PURRaffection

Archive for the ‘Bladder & Urinary Tract’ Category

Are you worried that feline incontinence is a problem for your cat? You need to realize that incontinence in cats and inappropriate urination are two different things. An incontinent cat is not able to control her urine. She dribbles urine or leaves wet spots where she’s been sleeping. Often an incontinent pet is unaware that she has a problem.

Inappropriate urination, on the other hand, is when a cat is purposely urinating in places other than her litter box. This may be a behavior issue, but it can also be cause by feline lower urinary tract disease.

It’s important to know the difference between the two because incontinence in cats can be a sign of serious health issues for your feline friend.

Ten Reasons For Feline Incontinence

1. Usually the simplest reason is feline lower urinary tract disease. One of the symptoms of a feline bladder infection is needing to urinate often. It may be that your cat just isn’t able to make it to the litter box in time.
2. If your cat has had repeated feline urinary problems, her bladder may be scarred. This prevents her bladder from expanding to hold urine, which leads to very frequent urination.
3. Cat bladder stones can cause a partial blockage of your cat’s urethra, making it impossible for her to empty her bladder completely. As her bladder fills with urine, the pressure can force some urine around the blockage. If you suspect a blocked cat, get her to the vet as soon as possible, as this can be fatal within a day or two.
4. A weak urinary sphincter also causes an incontinent cat. This is more common in older spayed female dogs, but it does occasionally happen in spayed cats, too, especially if they’re heavy. This type of incontinence, called hormone-responsive incontinence, can develop years after she’s been spayed.
5. Feline diabetes can cause an incontinent cat. A diabetic cat is drinking lots more water than normal because the disease makes her very thirsty in an effort to flush the excess sugar out of her body. Of course, this makes her urinate more, also. She may have trouble making it to her litter box before she has an accident.
6. Cats with feline leukemia sometimes become incontinent, too. This can happen in both males and females.
7. As a cat ages, the urinary sphincter can weaken. Your cat may develop other problems as she gets older, such as diabetes, which cause her body to produce more urine than normal. Combine a very full bladder with a weak urinary sphincter, and it’s easy to see why urinary incontinence in cats is the result.
8. Your cat may have some kind of neurological problem with the nerves in her bladder that causes her to be unable to hold her urine.
9. Bladder tumors can be another factor.
10. An older cat may be getting forgetful, or in the early stages of senility, which can lead to litter box problems.

Natural Feline Urinary Support

If your furball is having cat urinary problems, it’s important to take her to the vet for a check-up to rule out anything serious. Most cases of inappropriate urination are due to feline lower urinary tract disease, which can be a frustrating condition to deal with.

The most important thing you can do is to feed your cat a high-quality canned food. Cats are meant to get most of their water from their food, so feeding a cat dry food all the time is an invitation to disaster in the form of cat urinary problems.

You may want to consider giving your cat one of the many natural remedies for pets that are available for feline urinary support. Herbs and homeopathic remedies have a long history of success in humans and they’re very effective for pets, too. Look for a remedy that’s produced by a long-standing company with a sterling reputation for producing high-quality herbal remedies for pets.

In conclusion, if your cat is showing signs of feline incontinence, you need to take steps now to help her.

The seven words “your pet has a feline bladder infection” are words that no cat or pet owner, for that matter, wants to hear, especially during the holidays season. Nevertheless, it is the season for giving and bacteria must really get into the holiday spirit when it comes to feline bladder infection because the holidays/winter months are when almost half of cats are diagnosed with this condition.

Why?

The holidays are a busy time for most of us with holiday trips being planned, kitchen baking being in full swing, holiday niceties being exchanged, and last minute gifts being purchased. There is little time for outdoor activities with our cats and even if there was many felines turn up their finicky noses at the idea of going out in the cold to chase down that bird, bug, or squirrel that always seems to be one step ahead. And for those cats who prefer getting their exercise frightening the lizard population, well hunting season doesn’t open until summer.

Additionally, in the hustle bustle of it all their litter boxes may not be cleaned as often giving bacteria a chance to celebrate, exchange pleasantries, and climb right up your felines urethra to set in motion the initial phase of a Grinch type holiday gift filled with pain, excessive water drinking, pungent urine odor and inappropriate urination possibly occurring right on top of those newly wrapped gifts for grandma.

