....

 

[F+V]

Just wondering if your vet ran blood work in addition to his other tests?

Vet didn't think that was necessary because his last blood test was less than 6 months ago. But if we don't see any change in his behavior in the next 2 weeks, she might suggest another blood work. Vet has wanted us to try Zylkene first because that isn't medicine and the alternative was some kind of sedative, which I am not sure I want to give him...

 

[IndyJones]

If it were my cat I would defenatly be getting a second opinion. Those are signs something is not right.

 

[Hellenww]

On top of that, he keeps going back to the toilets just to dig and scratch till I manually cycle the robots. I've disabled automatic cycle because he sticks his head in the robots and triggers the cycle timer all the time.

So he's facinated by the robot and dedicated to training his human. Make a unique sound/ringtone just before running the cycle and ignore his digging at other times.

You didn't mention his age. Some older creatures need to move around a bit before everything starts moving more efficiently.

 

[F+V]

So he's facinated by the robot and dedicated to training his human. Make a unique sound/ringtone just before running the cycle and ignore his digging at other times.

You didn't mention his age. Some older creatures need to move around a bit before everything starts moving more efficiently.

I thought he loved the litter so much but the vet told me if that were the case he would spend a lot longer time in the toilet every time. Also he doesn't go near the toilets outside the early morning window and had been indifferent to the litter robots till last month. He is 5 years and 8 months old. This morning he only urinated a little once and also pooped because he went to toilet at 10pm yesterday, but his habit of revisiting the litter till I cycle the robots remains the same... sigh

 

[Alldara]

Does he like to dig? Magnus has had extensive bloodwork and tests since we brought him home, he's never had a bladder infection but he LOVES to dig so he does this without the peeing. He will go dig in all the boxes, then choose one to pee and then go dig in all the boxes again, choose a box and dig to the bottom so he can pop directly on the box and then put all the litter from that box over the poo.
He also randomly goes and digs in the boxes after I clean them.

I'm inclined to think your cat is fascinated with the litters. Is it hard to switch them from automatic to manual? Could you switch between those settings?

 

[Caspers Human]

I think this is a case of too much information. Sure, it's good that the Litter Robot can report the number of times a cat uses the box but all that information can be confusing.

I think this is a behavioral thing. It seems, to me, that your cat wants to watch the Litter Robot cycle and is waiting until that happens. He seems to have learned that, when he goes in there, a machine starts working and makes his poops and pees go away.

Since he does this at O-dark-thirty, every day, the noise annoys you. In response you turn the machine off. Now, the cat waits around for the machine to work but it doesn't until you come a long to turn it on.

Try turning the Litter Robot back on automatic cycle but, if you can, set the timer for a longer wait. That way, when the cat revisits the litter box, the machine won't cycle as many times but he'll still get his "entertainment."

 

[F+V]

Does he like to dig? Magnus has had extensive bloodwork and tests since we brought him home, he's never had a bladder infection but he LOVES to dig so he does this without the peeing. He will go dig in all the boxes, then choose one to pee and then go dig in all the boxes again, choose a box and dig to the bottom so he can pop directly on the box and then put all the litter from that box over the poo.
He also randomly goes and digs in the boxes after I clean them.

I'm inclined to think your cat is fascinated with the litters. Is it hard to switch them from automatic to manual? Could you switch between those settings?

Oh no, that would annoy the hell out of me It crossed my mind that he was just loving the litter but then he was behaving normally with the same litter before, so the underlying issue is something else which is FIC. I was doing some thinking and remembered that the last time I took him to the vet because he was visiting toilets frequently, a totally different pattern from what we are experiencing today, they did x-ray, ultrasound, urinalysis, etc to find nothing abnormal, gave him injections and prescribed metacam which is an anti-inflammatory drug. His behavior was corrected before I knew it and had been fine for 18 months.

