Frequent urinating of small amounts in Cat

[krys16350]

I have two 4 year old sister cats. Today I noticed that one of them has gone into the litter box so many times and is only peeing between a dime-quarter sized amount. Usually it's a lot more. She will try to pee for about 30 seconds and leave. Then in minutes goes back to lay near the litter box, then goes back in to pee only a little bit more. She's usually a very happy talkative cat, and today she still will meow at some of your questions but you can tell shes got something on her mind. She doesn't seem as comfortable, which makes sense. One of the cats was leaving skid marks from dragging their butt on the floor after pooping, I didn't know which one, but today I seen the same girl having trouble. She went in and tried to poop, nothing landed in the cat box. But some was stuck to her and she rubbed it all over the floor, so i'm thinking she has to have accompanied constipation? I'm not sure if these two can go hand in hand and what that means?

From what I can find, i'm thinking this is a bladder infection. She is peeing, just small amounts often. I went to the store and got her some Friskies canned food for urinary tract health with a lower PH.  I added some extra water to it to try to up her intake. She usually only eats dry food and I don't really know how much water they drink. I have to change the water pretty often because they both have a super bad habit of dunking their feet into the water which makes the water dirty. I've heard that Hills Prescription Diet C/d is good, but only located at some stores and it was too late to get any today. Does anyone know if you can get this at a store without a vet prescription? And is it far superior to the Friskies Urinary canned food? Or am i OK with trying this for now?

My question is for any opinions on what this could be and how serious this is. Should I continue to try my best to increase her water over the next couple days with the urinary tract food and see how she does? Any experience? I feel so bad for her and I'd appreciate any opinions.

 

[Norachan]

It sounds like a UTI to me. My cat Susy gets them all the time, her's are caused by stress. We moved house a few months ago  (major stress for both of us!) and she is just finishing her course of antibiotics for the last one.

I don't know about the prescription diets. My vet told me they can actually make the problem worse if you feed them the wrong one.

If she is peeing really small amounts it sounds as if she has a bladder inflammation rather than a blockage. She would need to see a vet to get some medication for this though.

Canned food is generally better than dry as it contains more water. Could you switch her over to canned food rather than dry? Avoid the fish flavours though, meat ones are better for cats that are prone to UTI's

 

[krys16350]

I can and will be switching her to wet canned cat food. They like the canned better, I just always thought that dry was better for their teeth. I never thought it could be dehydrating, but now I certainly know better.

Is this condition able to go away without getting antibiotics from the vet? Or am i looking at a vet visit either way? Their mom was a stray manx that we took in, she was pregnant and had these two. She was a little feral, but I am just an sucker for animals in need. So, her kittens are better but they don't like to be handled too much. The cat who appears to have the UTI deals with being picked up much better than the other but is a bit skiddish around strangers, so a vet visit i'm sure will be absolute craziness.

There's no way i'd let anything bad happen to her, I just don't want to put her under even more stress if these can go away on their own with the addition of liquids and such?

 

[Norachan]

It really depends on what is causing the UTI. If it's stress then removing the cause of stress can work (Feliway helps to keep cats calm) If it's a dietary issue then a change of diet can help. Getting a cat to drink more water is always a good idea, but this can be difficult. Have you tried a water fountain? 

Here's an article which might answer some of your questions.

http://catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth

 

[krys16350]

We haven't tried a water fountain, they love to play in their water and get it so dirty so fast, that I didn't see giving them anything besides a bowl as a workable idea. I'll look more into it though. But I've been adding extra water to her food all day yesterday, so I'm sure she got a lot more water than she normally does. The vet here is closed until Tuesday due to the holiday weekend, so I really hope this ends up getting better with liquids and the foods...

 

[red top rescue]

I hate to say this, but the thought of the poor cat suffering with that need to pee and discomfort for 3 days just because the vet is closed doesn't seem fair.  While it is not a life threatening emergency, it's as uncomfortable as hell (hve you ever had a bladder infection?  I have, and it's awful!)  I would suggest finding an emergency vet or seeing if your vet has an emergency number and would talk to you and possibly prescribe an antibiotic, which you can usually get FREE at most pharmacies if your vet would call it in.