Hi everyone,
My new cat Bitsy (adopted Dec 12 from Humane Society, she is about 1 yr old, spayed, strictly indoors) was checked 4 days after I got her, for a UTI, as I feared she might have been peeing "too many times" in a 24 hr period (5 golf-ball sized pee clumps in litterbox every 24 hrs; eating a diet of a good amount of canned food twice daily). Urinalysis to apparently showed no signs of UTI. Vet didn't think her peeing frequency was unusual but did the urinalysis just to pacify me :-)
Well this past week, she peed on my freshly washed rubber-backed longish shag-type bath mat. I did some reading and found that cats are often attracted to pee on rubber-backed mats, something in the rubber. So I removed that particular mat though I still have 3 others in my bathrooms that she hasn't peed on?
Then.....Friday morning she peed on a pile of clean (but unfolded) laundry that I hadn't gotten around to folding (oops! LOL). I've read, too, that some cats have a thing for peeing in laundry piles.
I took her to the Vet yesterday afternoon for another urinalysis but her bladder was too empty so took her back this morning and they did a cystocentesis and got a sample.
Now this is what confuses me........
When they do a urinalysis, they start off by "dipping" the urine with one of those reagent strips, followed by doing an in-house microscopic exam of the urine. Well when they dipped the urine it showed "3+ to 4+" white blood cells. They then did the microscopic (in-house) and it only showed "1+" WBCs. No blood present, pH between 6-7, no sediment, no crystals, etc.
The Vet (not my usual one; this one covers for mine and I find him to be rather daft) states a UTI is ruled out (even though some WBCs present; he can't really explain why the strip showed so many WBCs yet microscopic analysis didn't, but of course we go by the latter as it's more accurate - though to me, it's only as accurate as the person who's doing the manual count from based no the microscope slide...anyway...). He says her issue is either Idiopathic Cystitis...............or just behavioral.
He suggested for the I.C., if that's what it is, we proceed with a week of Metacam (I don't think so), starting her on Glucosamine and change diet to Hill's C/D (I hate Hill's).
Or.....for the possiblity that it's behavioral, I can try a Feliway room diffuser (one will be in stock on Mon or Tues for me).
I do have 4 other cats but they have taken to Bitsy very wuickly and vice versa.
I have a whopping 8 litterboxes, which includes the original new box that I had for Bitsy when I first got her and had her secluded in her own room for a few days. I keep the boxes clean and very regularly scooped. 2 boxes are hooded, in the event that she likes that too LOL. She doesn't seem to be the least bit intimidated when using the litterboxes (they're all in an area of my basement), she even uses them while I'm down there rattling around scooping them.
After I left the Vet, I came to the conclusion that due to the whole issue of the white blood cells, why not just do a culture and sensitivity and be 100% sure there's no bacteria there, just for my peace of mind...........so I called back there and asked if they still had the urine (it was probably 45 minutes after they'd done the cysto), they did, so they agreed to send off for C&S.
My gut says that these 2 episodes really were behavioral......the first one being simply due to the whole rubber backing thing (the rubber backing of the mat is rather smelly when it comes out of the dryer, which might have attracted her and that might explain why she'd never peed on these 4 mats prior or the remaining 3 mats just like it).
The Feliway Diffuser is $67 and I will give it a try though not sure if 1 is enough? I have a 1500 s/f 2 story home ...plus basement......I really can't afford to buy one for each level so would put it in the main level?
I am not aware of her peeing anywhere else. I have been sniffing every floor surface I can....paranoid that if she began to do this on a regular basis, my other 4 cats might start peeing there too, OMG that would horrible; most of my house is carpet.
Thoughts?
Many thanks
Lisa
My new cat Bitsy (adopted Dec 12 from Humane Society, she is about 1 yr old, spayed, strictly indoors) was checked 4 days after I got her, for a UTI, as I feared she might have been peeing "too many times" in a 24 hr period (5 golf-ball sized pee clumps in litterbox every 24 hrs; eating a diet of a good amount of canned food twice daily). Urinalysis to apparently showed no signs of UTI. Vet didn't think her peeing frequency was unusual but did the urinalysis just to pacify me :-)
Well this past week, she peed on my freshly washed rubber-backed longish shag-type bath mat. I did some reading and found that cats are often attracted to pee on rubber-backed mats, something in the rubber. So I removed that particular mat though I still have 3 others in my bathrooms that she hasn't peed on?
Then.....Friday morning she peed on a pile of clean (but unfolded) laundry that I hadn't gotten around to folding (oops! LOL). I've read, too, that some cats have a thing for peeing in laundry piles.
I took her to the Vet yesterday afternoon for another urinalysis but her bladder was too empty so took her back this morning and they did a cystocentesis and got a sample.
Now this is what confuses me........
When they do a urinalysis, they start off by "dipping" the urine with one of those reagent strips, followed by doing an in-house microscopic exam of the urine. Well when they dipped the urine it showed "3+ to 4+" white blood cells. They then did the microscopic (in-house) and it only showed "1+" WBCs. No blood present, pH between 6-7, no sediment, no crystals, etc.
The Vet (not my usual one; this one covers for mine and I find him to be rather daft) states a UTI is ruled out (even though some WBCs present; he can't really explain why the strip showed so many WBCs yet microscopic analysis didn't, but of course we go by the latter as it's more accurate - though to me, it's only as accurate as the person who's doing the manual count from based no the microscope slide...anyway...). He says her issue is either Idiopathic Cystitis...............or just behavioral.
He suggested for the I.C., if that's what it is, we proceed with a week of Metacam (I don't think so), starting her on Glucosamine and change diet to Hill's C/D (I hate Hill's).
Or.....for the possiblity that it's behavioral, I can try a Feliway room diffuser (one will be in stock on Mon or Tues for me).
I do have 4 other cats but they have taken to Bitsy very wuickly and vice versa.
I have a whopping 8 litterboxes, which includes the original new box that I had for Bitsy when I first got her and had her secluded in her own room for a few days. I keep the boxes clean and very regularly scooped. 2 boxes are hooded, in the event that she likes that too LOL. She doesn't seem to be the least bit intimidated when using the litterboxes (they're all in an area of my basement), she even uses them while I'm down there rattling around scooping them.
After I left the Vet, I came to the conclusion that due to the whole issue of the white blood cells, why not just do a culture and sensitivity and be 100% sure there's no bacteria there, just for my peace of mind...........so I called back there and asked if they still had the urine (it was probably 45 minutes after they'd done the cysto), they did, so they agreed to send off for C&S.
My gut says that these 2 episodes really were behavioral......the first one being simply due to the whole rubber backing thing (the rubber backing of the mat is rather smelly when it comes out of the dryer, which might have attracted her and that might explain why she'd never peed on these 4 mats prior or the remaining 3 mats just like it).
The Feliway Diffuser is $67 and I will give it a try though not sure if 1 is enough? I have a 1500 s/f 2 story home ...plus basement......I really can't afford to buy one for each level so would put it in the main level?
I am not aware of her peeing anywhere else. I have been sniffing every floor surface I can....paranoid that if she began to do this on a regular basis, my other 4 cats might start peeing there too, OMG that would horrible; most of my house is carpet.
Thoughts?
Many thanks
Lisa