Incontinence problem in kitty

[adubose]

Hi everyone,

Let me start off by saying that I am so glad I found this website! Everyone seems so nice and caring and helpful. About a month ago, my 15 mo. old kitty Taya was involved in a car accident -- she climbed into my father's engine and, not knowing, he left for work. Taya fell out down the road and luckily avoided being run over, but she did hit something (the tire, the ground, we're still not sure) and suffered a broken sacrum and a fractured pelvis. Her tail was amputated and is healing fine, however she now suffers from bladder issues. She is totally fine otherwise -- still eating and drinking, walking/jumping just fine, sleeping, playing, destroying the furniture.

She has good anal tone and is able to poop on her own (95% of the time even in the litter box!) so that is a blessing. However, my dad and I are having to express her bladder. I can't seem to do it by myself so he's been awesome in helping me. We try to do it at least three times a day and we're getting along pretty well. About two weeks ago, when we brought Taya home for good the vet's office told us they'd seen some pee in her litter that day and we got really excited. But we have yet to see her pee on her own in the litter. Occasionally she leaks a little bit of urine when she's lying somewhere so we started trying to express her bladder more. About three days ago, we stopped being able to get much urine out when we expressed, which was odd. And then we started finding big puddles of urine around the house. We have two other cats and two dogs but the cats are mainly outside and the dogs are taken out regularly so we do not think it was them. Added to the fact that she has now twice peed in my bed (once last night while we were both sleeping) I'm almost certain it's Taya. This really worries me because it seems like she's gone from being unable to get the pee out to not being able to hold it in at all.

I realize that nerves can take a very long time to heal, and the vet seems very optimistic. It has only been roughly a month since the accident so I know that we haven't given it long enough, but now I am afraid that Taya is totally incontinent. I am scheduled to take her back to the vet tomorrow to have her stitches removed and will speak to the vet about it then. You can imagine how frustrating this is -- nobody likes to constantly clean up pee! Does anyone have any experience with their kitty doing this? Is there any hope at all that her nerves might possibly heal more and allow her to control her bladder?

[cricketsmom]

Hi there! Cricket's mom here. My girl had similar injuries to your cat but is permanently incontinent (or at least has had no improvement for over a year). First let me tell you that a month from the accident is not very long at all so don't lose heart yet. Especially since the fact that she's pooping on her own is very positive. My cat never got past getting some anal tone back. Nerve injuries are inconsistent when they are trying to heal so I'm not really surprised that you've had a change from not peeing to leaking everywhere. Cricket cannot release urine, but she had a spell recently where she leaked for several weeks then went back to keeping it all in until I expressed her. I've kept her in special kitty undies most of the time anyway because her little terds would just drop out whenever, so during that time I just put a lady pad into them.
I would advise you to ride it out and hope for the best. Will she wear diapers or cloth diapers? Can you keep her in a crate or a certain area of the house that is easier to clean such as a mudroom or porch? I keep my girl in a large dog crate when I'm not around so she doesn't have to wear her kitty pants all the time. She's pretty content with it and it's not too hard to clean. Hope this helps!

[adubose]

Hey, Cricket's mom! Thanks for your reply I'm sorry to hear about your girl but glad that she's doing OK and is happy!

I talked to the vet yesterday when I took Taya back to have her stitches removed. The vet said that everything looked good and he was pleased with how well she was doing. I mentioned to him that she had started to have big accidents around the house and he said she might be developing some incontinence and to monitor her for another week or so and let him know if the accidents stopped.

We have a small bar next to the kitchen in our house and we keep her food and water there, on the counter. There's a tiny sink (again, not used) that Taya's been climbing in since we brought her home after the accident a few weeks ago. She'll brace herself with her bag legs in the sink and her front legs on the edge and it looks like she's trying to go to the bathroom. We'd found pee in it a few times so we assumed it was just a little bit that had leaked out, but I found two big puddles in it today, one this morning and another tonight when I got home. It was a good size of pee, the amount you'd think would come out if she was urinating on her own. Hopefully this means that's doing this voluntarily! I don't know how so much could leak out there because she doesn't spend time in the sink unless she tries to go to the bathroom. My dad thinks it has something to with the angle because when she gets in the litter box and crouches like normal she can't get any pee out, but she can when her front is so elevated. At any rate, I'm taking this as a positive sign! Now I just have to figure out how to get her to stop using the sink and start using her litter box!

[janew]

Well, great it is the sink & not the bed. That's an easy clean up!! Hope she continues to improve.
Best Wishes,
jane

[CarolC]

I don't know how so much could leak out there because she doesn't spend time in the sink unless she tries to go to the bathroom. My dad thinks it has something to with the angle because when she gets in the litter box and crouches like normal she can't get any pee out, but she can when her front is so elevated. At any rate, I'm taking this as a positive sign! Now I just have to figure out how to get her to stop using the sink and start using her litter box!

