How to spot UTI symptoms? When you have two kittens and pellet litter?

Let me preface that while I am getting two kittens in 3 weeks, one boy, and one girl, that I have owned cats my whole life and have been ever so paranoid since this night years ago when I was at a friends and we saw little bloody drops on the blanket his siamese cat sat in.

IWe rushed her to ER about 11pm and the doctor said she had stones and we saved her life.  They did the surgery, I am not sure whatever happened as me and the human lost touch.

The next time I saw my vet, (budget private practice), I asked him "get I get my cat's urnine screened",  he gave me a bad look and said "why", I told him for preventative analysis, he gave me an annoyed look and took her upstairs. Nice guy, but that was the last time I went, he even told me he did it with a cathadar, you are supposed to do it with a syringe to the bladder.

Since then I have had all my cats urine screened, my bengal Korina almost every year.

Two years ago, they said her bladder was acidic, and give her more water (she is on a wet only diet).

One year ago, different vet did test and said the bladder was approaching toxic, so she prescribed her Orbax.

Currently my cat Korina is living with my parents for hospice care (she had massive heart failure 2 months ago), she is recovering, but now there are no more tests for her, and I never had her retested form her Orbax regimn. (FYI she is eating on her own, and decently active, she might make a while, she is still on Lasix)

So for my question, how do I spot early signs when I have two young growing cats, sharing litter boxes that will be using pine/wood pellets?

-I plan on feeding all wet. (NV Instinct varities, Chicken Soup, Merk)

-I plan on getting yearly urine tests.

-I plan on having fresh water available in multiple pyrex glass bowls.  I have used fountains in the past but find them to be a PITA as they are filthy.  I have a dishwasher now, so maybe it will be different.

-I MAY supplement their wet meals with free standing small bowl of PH friendly premium dry (budget and sometimes I am late from work), I will only do this if they prefer wet to not get them in a habit.

-Clay litter for detection is not a good option, the breeder is raising them on pellet litter so I am lucky! Even if I used clay litter, can you really see blood in clumps.

None of those steps are a guarantee to prevent, so my big worry is how to spot it as and when it develops.

IMHO UTI is a silent killer, and a terrible way to go.  If its something I can not just prevent, but detect, I would be a happy cat dad.

If I were answeing my own post, I would suggest:

-Purina Breeze litter box system, It uses pellets on top of a grated plastic filter, the urine "passes through" the pellets, falling onto this diaper type pad that slides under the box to trap urine,  maybe that would show blood?


-Placing the litter box within eye view of your bed, so that way when YOU are sleeping, or lying there in the morning, try and spy on kittie and see if she is straining  

-Find a home visiting vet to take urine samples every 6 months?

So please if you have any suggestions or tips, please let me know.

Its been a while since I had new cats, and I want to give them the healthiest life I can (as we all do)

Thank you everyone, and if you have any other non-uti tips for me to look out for 3 month kittens (bengals) please PM me.

We shoul make a wiki on preventative care, but that is for another post.

It seems like you have the preventative care down, so I'm not going to comment on that.

I have a boy (Muddy) with chronic FLUTD type illnesses (UTI's, crystals, inflamed bladder). Honestly, the way that I spot when he is about to have an attack is by watching the other cats in the house. A sick cat will have a different smell, and the other cats will start to smell his behind. This works great for UTI's. My cats always snitch on Muddy.

Since he is highly prone to crystals, I've worked with him on litter box behavior. Muddy loves to be praised and I've used that to my advantage. Whenever I see him use the litter box, he gets a resounding level of praise. It's gotten to the point that if he sees me walk towards a litter box, he often jumps in there and pees just to get some praise from me. When I suspect something is up, I purposefully walk to a litter box while calling him. He's more than happy to jump in and pee for me. I can judge by the volume of pee and how he positions himself in the box whether or not he is having issues with crystals. They often take a little different stance (like they are straining) when they have crystals. Normally he leaves a huge clump, but when he starts leaving golf ball sized clumps, I know that the crystals are building up.

I've also learned about what triggers Muddy's episodes. He gets a UTI about once a year like clockwork. I start to watch him more closely when it's getting close to a year. I also know that stress triggers his bladder to inflame, which in turn triggers crystals. I watch him very closely whenever there are things in the house that cause him to stress. Right now his litter mate sister has a terminal illness. When she takes a downturn, he starts to block within 24-36 hours. I switch his medications out right away when this happens (had to do this yesterday).

So I guess my advice is to remain focused on the behavior signs of illness, whether that is the actual cat or their cat companions. Signs can be subtle, but they can be learned. I've been doing this with Muddy for over 4 years now.