Looking for signs of the feline bladder infection that caused your pet to lose their holiday spirit

Many of the signs of a feline bladder infection are listed above nevertheless lets go through them again and maybe throw in a few extra ones as my personal holiday gift for you and your favorite feline. They are urination outside the litter box area, fatigue, anti social behavior, soreness in the hind quarter area, blood in the urine, fowl smelling urine, pain while urinating and possibly vocalizing due to the pain while urinating.

What are the first signs to look for?

For my felines the four signs which signal that bacteria has made its way up the urethra and into the bladder have been a marked increase in water consumption, general fatigue, anti social behavior, and to a lesser degree inappropriate urination. It is my opinion that inappropriate urination occurs primarily when your feline is trying to tell you something is wrong or they have arthritic joints which make it difficult for them to get to the litter box on time.

What can be done?

Antibiotics are the first line of defense and normally knock the infection out in a matter of days. On the other hand once a feline bladder infection has occurred reoccurrence is a very real concern with it reappearing over 50 percent of the time.

In order to prevent feline bladder infection from occurring there are a number of steps you can take. These would include:

*Set aside 5 minutes of play time daily to keep your feline active

*Add an eye dropper of cranberry juice to their water daily

*Add wet food to their diet to add moisture. Additionally, age appropriate pet food can be helpful.

*Keep litter boxes exceptionally clean and maybe even consider adding an extra one to avoid overuse. Litter should be changed frequently.

*Make sure they have plenty of clean fresh water to drink.

*Consider investing in a homeopathic to encourage healthy urination and bolster the urinary tracts natural defenses.

*Keep your cats stress levels to a minimum especially when their private area is being invaded by your four year old niece who enjoys trying to make them look like a movie star or beauty pageant contestant.

Did you know that up to 1.5 percent of all cats in the US are plagued with feline urinary problems? That’s a lot of cats.

These problems can range from an uncomfortable cat bladder infection to a life-threatening cat urinary blockage. As an informed cat owner, you should always be on the lookout for cat urinary problems.

What’s The Difference Between FUS And FLUTD?

Many cat owners are confused, and rightfully so, over the terms used to describe cat urinary problems. FLUTD is an acronym that stands for Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease. FLUTD used to be known as FUS, or Feline Urologic Syndrome. Feline Urologic Syndrome has been renamed as Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease to reflect that most of the urinary problems in cats happen in the lower urinary tract, which includes the bladder and urethra.

Overview Of Feline Urinary Disease

There are many different aspects to feline urinary problems. Here’s a quick overview of a few different conditions that can affect your cat’s urinary tract.

• Cystitis is an inflammation of your cat’s bladder.
• If your cat’s urethra is inflamed, he has urethritis.
• Idiopathic cystitis means that the cause of the bladder inflammation is not known.
• Bladder stones in cats often occur as a result of feline urinary crystals.
• A tumor in your cat’s bladder may cause problems, too.

You can see that it’s important to pinpoint what’s causing your cat’s urinary tract problems in order to treat his condition successfully.

Symptoms of Cat Urinary Problems

No matter what’s causing the feline urinary tract problems, your cat will show these symptoms:

• Bloody urine
• Urinating in places other than his litter box
• Urinating often, but passing only small amounts of urine
• Straining to urinate, or not being able to pass urine at all
• Crying out in pain in the litter box

Any of these symptoms should be enough for you to take your cat to the vet for a check-up.

What Your Vet Will Do

Your vet will examine your cat and feel his bladder to see how full it is. The vet will also want to do a urinalysis to check for infection or feline urinary crystals and may want to do a cat urine culture to see if bacteria are present. If your cat’s bladder is distended, that indicates a cat urinary blockage and your vet may want to take x-rays or do an ultrasound to look for cat bladder stones.

What Can You Do To Prevent Feline Urinary Disease?

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There are many steps cat owners can take to prevent their cats from developing feline urinary tract problems. The most important thing you can do is to feed a high-quality canned food. Cats are supposed to get most of their water from their food.

A cat who eats only dry food is usually chronically dehydrated, which leads to his urine becoming concentrated. And concentrated urine can lead to cat bladder stones and a whole host of problems that goes along with them.

Be sure your cat always has access to plenty of clean, fresh water too.