That is so interesting. That is a new kind of "adaptive litter box". You would probably need to put some sort of platform next to her litter box for her to elevate her front feet, but if she wants to go in the sink I think I'd just be happy she somehow knew what she needed to do.

[adubose]

Thank you guys for your responses. Taya has now started peeing more and more in the sink but we also discovered that she'd been peeing in my mom's Christmas centerpiece in the dining room -- we don't go in there much! Why do you think she's doing this? I know that cats can be strange sometimes with their litter box habits. The thing is, she stills both litter boxes to poop, which is good. My dad thinks she's just leaking pee everywhere but I don't know why she would go to these random spots and hang out? She spends almost all of her time in the same room as us. I think she's picking spots and then peeing there for some weird reason. My mom caught her peeing in the dining room and she wasn't elevated like she was in the sink, so she can obviously pee in a normal squatting position.

I think I'm going to set up a new litter box with her old litter. When I moved back home with my parents she started using the 2 litter boxes and the litter that our other cats use. I guess I will put one in my room (even though I don't really want to) because we're running out of places for them to go.

My dad is about ready to make Taya a garage cat because he cannot stand her peeing everywhere. I don't really blame him but I think we need to at least give her a chance to clean up her act! Does anyone have any advice or suggestions? Thanks!

[janew]

Maybe she should be vet checked for a urinary infection. Sometimes cats pee in odd spots when they have UTI. By your description, I do not think she is incontinent. She is choosing these spots. Two things come to mind, the UTI or stressed by moving in with other cats. Maybe you could confine her in your bedroom with no other cats with her own litter box & see how she does, then have her vet checked if she continues to urinate out of the box...
jane

[adubose]

[quote="janew"]Maybe she should be vet checked for a urinary infection. Sometimes cats pee in odd spots when they have UTI. By your description, I do not think she is incontinent. She is choosing these spots. Two things come to mind, the UTI or stressed by moving in with other cats. Maybe you could confine her in your bedroom with no other cats with her own litter box & see how she does, then have her vet checked if she continues to urinate out of the box...
jane[/quote]


I didn't think of that. You may very well be right. I'm pretty sure that we weren't getting her bladder completely empty when we were expressing her, but last week the vet seemed to think it wasn't a UTI because she was on antibiotics until about five days ago. As far as the other cats thing, she's been living here for three months with the other cats and she was using both litter boxes just fine before the accident. One of the cats is an outside cat and the other is really old and sleeps inside but she's out most of the day and I'm pretty sure that's where she uses the bathroom.

[critters]

With Koi, my leaky boy, I put a mattress pad on top of the bed, using it like a blanket. It's easy to swap them out and wash them. I can't give an opinion about possible incontinence because there's too much commotion here at the moment.

[cricketsmom]

Just curious, how is Taya doing now?

[adubose]

Just curious, how is Taya doing now?

Hi, thanks for asking!

Taya is overall fine. She gets around fine, eats and drinks normally, is fiesty and still runs around like a mad cat, plays, etc. Her back seems to have healed after the surgery and does not seem to be causing her any pain at all. I don't even think she remembers that she used to have a tail! Ha!

As for her bathroom problems, they are so-so. We stopped having to express her bladder because she began to pee on her own but she was peeing all over the house in random places! I am almost positive she is not incontinent because not once have I seen her pee in the spots she sleeps in or in my bed or anywhere. She doesn't seem to be leaking so I think she has okay muscle tone. But she still pees in random spots sometimes! It became a real problem when I was living with my parents because she was peeing in my mom's plants, on the kitchen counter, in her food dish and water bowl -- but never the carpet! I had been planning to move back out for school anyway and could not leave fast enough because the entire house was beginning to smell like pee... my poor parents!

Taya and I live by ourselves now. She seems fine, still uses her litter box most of the time to pee and poop, etc. Lately she's been peeing IN her water dish and around her food though! She hasn't peed anywhere else so far. I'm not sure if she's trying to get my attention or if she still might have some sort of UTI or something going on. She was at the vet a month and a half ago before I moved out and was put back on oral antibiotics. They seemed to be helping for a while but lately (within the last 2.5 weeks) she's been peeing in her water bowl a few times a week! I may just go back to the vet and see if I can buy more of those antibiotics. All I can figure is that since she's not completely incontinent maybe when she pees she can't get it all out and seems to keep a pretty constant infection. The vet thought maybe she wasn't reacting well enough to the first antibiotics he put her on and gave her these, which seemed to help for a while! I guess I'll go back and get more. I don't want her to be in pain but I think she's okay -- I never see blood in her urine so that's good I guess.

[critters]

You might want to keep expressing, if she'll let you; it should help keep puddles to a minimum.