excessive drinking/ thirst?

Chloe is now almost 5 months old. This past week I've noticed that I'm filling up her water bowl more often than normal. Normally I fill it to the rim when I go to bed at night and by the next night it still has 1/4 - 1/2 left in it so I top it off. For about the last week I've been completely filling it every night and sometimes do it earlier in the day because I notice it's empty. Tonight I went in and it was empty and I filled it. Less than 5 minutes later she had already drank about 1/3 of it. She also drinks from the little puddles left in the shower (even though I shoo her out when i catch her.) I'm thinking it warrants a call to the vets office, but am trying to avoid the cost of lab work. She had complete labwork done before I got her 2 months ago saying she was healthy. What do you think? Nothing in her feeding habits has changed in 3 weeks - just dry food with a treat of the boxed cat's milk once a week.

How often does she pee?
Does it seem like she's uncomfortable when she's going?

Originally Posted by eupnea

How often does she pee?
Does it seem like she's uncomfortable when she's going?

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the other thing is cats that eat just dry will drink more

It is very observant of you to notice her excessive drinking.
If this continues and she also pees a lot...you have no choice but to have your vet do a re-check.

Is it possible she was drinking that much before, just from other sources? For instance, do you shut a bathroom door or close a toilet lid that she once had access to? (My cats would rather drink out of anything but their water dishes, regardless of how fresh the water is.)

She has the same access to everything she did before - bathtub faucet that drips and (gasp) the toilets (but to MY knowledge she's never drank from the toilet - can't quite reach yet.)
I haven't noticed her peeing more or less. And she still has the same litter box routine.

What kind of food are you feeding her? If it has a higher sodium content, that may be stimulanting her thirst. You may want to talk to the vet and see what they recommend. Maybe you could get specific blood values (blood glucose?) instead of re-running the entire test? If not, then it may be worth the investment--if there is a medical issue, it's cheaper to treat it early.

We had a male Burmese once upon a time who did this, and he was diagnosed as having a kidney problem. Medication followed, and he went back to the old routine.

You are a wonderful mama to notice every little thing. I'd go with a rec-cehck and a full CBC (complete blood count) just to be sure. Kittens are resilient and they go through all kinds of adjustments when you and things go up and down in their world, but if you can afford it, get the CBC and have the thyroid levels checked. Thyroid is usually associated with a senior panel or an aging cat, but you never know. I'm sure thought, it will pass and it's just extra thirsty from the dry food.

I was pet sitting for a couple of friends a while back, and their cat was doing the same thing. Turned out that he was diabetic. I'd call the vet and just ask them what they though, if your kitty needs to go in or not. Better safe than sorry. good luck

Greetings

I also wanted to say (although it was just said above) that you should definitely have the vet check for diabetes...Your cat probably doesn't have diabetes (specially since your cat is young) but it's better to be safe.

The reason I say this is because our first cat happened to drink and pee quite a lot- however, because it was our first cat we didn't think it was odd at the time. She seemed to be very healthy! Since we didn't have any other cat experience to compare the amount of drinking to- we thought ALL cats just drank and peed that much!

It wasn't until she showed other signs (decreased appetite) that we immediately brought her to our vet. He did blood work and it came back that she was diabetic.

Not to scare- just to share....It's wonderful that you're so attuned to your furry friend