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We've had problems with one (or more, we didn't know) of the cats pissing on the guest bath floor right around the toilet on and off for months now. At Christmas time we borrowed J's Dad's deer hunting camera to see if we could catch whom ever it was in the act, but as soon as we got the camera in hand the pissing stopped for awhile.
Well about a month ago, it started again. Set up the camera on infared, tilted just so and tada! The winner was Jazz every time. Yay?
Yeah, a 17 1/2 year old cat deciding to piss on the bathroom floor vs the long-in-the-tooth litter box. It wasn't a lot, or all the time, and no signs of blood in what she left or acting as if she were sick, so we chalked it up to a behavioural situation. When the weather got nicer we gutted the box in the guest bath and started over with new litter, hoping that would solve some of the problems with peeing outside the box. Did that a couple of weeks ago.
Things actually started to worsen gradually. :( It got to the point where we figured the only time she was peeing in the box in the bathroom was when she pooped, and occasionally there would be poop outside the box, too. :( A little worrysome, yes. But then again we're dealing with a 17 1/2 year old kitteh who just might have started developing a bad habit in her old age...
Things came to a head on Friday when I came back from a few hours out and found a veritable lake of urine on the floor in the guest bath around the toilet. That just wasn't right. Something *must* be up. So I called the vet and explained the situation, saying we thought it was behavioural but now I wasn't so sure what with the volume I found. Bring her in, we need to rule out infection.
So Jazz got the Full Monty--urine tap, small blood draw, even an anal gland expression. Poor sweet girl yowled like a motherfucker when Dr. D. did that (they usually sedate for that procedure, but with Jazz's age he didn't want to drug her, so he did the best he could as long as she could stand it, which was a pretty long time all things considerered--she was such a good, brave girl!) Was told the excessive urination could be related to being on Prednisone, or her kidneys getting worse, or just plain a urinary infection. I didn't even think it could be her kidneys being worse. Le sigh. That would suck. :( I steeled myself for the worst possible scenario just in case...
Blood work came back really great numbers for her kidneys, but Dr. D. found a small amount of blood and a lot of white blood cells in her urine. Diagnosis? urinary tract infection! Aha! Stupid mama, not realizing all that piss had to mean something bad was up sooner and taken her in before the infection took hold. :( She's getting 14 days of Clavamox pills (expensive!) for it. She also got an antibiotic shot and a B12 shot while we were still at the vet.
We also bought a new litter box yesterday afternoon to see if that might help with things as well. There's still a bit of urination outside the box, but it's much less outside and more actually in the boxes (we've also got one in the hallway that Jazz will use occasionally). I think we've got this under control.
I feel so guilty for not bringing her in sooner. The last time we brought her in for suspected peeing outside the box (sometime during the winter months--I couldn't find the notes readily in my little book), we went through all the rigamarole and she didn't actually have an infection at that time. This is why we thought the peeing outside the box was behavioural in nature. I really hope she hasn't been suffering at all...no way to know, really. Thing is, at least I thought to call and then brought her in for a looksee. There's that...
Well about a month ago, it started again. Set up the camera on infared, tilted just so and tada! The winner was Jazz every time. Yay?
Yeah, a 17 1/2 year old cat deciding to piss on the bathroom floor vs the long-in-the-tooth litter box. It wasn't a lot, or all the time, and no signs of blood in what she left or acting as if she were sick, so we chalked it up to a behavioural situation. When the weather got nicer we gutted the box in the guest bath and started over with new litter, hoping that would solve some of the problems with peeing outside the box. Did that a couple of weeks ago.
Things actually started to worsen gradually. :( It got to the point where we figured the only time she was peeing in the box in the bathroom was when she pooped, and occasionally there would be poop outside the box, too. :( A little worrysome, yes. But then again we're dealing with a 17 1/2 year old kitteh who just might have started developing a bad habit in her old age...
Things came to a head on Friday when I came back from a few hours out and found a veritable lake of urine on the floor in the guest bath around the toilet. That just wasn't right. Something *must* be up. So I called the vet and explained the situation, saying we thought it was behavioural but now I wasn't so sure what with the volume I found. Bring her in, we need to rule out infection.
So Jazz got the Full Monty--urine tap, small blood draw, even an anal gland expression. Poor sweet girl yowled like a motherfucker when Dr. D. did that (they usually sedate for that procedure, but with Jazz's age he didn't want to drug her, so he did the best he could as long as she could stand it, which was a pretty long time all things considerered--she was such a good, brave girl!) Was told the excessive urination could be related to being on Prednisone, or her kidneys getting worse, or just plain a urinary infection. I didn't even think it could be her kidneys being worse. Le sigh. That would suck. :( I steeled myself for the worst possible scenario just in case...
Blood work came back really great numbers for her kidneys, but Dr. D. found a small amount of blood and a lot of white blood cells in her urine. Diagnosis? urinary tract infection! Aha! Stupid mama, not realizing all that piss had to mean something bad was up sooner and taken her in before the infection took hold. :( She's getting 14 days of Clavamox pills (expensive!) for it. She also got an antibiotic shot and a B12 shot while we were still at the vet.
We also bought a new litter box yesterday afternoon to see if that might help with things as well. There's still a bit of urination outside the box, but it's much less outside and more actually in the boxes (we've also got one in the hallway that Jazz will use occasionally). I think we've got this under control.
I feel so guilty for not bringing her in sooner. The last time we brought her in for suspected peeing outside the box (sometime during the winter months--I couldn't find the notes readily in my little book), we went through all the rigamarole and she didn't actually have an infection at that time. This is why we thought the peeing outside the box was behavioural in nature. I really hope she hasn't been suffering at all...no way to know, really. Thing is, at least I thought to call and then brought her in for a looksee. There's that...
