Cystitis Tips for the Female Cat

Cystitis in cats is an all too common occurrence, especially with inner city cats. All cats with cystitis should be seen by a veterinarian as typically this condition responds well and more quickly with medications.


Below are my recommendations for both aiding the treatment process and also in helping to prevent this problem.

Treatment aids

• Ensure that the litter trays in your house are thoroughly cleaned as they are used. Cats are very clean animals and in my experience are extremely reluctant to pee when all is not well with their toilet area! Cats with cystitis need to pee when they need to so that the inflammatory proteins and other irritating factors are removed from the bladder.
  

• Whilst your cat has cystitis, use a tinned food as this has a much higher water content than dry. By increasing water intake, this acts to flush the bladder through, again removing the irritation from the bladder more quickly
  

• What I also find particularly useful is asking the owner to add extra water to the food by turning the faucet/tap on quickly for a split second over the food. This adds an extra 10ml of water in each meal, therefore increasing the flushing of the bladder.
  

• Remove your cat from any causes of stress. Stress has been intrinsically linked with cystitis in cats and so by removing that cause we see a much quicker resolution. Keep your cat indoors if tom cats are making her upset, keep her in a quiet area of the house if building work is going on, Try to limit her exposure to a noisy baby and introduce her to friends and room mates slowly.
  

• Ensure you take your cat to the vet as soon as you see the characteristics signs of frequently trying to urinate, blood in the urine, repeated visits to the litter tray or an increased thirst.
  

• Talk to your vet about supplementing the diet with bladder protectants
  

• Try to collect some of the urine so that your vet can check to see if there are any crystals present. Often these types of cystitis can be managed by diet alone.

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Dr David Brooks
WhyDoesMyPet.com

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