excessive drinking & urination

We have two office cats at my job, Stinky & Harriet.  I am their primary human.  In June, my office moved from one of our locations to another and the cats came with me.  Harriet adapted immediately and Stinky hid for several weeks before venturing out.  Once she started coming out, she settled in nicely.  Harriet is 15 years old and Stinky is close to 14 years old.

Last month I noticed the litter boxes were fuller than usual but didn't think much about it.  Once Stinky came out of hiding and started spending the bulk of her time in my office, I realized she was making frequent trips to the Drinkwell fountain and litter boxes.  I have Type 1 diabetes so that was the first thing on my mind.  I tested her blood sugar a few times and it was always in the low 70 range.  Two weeks ago she went to the vet and the bloodwork didn't show anything too unusual.  He said that one kidney test was slightly elevated, but he wasn't worried.  He was unable to get a urine sample from her at the time, although she gave one in the carrier on the way back!

The vet called at the beginning of the week and suggested taking away the boxes for a couple of hours and then bringing her in, to enure her bladder was full.  I mad an appointment for Wednesday (two days ago).  On Tuesday, some men were here at work measuring our space and Stinky was really freaked out.  She urinated on her ottoman in my office.  It was extremely dilute and barely smelled like urine.  At first I thought she walked into the fountain.  So on Wednesday, I took her in to get urine.  The tech said that it was very dilute.

Yesterday the vet called and said the urinalysis showed bacteria and he wanted to put her on antibiotics.  She's now on Zeniquin 25 mg once daily an she's been good taking it these past two days. 

This morning when I first got to work she did make a few trips to the fountain & litter boxes but after that she seems like her old self.  I even brought a bowl of water directly into my office but she's ignored it. 

Has anyone else ever had a cat who drank & urinated so much from just an infection?  I've been paranoid thinking she has diabetes insipidus (dangers of reading too much on the internet!).  The vet said that the urine culture will take another day or two and depending on those results she may need to be put on a different antibiotic.  I'm hoping that her drinking & urinating goes back to normal so I can stop worrying about other causes.

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liz

My 14-year-old kitty was just diagnosed with kidney disease - the vet said that she had lost 75% of her kidney function. I noticed that she had been drinking more and urinating a LOT more recently. We're talking big whopping piles of pee in the litterbox here.

Now that I've done a lot of reading on feline CRF/CKD, it seems like excessive drinking and urination are two very common signs of kidney disease in cats. I'm not trying to freak you out, but reading that one of Stinky's kidney tests came back elevated worries me, even if your vet wasn't worried!

Was the vet able to get BUN/creatinine levels from Stinky's urinalysis? If he didn't tell you the levels, they may not be elevated, but it might be worth a quick phonecall to the vet's and ask him what Stinky's BUN and creatinine levels were. A cat's BUN should be no higher than about 36, and its creatinine no higher than about 1.8.

If her levels are within normal ranges, or your vet says they're acceptable, then it's probably not a kidney issue.

I hope Stinky feels better soon. Let us know how things turn out!

My co-worker originally spoke with the vet because I wasn't at work on Thursday.  I did speak briefly with the vet and all he said was that there was bacteria in her urine.  The culture was not back yest and I'll probably have to wait until Monday for that.  I plan on calling back on Monday and I'll ask about all of her numbers.  As I said, the only thing he seemed worried about was the bacteria.  He said that depending on the culture, we might have to switch her to a different antibiotic but to continue giving her the Zeniquin for now.

The drinking & urination has definitely decreased although not quite back to normal levels.
 

Yes a bacterial infection can definitely cause the same symptoms as kidney disease. If you're already noticing a difference hopefully an infection is all it is. Keep us posted when you get the results! 

I just spoke to the vet.  He said the urine culture showed two types of e. coli bacteria and that the antibiotic she's been taking should be effective for both, so there's no change in medication.  He said that it's possible the infection moved from the urinary tract to the kidneys and that's why a couple of her values were high.  The urea nitrogen (?) was 37, and 36 is the upper limit of normal.  Creatinine was 2.3 and 2.4 was the upper limit of normal.  Her thyroid, glucose, white blood count and every other blood test they ran was normal, just those two kidney values were a little out of range.

He recommends finishing the course of antibiotics and bringing her back in a week after her last dose.