Question about Tilly - peeing a lot and drinking more but acting normal?

Ok all my animal loving friends.. Tilly is drinking more and peeing more than usual, but is acting and eating totally normal. She does not seem to be dehydrated at all (her skin isn't tenting, her nose is moist, her eyes look good and her gums look good and perfect capillary refill). Her teeth look good and her breath doesn't stink (she had a dental 2 years ago) so I don't think she has any mouth pain. I have a dish near the litterboxes so if it's possible to catch urine midstream I will, but does anyone have any ideas? I can't tell if she's lost weight but it doesn't seem so. I think I'm just being paranoid now about it..

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Originally Posted by Nomilynn

Ok all my animal loving friends.. Tilly is drinking more and peeing more than usual, but is acting and eating totally normal. She does not seem to be dehydrated at all (her skin isn't tenting, her nose is moist, her eyes look good and her gums look good and perfect capillary refill). Her teeth look good and her breath doesn't stink (she had a dental 2 years ago) so I don't think she has any mouth pain. I have a dish near the litterboxes so if it's possible to catch urine midstream I will, but does anyone have any ideas? I can't tell if she's lost weight but it doesn't seem so. I think I'm just being paranoid now about it..

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Please have a vet check her. Limpet's kidney failure started with exactly this, but I didn't put it together because she seemed so perfectly fine and full of beans - and then suddenly she wasn't at all. CRF is very common in older cats and they can do simple bloodwork to rule it out.

Go you for catching it - whatever it is - and not blowing it off. If she's fine, you'll have the peace of knowing she's fine. If she does need care of some kind, she'll get it.

Good luck. Let us know.

Please have your kitty checked ASAP. It could be nothing, but if it is you want to catch it early. We waited too long with Princess.

Two things come immediately to mind: renal failure and diabetes. Both of these can be detected very easily with blood work from the vet. Good luck!

Yep, diabetes comes to mind. Very manageable if that's what it turns out to be. Please make an appointment with the vet and keep us posted on sweet Tilly.

Thanks everyone. I called the vet today and explained what was going on, and I've made an appointment for her tomorrow after work for a geriatric blood and urine panel. If anything, it will be for my own peace of mind, because I have holidays planned for the end of August and I want to make sure that everything is ok before I go. If I do need to change my plans, I will have enough time to make that decision.

I also wanted to say that she's not making more trips to the box than usual, it's just the volume that's changed, which I found interesting. It could be something as simple as she's hot in the apartment during the day, but I want to be totally sure before I feel confident to go away for a week. I will keep you all posted about our trip to the vet tomorrow (I am anticipating it being a challenge) and then when I can expect to get the blood work back. I'm hoping to be able to free catch her urine to save her the trauma of having her bladder aspirated but I know that's a possibility as well - keep your paws crossed that she will let me :)

Good luck both with trying to catch that pee, and with getting her to the vet. It's sad there is no explaining to a cat, "listen, this is for your own good, and you'll feel better after it is all over, I promise!"

I am also thinking renal failure- but in an early stage. And if it is - Filou lived 5 happy years after it was diagnosed. Good Luck for the vet appointment.

One way you might be able to capture some urine from her without having to outrage/traumatize her: Put some fish gravel in a litter box and shut her in a room with it, along with some food she loves and lots of water.

When (if?) she does go in the box, the gravel won't absorb the pee like litter does. You just pour it off into a little jar or suck it up into a syringe or such.

If you can't manage to get some urine from Tilly, ask your vet for the stuff that looks like black rice that's especially for that purpose. In the meantime, we'll be praying for her and you. :)

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Originally Posted by Nomilynn

I also wanted to say that she's not making more trips to the box than usual, it's just the volume that's changed, which I found interesting.

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The purpose of kidneys is to concentrate your urine and recover some of the water in your system so it can be used for other things. When your kidneys aren't working as well as they could, that water recovery isn't as efficient as it used to be, so you pee out more of what you take in. Then you have to drink more just to keep up with your system's needs, and so on. That's why subq fluids can be so helpful for kidney cats.

I hope that whatever is causing this can be easily treated. My Storm started drinking a lot and he also makes large pee biscuits but he's on prednisolone which will cause this to happen. I e-mailed my vet about him drinking a lot more than usual and she said that as long as he wasn't loosing weight then I shouldn't be too concerned. He was loosing weight and I didn't even notice.:( It turned out that he has hyperthyroidism. He's now on pills for this and is doing very well. I hope that everything will go well tomorrow. Lots of prayers and positive thoughts are being sent Tilly's way.

Hi, about a year and a half ago, my kitty had the same symptoms. A trip to the Vet with a senior bloodpanel and urinalysis confirmed a diagnosis of diabetes melllitus. She is on Lantus insulin and doing very well. I check her blood glucose daily. With the difficulty getting a urine sample, what about having the Vet do a cystocentesis, a procedure in which an uncontaminated urine specimen is removed from the urinary bladder using a needle.
Good luck today at the Vet.

We just got home from the vet, and Tilly is doing well. He thinks it's most likely Type 2 diabetes because she is overweight, but after the blood work and urinalysis we will know more. The vet will call me tomorrow morning and go over the results and I will post an update then.

Please keep us in your prayers. Thanks <3

Prayers and positive thoughts are being sent to both of you.