You may want to consider giving your cat a natural remedy for pets that supports bladder health in felines. This remedy should contain herbal extracts of barberry and uva ursi, along with the homeopathic remedies Cantharis and Staphysagria. These natural treatments have stood the test of time for bladder infections in humans and they have been proven to work very well in cats.

Your goal now? To make sure your cat doesn’t become a statistic suffering from feline urinary problems.

Cat lovers want their felines to live forever, but with seniority comes cat illnesses and disorders typical of aging cats. Perhaps you’ve seen your cat limping up the stairs or she no longer jumps onto her favorite perch. These are signs that she is suffering from feline arthritis, but have you also noticed your cat peeing outside of the box too? This may be another painful and potentially fatal cat illness, feline UTI. Here’s why you need to find out for sure.

It’s not uncommon for a cat owner to think their cat is misbehaving when they discover their cat peeing outside the box. However, if this is a new pattern for an aging cat that is also suffering from feline arthritis, you may incorrectly diagnose the problem cause being related to feline arthritis symptoms. Perhaps you think she is having problems getting in and out of the litter box because of arthritis pain or that her painful joints prevent her from squatting properly.

Don’t just assume your cat’s potty problems are related to pain caused by feline arthritis. These are also symptoms of a feline urinary tract infection or cat bladder stones. You see, when your cat has a feline UTI or stones her urinary tract is inflamed and irritated. The stones and irritation are painful when she urinates.

Along with the pain, she may also feel like she hasn’t completely voided her bladder. Your cat may associate the litter box with the pain and start peeing outside the litter box. If your cat is suffering from cat bladder stones then the urinary tract may actually become plugged. This is an excruciating and life threatening situation.

Quite often owners of cat’s who are missing the litter box, as well, as suffering from feline arthritis make the mistake that this is caused by the cat’s stiff joints and inability to get in and out of the litter box. Some owners replace the cat litter box with a pan that has a shallower lip to make less of a step in for the kitty.

When the cat continues to miss the pot they spread newspaper around the litter box to capture the urine. As the scenario carries on everyday, the entire family grows weary of the smell of cat urine and the nasty clean up chore too. Sadly, this is the stage when the owner finally takes the cat into the vet, but for all the wrong reasons.

They explain to the vet the potty problem and may even wonder if they need to euthanize the cat. While that certainly is a sad option, your cat may still have a lot of years left in her. You need to have your veterinarian test your cat for a feline UTI or cat struvite stones. In most cases, your vet can help your old cat get over this disorder.

You may even find that using certain natural remedies will help heal her urinary system and prevent future outbreaks of a feline UTI. The good news is that you can give these remedies to your cat in conjunction with a homeopathic natural remedy for feline arthritis. Now you have a natural solution for two painful problems that affect older felines.

Urinary problems are amongst the most frequent cat health care problems our feline pets experience. Some illnesses, undesirable behaviours and diseases that we see most often in our feline friends are related to urinary problems. Cystitis, or Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease, spraying and kidney failure are some of the biggest urinary problems faced by cats.

Cystitis and FLUTD are umbrella terms used to describe the cat health care problem of inflammation in the urinary bladder. The symptoms include irritation and inflammation affecting urination, an increase in the frequency of urination and the urgency of it, general difficulty urinating and evidence of blood in the urine. The causes of this illness can be very varied but often food causes urinary crystals to form into bladder stones, triggering the illness. It is also the case that overweight cats, which are more prone to developing cat health care problems generally, are often affected. This problem can be easily treated by a vet.

On the other hand, spraying is more likely to be considered a problematic behaviour than an actual cat health care issue. At the age of eight or nine months, a male cat is likely to become more territorial and begin behaving in new ways. He will begin spraying strong smelling urine around your house to mark his territory. The smell is very difficult to remove. With this behaviour will come other masculine, tom cat behaviour, including fighting with other cats, which can cause cat health care problems: this can be avoided by neutering the cat.

Kidney failure is another associated cat health care problem which is commonly associated with middle aged and senior cats. This is partly because of the way cats’ kidneys work so hard because of the concentration of their urine and the infrequency with which they pass urine. It is therefore not uncommon for the kidneys of older cats to begin to fail. Renal failure causes cats to drink and urinate more and in serious cases, vomiting bile, appearing disorientated and losing weight are not uncommon. The causes of this particular cat health care problem can also be varied, including cancer, infections, ingestion of toxins or, sadly, old age.