I am considering whether one of our cats may have a urinary tract problem. She pees in odd places, only a little at a time, and often licks her butt right afterward. The most striking thing, though, is that she seems to take a really long time to urinate. I don’t really have a frame of reference for this, though. How long should it normally take?
I don’t think there is a “normal” length of time for a cat urinating - our mog seems to take about 10 seconds (ish). The peeing in odd places and only a little at a time while taking a long time is probably worth getting checked. Our cat used to get cystitis and the symptoms were going to her litter tray, squatting there, and only producing a few drops of urine.
(After years of only partly successful treatment by the vet, the problem cleared up when we stopped feeding her dried food and moved to tins!)
Yep, vet time! I counted our cat’s pee session this morning and got 4 seconds. Now, he’s male and he’s been in the same room as his litter box all night, so it’s not exactly a controlled experiment. But it’s her behavior that’s a red flag - sounds like it burns when she urinates, which hurts, so she does the feline thing of licking where it hurts.
Cat Attract litter is great for luring kitties with UTI’s back to the litter box, by the way. But she’ll need to be looked at and given medicine to treat whatever she’s got going on, too.
Sounds like maybe UTI (IANADVM). My SIL had a cat who showed this behaviour. She thought he was just being fussy. He passed away a short time later. I don’t know that they were directly related, but don’t take chances.
Thanks for the responses. We’re making the vet appointment.
I haven’t timed her with a stopwatch, but she’s frequently taking 1-2 minutes to pee.
The situation is deceptive, because she’s long had a habit of urinating in inappropriate places. We’ve always thought it was territorial marking. The small output and long effort seem to be new developments. Now I’m thinking this may be a medical problem that comes and goes, and her behavior may have been learned during a previous flare-up that we didn’t notice.
She still does use the litterbox, by the way.
Sounds just like our male. A 10 day antibiotic run fixed him up and Cat Attract for a year got him using the litterbox almost perfectly well. (He still has a fondness for peeing on wet bath mats if we leave them on the floor, but that’s the last vestige of his former peeing everywhereness.)
Keep us updated on how the vet visit goes!
Well, she went to the vet today! She’s been put on antibiotics. They weren’t able to get her to pee enough for a sample, but they diagnosed it as an infection anyway.
Medicating a cat is not something I look forward to, but the vet apparently suggested mixing the medicine with tuna juice, so we might try that. Isn’t it dumb that they give you pink bubblegum-flavored amoxicillin for animals? :dubious:
Most of our cats wouldn’t touch that stuff. If you have trouble getting it into her, don’t be afraid to ask for a substitute.
Sounds better than the little tiny very saliva-soluble pills they gave us for our cat! I’d have loved a liquid - Insert oral syringe and push.
Who knew cats can spit soggy half melted pills?
Cats can spit any pill: size, sogginess, coating, mean nothing to a cat. :smack: Liquids are only marginally better - getting the syringe into the mouth - inevitably clamped closed - involves way to close an approach to all the sharp pointy bits.
Our only solution is to mix the medicine - crushed pill or liquid - with a strong flavoured food like tuna.
pink bubblegum flavored retails for $12.00 to $18.00 for a seven day course.
compounded tuna or sardine retails for $25.00 to $35.00 for a seven day course.
Does this mean amoxicillin actually mixed with tuna meat? Or tuna flavoring in the liquid amoxicillin?
Either way - does it come in teriyaki beef jerky flavor? 'Cause my former alley cat would totally eat that! 
WF Tomba, I’ve found that the easiest way to give oral medication to a cat is to sit behind her and tilt her head back with one hand while prying her mouth open with the index finger and thumb of that same hand. Put the syringe as close to down her throat as you can and squirt! Sitting behind her and reaching forward gives her less room to escape because you are surrounding her on three sides. The key (as it always is with doing something to a cat that they aren’t going to like!) is doing it smoothly and quickly.
I don’t know if your kitty is anything like mine, but if I fed any of my 3 tuna for 7 days I would be dealing with toxic poo, so giving it to them straight is the only option.
Hope kitty is feeling better soon!
Veterinary compounding pharmacists can make all kinds of flavored products, including liquid forms of drugs unavailable commercially. But they are more expensive than the forms that are available.
Good recommendation Nikki! Here is an easy trick to getting a cats mouth open (but doesn’t help with the squirming).
Gently squeeze the back part of the jaw, just in front of where the hinge is. It doesn’t take much pressure and it keeps your finger tips away from the fangs.