Urine sample! At my wits end

[Mummyoftwo91]

My lovely girl has had 4 bouts of cystitis over the last year, each treated but keeps coming back, vets now want a urine sample to rule out anything else underlying, I'm at my wits end and have been in tears over trying to get this! I have bought a special urine collection kit off amazon which has plastic balls which mirrors litter and a pipette, set this all up and shut her in the room, she refused to go all day and held it in, then I put it back in it's usuall place but I have 2 other cats so I sat by the tray all day making sure the other cats didn't go in, she's refusing to go in there at all, I even added some normal litter in but she won't go in. Next step is taking her in and some urine being extracted by a needle into her bladder and I really don't want to put her through this she is such a sensitive girl 😔 does anyone have any advice, I'm getting so upset about this because I'm so worried but she won't let me help her!

Can they do a catheter sample, rather than a needle aspirate?

What kind of litter does she normally use. We've switched clay litter with fish tank gravel with success.

I’m sure a mumsnetter on here said she uses an empty tray and locks the cat in the room till they’ve performed.

That's what I did, I locked her in the bathroom with the tray she's very sensitive and got anxious and refused to go at all! I've been sat by her tray in the kitchen for hours now waiting for her to go and she refuses she's been going in our other tray, whilst also trying to keeping my other two cats out of it! she knows I'm up to something! It's just so frustrating

A needle sample from her bladder is not exactly major trauma - it’s a one off brief sting, the cat will be annoyed but quickly forget it. They do far worse when scratching and play fighting each other!
Trying to make her pee where she doesn’t want to is far more stressful to the cat and for much longer.

my dcat had the needle in bladder and it was fine. He didn't seem to bothered.

I can understand your apprehension but having been through it with my scaredy cat boy I can assure you it's not a big deal or too painful or traumatizing. Much less traumatizing for both of you than trying to collect it yourself! My boy who is very sensitive and scared of everything didn't even seem to notice. Best of luck for your poor kitty, OP.

I don’t think they’d do needle aspiration if it was painful because needles are designed to break under pressure near wear the syringe end is and it could break pretty easily if a cat twisted suddenly. They’d have a cat with a needle hanging out of them then.

If she won't use it she won't the vet will understand.

I have four cats and have just been through this as well as boy who needed the sample wouldn’t go, I ended up having to sit with him until he used the normal litter and then shove a little pot under him but it only got the tiniest little amount (they did manage to text from that though)

I watched some YouTube videos on the needle sample and when the vet mentioned he needed another one, I think I’ll be having that! It doesn’t seem to cause them any pain at all.

You have my sympathy, multi cat samples are a nightmare

Next step is taking her in and some urine being extracted by a needle into her bladder and I really don't want to put her through this she is such a sensitive girl 😔

This seems FAR kinder than what you're currently doing, which seems quite cruel to me, sorry.

@vanillandhoney how is that in anyway cruel?

Thank you everyone I managed to get the sample in the end she just went in and done it, sent it off to the vets today!

The majority of cystitis in cats is stress related
Is she on any kind of stress management? What are her relationships like with the other cats? How are resources distributed around the house (litter, food, sleeping spots etc)

@WaltzingBetty she's on a special bladder diet and I give her cyst-ease supplements every day, I have a feliway plug in also, we have 4 trays between the 3 cats, I got her a drinking fountain which she is disgusted by😂 she gets along with them fine, the other two are very obsessed with each other but she prefers to be around me more, she's always been very sensitive though, whenever I have moved house ect she gets very freaked out, when she had her spay surgery she hid for two weeks! She won't go outside as it scares her she's generally a anxious girl

[quote Mummyoftwo91]@vanillandhoney how is that in anyway cruel? [/quote]
Because you're basically forcing her to hold her urine until she has no choice but to go somewhere she's clearly uncomfortable going.

Lots of cystitis in cats is stress related and by forcing her to urinate somewhere she's uncomfortable, you could well be making it worse. You say she's anxious anyway - I wouldn't be forcing her to change her toilet habits just so you can get a urine sample - you risk her associating stress with the litter tray and creating more problems down the line.

The vets will know what they're doing and will have experience in dealing with nervous and anxious cats. I would just tell them you're unable to get a sample at home and let them do it properly.

Oops, didn't read your second post.

I'm glad you got a sample but it's not a route I would go down in the future, especially with an anxious cat.

Wel, you can’t buy her a fountain and expect her to like it. It wouldn’t be right at all.

I have a vague memory of mine being offered amytriptiline if he got another uti. In low doses it calms things down. We use it in humans too to manage pain.

@vanillandhoney I took the exact advice my vets gave me, I didn't know you were a qualified vet too 😁

Amytriptiline really seemed to help my little cat, I was sort of jealous, she was so chilled.
How is your cat now op?

@bellagogosdead the vet has suggested that! Urine sample came back that she has an infection so she's on antibiotics for two weeks now, but she seems okay in herself, picture of her down below! the vet said she will probably suffer with bouts of cystitis due to her anxiety and it's just about managing it, this time it turned bacterial though

I’d do it, I didn’t with mine and he remained territorial.

I realise you have the urine sample now but my 7 month old kitten has had two bouts of UTIs since we have had her so I totally feel your pain at trying to get a sample!

Our vet gave us the plastic balls but DCat decided she liked playing with them (like a cat soft play ball pit!!) so scattered them everywhere but wouldn't wee in the litter tray at all. In fact she eventually just peed on a nearby cushion instead. Anyway the vet gave us some special sand (also non absorbent) and she seemed fine with that and I got the sample ok.

So maybe keep it in mind in future - though hopefully there won't be a next time!

@StartWhereYouStand ooh thanks for the tip! Hope your kitten is okay! Cats are too clever for their own good they know when we are up to something!