What should my cat's urine clumps look like?

I'm raising a senior cat. He's about 15 years old, give or take a few.

I've noticed lately that his urine clumps seem large. Of course, I'm no expert, so maybe they're normal, for all I know.

Health and Feeding Background: He's lived with us for 9 months. Before I got him, he was free fed conventional dry food with occasional wet food. When he came to us, we immediately switched him to full time wet food. He gets about 6 oz of wet food per day, divided between 2-3 meals. Often I add water to his wet food. When he first came, he was constipated, overweight, and not using the litter box. He's at a normal weight now, using the litterbox full time and his stools aren't quite as hard, though he still tends toward constipation.

Anyway, as I've noticed his litter box clumps, I've wondered about kidney disease. Should I be concerned or is this size well within normal range?

He may actually be urinating in the same spot several times a day.

Oh good point!

Even if a cat seems perfectly healthy, it's a good idea to get a senior blood panel at this age. This gives a base line against which all subsequent blood work can be compared. It will also let you know if your cat is beginning to develop kidney disease (among other things).

My old cat Wesley had kidney disease and his clumps were much larger than those in your picture. He also drank a lot of water.

Margd said:

Even if a cat seems perfectly healthy, it's a good idea to get a senior blood panel at this age. This gives a base line against which all subsequent blood work can be compared. It will also let you know if your cat is beginning to develop kidney disease (among other things).

My old cat Wesley had kidney disease and his clumps were much larger than those in your picture. He also drank a lot of water.

Click to expand...

Senior cats should have blood work done to check for any  underlying health issues. Besides kidney disease, diabetes can also cause large clumps of pee that are typically very sticky and very sugary smelling.

From the picture it looks like two clumps stuck together. Each clump appears to be slightly larger than what I consider average but may be perfectly normal for your cat and the extra water you add to the canned food.

I've become a believer in regular check-ups particularly for senior cats. Drinking a lot and peeing a lot is often the first (noticeable) symptom of things like kidney disease. Major kudos to you for noticing the difference in your kitty's pee clumps. My Lucky, who crossed the bridge a month ago today, had such super-huge pee clumps, but never thought anything of it. Plus I didn't really realize until after he was gone just how much of the pee was his. I had five cats and half of them were his!

At his age, getting checked out with blood panel and urinalysis every six months would be appropriate.

If it is kidney disease or diabetes, what treatments would be suggested? I'm already feeding low carb wet food. Would I have to watch phosphorus levels?

Crazy4Strays said:

If it is kidney disease or diabetes, what treatments would be suggested? I'm already feeding low carb wet food. Would I have to watch phosphorus levels?

Click to expand...

Treatment would depend entirely on what the results show, your cat's symptoms, and how far advanced something is. Lucky was Stage IV acute on chronic renal failure when diagnosed, and he needed subqs every day, and we were at the "feed him whatever he will eat" point, along with various meds. He lived 16 days after his diagnosis; acute is so aggressive. The last week I was syringe feeding him, and had bought phos-binder, but he passed away before it arrived.

Now Sara is early CKD, Stage I, possibly early Stage II. They stage based on many factors, so you'd have to consult with the vet. Right now, we're starting her on a kidney diet with Hills k/d. Currently feeding her k/d as much as she will eat. My goal being that I would like to fill her up as much as possible with that as there is no way to keep her from eating the other cats' food. Giving her Pepcid every day in addition to her hyper-t meds. No subqs yet, and no Cerenia (anti-nausea) yet either. She gets moments of inappetence but for the most part has a healthy appetite. We have another appt on the 29th to check some things and will be discussing other options for kidney diet.

It really just depends on a variety of things. I'm sure diabetes and other problems are the same way. But you'll have to work with your doctor to come up with an appropriate treatment plan, if there is a problem.

The progression of kidney disease varies tremendously from cat to cat. My boy Wesley was diagnosed when he was 12 and lived until he was 19. We were extraordinarily fortunate but I did want to mention that each cat is different. Wesley drank huge amounts of water and peed copiously but wouldn't eat any of the diet foods - would only eat Friskies.

Indeed, I've now had five cats in my life with renal failure. Different for each one. Even in these last two months, the difference between Lucky and Sara is amazing.

Donutte said:

Indeed, I've now had five cats in my life with renal failure. Different for each one. Even in these last two months, the difference between Lucky and Sara is amazing.

Click to expand...

Five kidney cats? You must be an expert by now but what a way to gain expertise!

Crazy4Strays said:

If it is kidney disease or diabetes, what treatments would be suggested? I'm already feeding low carb wet food. Would I have to watch phosphorus levels?

Click to expand...

No idea about kidney disease treatment but for diabetes the best treatment is insulin, low carb canned food (under 10%). The best insulins to use are Lantus, Levimir, and ProZinc. I'm only familiar with Lantus and Levimir. Both have a high remission rate if started early enough and a specific dosing protocol is followed. At least twice daily blood glucose testing (before each insulin shot) is a must, no different how many Human diabetics manage their disease, and really isn't a big deal once you and the cat get used to it. When I had a diabetic cat, I could test and give insulin in less than 30 seconds while my cat was busy eating.

If you plan on having blood work done on your senior cat, ask the vet to include the fructosamine test. That is the test that gives the average blood glucose level over the past few weeks (similar to a Human diabetic AC1) and is used to determine if a cat is diabetic or not. A simple quick blood glucose test only tells what the blood glucose level is at that very moment so not useful at all to determine if a cat is diabetic or not. Many cats have high blood glucose levels at the vet's office anyways because of stress.

Ha, not really. The last one we lost was in January of 2005, before this year of course. The first was in December of 1996. Things changed so much since then in terms of treatment. With Lucky, it was like learning all over again. With that said though, I have definitely learned a LOT in a very short period of time.

Here is a photo of my senior cat's and my young cat's urine clumps side by side from tonight's scooping. The senior cat's clump is on the left and the young cat's is on the right. They are looking extremely similar.

I took my older cat to the park for a few hours to walk on his leash, therefore he wasn't home to pee as much as usual. So it's quite possible that this clump size could be more representative of what one sitting of urine is like for him.

It's amazing what the litterbox will tell us. My young cat used to not have very big clumps. Often there would be multiple small little droplets. After I switched him to all wet food, he now pees large clumps. My young cat used to like to drink out of a dripping faucet and out of his water dish some. I rarely ever see him touch any supplemental water now, but it's clear to me that his urine output has increased and he's getting more water than when he was interested in drinking it.