Feline urinary tract infection

[Londoner89]

My 1.5 year old cat has started peeing a lot, or at least trying to pee. Sometimes twice in 5 mins. She comes in from the garden and hops in her litter tray, tries to do a pee then moments later will be back in the garden trying to pee. She’s also become more vocal and cleans herself a lot more, especially around the tail and bum.

I’ve done some research and it is most likely an UTI. Due to a devastating family event, my partner and I are going through awful financial hardship and I simply cannot afford to take my little fur baby to the vet. Sitting here at 12:30am with tears in my eyes feeling absolutely shit and wondering if anyone knows of any successful treatment I can order online?

Online pet stores selling medication usually require a prescription at checkout- or at least that’s what I have found when trying to order cheaper worming and flea treatment- so hopefully I can order treatment easily too

My cat had it, needed a month of tablets. A uti in cats is actually very serious and can kill the cat.

If you can’t afford to treat her you need to give her up to Cats Protection or similar. They will treat and rehome. She’s a young cat.

You cannot leave her in pain.

She needs to see the vet. This can turn deadly very quickly. In early stages you aren’t looking at high costs , just the appt and some antibiotics. Sometimes utis resolve themselves but other times it’s caused by blockage and their kidneys are damaged and cat dies ina lot of pain. Please take her to vet and arrange payment plan or surrender her to a charity if you can’t afford treatment. Don’t leave her to suffer.

Definitely needs to go to the vet. In most cases the treatment for this in a young female isn’t expensive, but is really necessary to avoid the cat being in pain. There aren’t any painkillers that are going to be effective and safe that you can get without prescription.

There are lots of options - PDSA, Blue Cross or other charities, or borrowing money off a friend/putting it on a credit card. The vets are unlikely to do a payment plan if you don’t have any existing relationship with the practice.

Longer term, as a responsible pet owner you need to plan for how you will provide for your pet’s medical and welfare needs, and if you can’t do that, consider rehoming.

My cat had it and the medication wasn't that expensive I think in total about £50 from the vets. There are things you can do to help. My cat isn't very good at drinking, she'll only drink from the dripping tap in the bathroom and not her bowl!! So I always add extra water to her wet food. A teaspoon of cider vinegar mixed in with their food is also supposed to help neutralise their utine.

You need to take the cat to a vet, that is your responsibility OP, you aren’t qualified to diagnose or know the right treatment. The poor cat must be in pain. I hope you can get her seen today.

Sorry OP but I'm going to be blunt.
Without treatment your cat may die a very painful death. You MUST get an emergency vet visit today. If you can't afford the ver, and can't use PDSA or similar, then take your cat to a rehoming centre quickly (TODAY) and explain why. No judgement from me, but you MUST NOT leave this situation to go on.

Resolution to this might be cheapish, but be warned when one of my cats had similar it was vet hospital and a four figure bill.
Sorry to be so blunt and hope you sort something out.

She needs to be seen by a vet ASAP. As others have said, if it isn't treated it will kill her.

It sounds like your cat may have FLUTD (UTIs can cause this). My cat had this. He had urinary stones so couldn't pee, he was in the vets for 4/5 days. They tried a catheter which didn't work, only other options were surgery or put to sleep. He had surgery to basically turn he into a she , cutting his winky back and making the hole wider to prevent it blocking up again. His whole stay and operation was about £1,200. The vets agreed on a payment plan over 6 months. He had to be put on a special diet which we were told would be for life (this was 7 years ago)

He luckily hasn't had urinary stones since but he has had serval UTIs over the years. We know the signs (as you've mentioned) so a trip the the vets and medication sorts it out.

He is 12/13 now and changed his food 6 months ago(he was unwell and thought he was on his last legs so thought why not let him enjoy his food) and touch wood he's fine.

Please don't leave this, it will not go away on its own and can get worse very quickly. Your cat may just need some medication to sort it out.

Has anything happened that may have caused stress for your cat? We put the Christmas tree up one year... nothing else changed apart from the tree and the cat ended up with a UTI! 🤦🏼‍♀️ They can get stressed easily.

A water fountain has helped keep him hydrated, cats are notoriously bad for keeping themselves hydrated.

Sorry for the late reply to this post, I had a poorly baby with a virus that same week so completely forgot about this post!

Got my fur baby to the vet who said it was feline cystitis likely caused by the stress of being around my very poorly, tearful baby. A five day course of antibiotics along with lots of treats and cuddles and all was fine!

Thank you for your post, you’re right it was a stress related UTI. All is sorted. We do have a water fountain which both cats drink from (and a garden pond), apparently they hate people watching them drink!

We had a cat with this and it can reoccur. You can get some fairly cheep pills to prevent it zykene I think they are called