# Veterinary question: How do professionals obtain a urine sample from a reluctant cat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 22, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549 "2013-11-22T18:29:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549/1 "2013-11-22T18:29:13Z")
Background: My young, spayed, female cat is currently at the vet’s office after uncharacteristically saturating the floor underneath a rubber-backed rug (without making a mark on the rug itself; I have no idea how she did it). She spent all of Tuesday at the vet and wouldn’t pee, then came home with beads (peeing in her carrier on the way home), spent Wednesday and Wednesday night at home without using her beads, then went back to the vet’s office yesterday where she has stayed until now. She still hasn’t peed, and they seem unable or unwilling to obtain a sample in any more invasive way. My old vet, who was officially The Best Vet in the World, could make our cats give a urine specimen simply by palpating them in a particular way. Was this his particular magic, or is there something our current vet staff just haven’t learned—some ancient veterinary technique that has been lost in the mists of time? Failing this, can’t a cat be catheterized? We really miss the l’il character. NOTE: We do like our current vet clinic, but they are undergoing a growth spurt and have added a lot of staff, becoming a bit disorganized in the process. We’re not angry at them, nor do we want to change clinics. We just want our kitty back! ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549/2 "2013-11-22T19:03:34Z")
Oh! Oh! I know this one. The sample is obtained with a needle through the side of the cat. That squeezing move was your old vet’s magic. I’ve never heard of that before. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549/3 "2013-11-22T19:09:58Z")
They put a needle into the bladder, like **Hello Again** said. ---
**Author:** ![Soylent\_Juicy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@Soylent\_Juicy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soylent_Juicy)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549/4 "2013-11-22T19:33:30Z")
I think they can also wait until the cat “goes” on its own and they have a special type of litter that they can extract the sample from. Please correct me if I’m wrong. Whatever you do, don’t bother trying to take in a sample that you got yourself. My old cat had a UTI and my vet at the time told me to bring in a sample. So I eye-droppered up some of the puddle and put it in jar and took it in. They charged me $65 for the analysis then said they couldn’t do the analysis because the sample was too contaminated. Well why the fuck didn’t they tell me that in first place?! (In retrospect I should have demanded a refund, but my mind was too foggy with stress over my cat being sick.) ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2013, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549/5 "2013-11-22T20:35:54Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > Oh! Oh! I know this one. The sample is obtained with a needle through the side of the cat. That squeezing move was your old vet’s magic. I’ve never heard of that before. Ow ow ow! I guess I can understand why they wanted to avoid that. > [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > I think they can also wait until the cat “goes” on its own and they have a special type of litter that they can extract the sample from. Please correct me if I’m wrong. Yeah, that’s what we’d been doing, first at their office, then at home, then at their office again. They keep them in a cage and collect the urine from a tray underneath, but she refused to cooperate. At home, they gave us those plastic beads which we put into a brand-new litter box—and she refused to cooperate. Anyway, they finally obtained a sample in some fashion and determined that she indeed has a UTI, so she’s back home on antibiotics and prescription food for the time being. Now all we have to do is replace the flooring in our entryway :smack:. We’ll wait to do that until she gets an all-clear from the vet. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549/6 "2013-11-23T00:28:29Z")
If they couldn’t get the cat to urinate by pressing on their full bladder, they could catheterize it. And then there was me, with a cat who was urinating on the kitchen counter and at the vet’s request, I brought in a specimen in a medication syringe. Another woman in the waiting room said, “HOW did you get a urine specimen from a cat?” and I replied, “Trust me, you don’t want to know.” I just stuck it into a puddle and sucked it up. It turned out to be an attention-getting mechanism. I was working full time and going to school, and also had a boyfriend she hated (and, as it turned out, for good reason). I started playing with her more, and it stopped. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549/7 "2013-11-23T00:39:51Z")
With a [Dell](http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/oct/30/dell-laptop-cat-pee-urine-smell-latitude-e6430u). ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549/8 "2013-11-23T09:28:30Z")
I seem to remember that the vet’s palpitations were to feel how full the bladder was, before inserting the needle. The times I’ve watched this done, the cat seemed to be experiencing some discomfort, but not in any obvious pain. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549/9 "2013-11-23T12:38:57Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > I seem to remember that the vet’s palpitations were to feel how full the bladder was, before inserting the needle. The times I’ve watched this done, the cat seemed to be experiencing some discomfort, but not in any obvious pain. They did mention that they were waiting until they could palpate the bladder, so I guess that’s what they were talking about. What our old vet did, though, involved some sort of a quick movement of the fingers and _poof_, a full specimen container and a very nonplussed cat. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549/10 "2013-11-23T12:46:37Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > They put a needle into the bladder, like **Hello Again** said. This is how it is done. My cat Denver went though this about once a month (Denver was diabetic, and the vet closely monitored him). If he could pee on command, things would have been a lot simpler; but he couldn’t, so we took the hard road. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2013, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/veterinary-question-how-do-professionals-obtain-a-urine-sample-from-a-reluctant-cat/674549/11 "2013-11-23T23:31:27Z")
I had a cat with cystitis about 20 years ago. He wouldn’t go and the vet squeezed his bladder to induce urination and called it “expressing the urine.” No needles whatsoever.