By Tess Thompson

Urinary tract infections are a common problem with domesticated pets, especially cats and dogs. Cats, however, are less prone to UTI than dogs. Problems affecting the lower urinary tract in cats, termed by veterinarians as Feline Urologic Syndrome, are not a common disease in cats with less than 1% of the overall cat population being affected by them. However, veterinarians have to deal with urinary tract infection in cats and dogs on regular basis as nearly 10% of the cases they have to deal with relate to urologic disorders.

The most common cause of feline urinary tract disorders is urolithiasis, a condition where stones are formed from accumulation of crystals in the urinary tract. This condition can be sever and result in complete blockage of urinary tract and prevent urination totally.

Most cats urinate the most at night when they are most active. The first sign of your cat having urinary tract infection is when it starts having litter box problems. The “litter” in the word “litter box” actually denotes fecal matter and not the substrate that pet owners line the box with. 

Cats are very tolerant to pain and will eat, purr, and snuggle to attraction your attention even while in pain. This behavioral pattern makes is all the more difficult as these could be demonstrations of out-of-cat-litter-box experiences signaling feline UTI. It is up to you to determine whether your cat has UTI or not. For this a fair understanding of the UTI symptoms in cats is necessary.

To determine whether your pet cat has urinary tract infection or not, check out the following symptoms:

1. Pain while urinating, frequent urination, small or no urine at all, are among the first signs to look for. 

2. Excessive grooming of genitals, crying while doing it and blood in urine are almost certain symptom of urinary infection in cats and dogs.

3. If your cat has stopped using its litter box and urinates outside of it, you can suspect presence of UTI. 

As urination becomes a painful exercise your cat will start associating it with the litter box and try to avoid it and urinate outside of it. If it does so, on a light colored surface, you can look for traces of blood and seek help for treating the disorder.

Medication for feline UTI is not very difficult to access. There are more than one options open to you. You may try homeopathic bladder infection treatment for canines and cats, or go in for herbal and natural remedies in case you do not want your pet cat to go through the agony of strong antibiotics, which more often than not, have dangerous side effects.