I'm pretty sure a recent trip stressed him out and FIC returned as a result. The new vet's (we moved to another country) approach is different in that she didn't prescribe any pain medication right off the bat to treat cystitis and instead gave us Zylkene. She didn't mention if there was any presence of blood or bacteria in his urine sample, so I assume it was all negative. We go back in 3 days because Zylkene hasn't worked for us at all, and the vet will likely recommend anti-depressant or a sedative then. I will ask for Metacam unless she has a valid reason to choose the sedative option because I've read a short-term (7 days) use of Amitriptyline (tricyclic antidepressant), for example, contributes to an increase in reoccurrence of FIC. Also metacam is easier to administer because it's liquid.

 

[F+V]

I think this is a behavioral thing. It seems, to me, that your cat wants to watch the Litter Robot cycle and is waiting until that happens. He seems to have learned that, when he goes in there, a machine starts working and makes his poops and pees go away.

Since he does this at O-dark-thirty, every day, the noise annoys you. In response you turn the machine off. Now, the cat waits around for the machine to work but it doesn't until you come a long to turn it on.

Try turning the Litter Robot back on automatic cycle but, if you can, set the timer for a longer wait. That way, when the cat revisits the litter box, the machine won't cycle as many times but he'll still get his "entertainment."

I'm convinced this is pollakiuria, nothing behavioral as I initially suspected. He has a history of cystitis and it's unfortunately back after an stressful event. His bladder must be inflamed.
I put both robots on sleep mode because every time he sticks his head in, they get triggered and cycle. He should know by now that they only cycle once when I get up in the morning no matter how many times he pees between 5 and 7am. He wasn't obsessed with toilets at all until I cleaned the robots with cleaner that left strong scent and also changed the litter. Around that time he started sticking his head in multiple times throughout the day but he was still peeing normally.
Hopefully anti-inflammatory drug will help him.

 

[Alldara]

Oh no, that would annoy the hell out of me It crossed my mind that he was just loving the litter but then he was behaving normally with the same litter before, so the underlying issue is something else which is FIC. I was doing some thinking and remembered that the last time I took him to the vet because he was visiting toilets frequently, a totally different pattern from what we are experiencing today, they did x-ray, ultrasound, urinalysis, etc to find nothing abnormal, gave him injections and prescribed metacam which is an anti-inflammatory drug. His behavior was corrected before I knew it and had been fine for 18 months.

I'm pretty sure a recent trip stressed him out and FIC returned as a result. The new vet's (we moved to another country) approach is different in that she didn't prescribe any pain medication right off the bat to treat cystitis and instead gave us Zylkene. She didn't mention if there was any presence of blood or bacteria in his urine sample, so I assume it was all negative. We go back in 3 days because Zylkene hasn't worked for us at all, and the vet will likely recommend anti-depressant or a sedative then. I will ask for Metacam unless she has a valid reason to choose the sedative option because I've read a short-term (7 days) use of Amitriptyline (tricyclic antidepressant), for example, contributes to an increase in reoccurrence of FIC. Also metacam is easier to administer because it's liquid.

My now late cat Nobel had metacam on and off for years because of FLUTD so I understand there's not always bacteria or infection present.

He had some kind of short term behaviour medication at one point as well but I'm not sure what it was.

Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease (FLUTD) | International Cat Care

 

[F+V]

So we went back to the vet on Tuesday. A while ago someone on here questioned why my old vet prescribed meloxicam/metacam, so I did a little homework and the vet suggested buccal buprenorphine twice daily till symptoms disappear. While metacam may be ok for young cats, I didn't want to take unnecessary risks. Another option was cartrophen injection which is marketed for dogs.

Lo and behold he visited toilet only once at 7am the next day! That's a big leap from urinating 6 times day. I gave him one more dose and paused giving him the medicine. On third day at 4am I found in the robot a gigantic clump that looked like a broken stone slab. His bladder wasn't fully emptied, so he immediately went into another robot to pee which was a healthy volume. During the day he visited the conventional litter box to pee again.

I wish I asked for medicine when we first visited two weeks ago. Just because there's no abnormality in ultrasound/x-ray or no blood/bacteria in urinalysis, you can't just assume that this is behavioral like I did no matter how unstressed your cat appears to be. A bladder inflammation which is uncomfortable is present and your cat needs a painkiller if that's not resolved within a week.

 

[F+V]

Just an update:
Buprenorphine's effect was, much to my dismay, very short lived. After Christmas I went back to the vet clinic to get Buprenorphine for another 10 days (total 15 days) as well as Metacam for 5 days in case Buprenorphine failed over the holiday period. I also got Cystease supplement and Royal Canin S/O wet food which he's been on since.

He was doing ok for about a week after the course of Buprenorphine treatment but his symptom eventually returned, so I had to resort to Metacam. His weird urine pattern only went back to somewhat normal while on medication. Last week we went back to the vet and discussed another anti-inflammatory medication but since urinalysis, ultrasound, and blood test didn't give us any indication and we had already tried Buprenorhine and Metacam, I held off on giving him more medication for now. X-ray images also didn't show anything, and I asked for a referral to take him to a university veterinary hospital because it's going nowhere at this rate.

He has a good appetite and abundant energy and doesn't meow in pain when I pick him up.

It goes like this:
5:30AM micro pee
5:40 poo
6:08 normal pee

When it's worse,
5:43 micro pee
5:49 large pee
5:58 poo
6:14 normal pee

 

[Margot Lane]

Weird. Long shot here but have you tried other kinds of litters? Maybe he is digging to China in the hopes of finding a different brand? The only time I’ve ever seen this “pacy” behavior is at the zoo when you see a panther going back & forth in the cage. Could he be bored or lonely? Need some excitement in his routine? How about (drumroll) another cat? Some cats just need buddies to brighten their day. Does he have a window where he can watch birds?

 

[F+V]

Weird. Long shot here but have you tried other kinds of litters? Maybe he is digging to China in the hopes of finding a different brand? The only time I’ve ever seen this “pacy” behavior is at the zoo when you see a panther going back & forth in the cage. Could he be bored or lonely? Need some excitement in his routine? How about (drumroll) another cat? Some cats just need buddies to brighten their day. Does he have a window where he can watch birds?

He has a sister who grew up together and is a target of his daily chase but also a cuddle companion. We have 3 litters; two automatic ones and one conventional box and 3 different kinds of litters. They both seem to prefer one litter to the others, but just to eliminate any possible cause, I closed off the automatic ones and left the box out for several days but his behavior didn't change.

We moved from another country in March last year and since then the kitties have been confined indoors, so I can see that they are bored, particularly him because he really loved outdoors. Despite that they adjusted to a new way of life quite well, then all of a sudden he manifested signs of this mysterious illness. My guess at this point is that this is neurological. Maybe his nerve system got damaged or something, and MRI/CT scan should be able to find out what it is...

I also thought about fostering a kitten to keep them busy He definitely won't get along with another cat, but I thought a kitten might be ok. We have all kinds of cat furniture and toys but they couldn't be more indifferent. There are cat towers and window hammocks, but it's cold these days they sleep all day on the heated carpet.

 

[Margot Lane]

….all kitties are different, but maybe he is yearning -a little bit- for his previous stimulating call of the wild. Have no idea what your new surroundings are like but is a catio out of the question, or cat grass or— well I don’t know what but perhaps all this digging is —yearning.

 

[IndyJones]

I personaly wouldn't introduce another cat -let alone a kitten- at this point. Get the medical problems under control before you upset the apple cart so to speak.

 

[F+V]

….all kitties are different, but maybe he is yearning -a little bit- for his previous stimulating call of the wild. Have no idea what your new surroundings are like but is a catio out of the question, or cat grass or— well I don’t know what but perhaps all this digging is —yearning.

We had several pots of cat grass but they would throw up on a daily basis I will let them out in the yard on the leash once it gets warmer. Digging stopped but he still pees multiple times in a very short space of time..