RVN Kat Johnson was asked to do a home visit to see Dobby after his owner said he has had issues with inappropriate urination and this problem has been appearing on and off multiple times over the last year. Dobby was originally seen by another Vet, where he was diagnosed with a UTI which was quickly treated and was showing clear signs of improvement. However, a couple of months later after a change in cat litter, Dobby started to urinate on his owners’ bed, as well as the sofa in the living room.
Dobby’s mum had tried restricting access to other areas of the house when they were not at home, changing litter trays and using pheromones. Despite this though, no improvement was demonstrated and this battle of trial and error continued for another 6 months. With all options at home exhausted, Dobby was taken back to the Vets for a full medical observation and was diagnosed with another UTI!
As well as this, Dobby also lives with another cat (possibly related, but it’s uncertain as they were acquired from a rescue centre) and as cats get older, they can sometimes become stressed living together, which can cause urine marking. The vets advised the owners and Dobby to see if Kat could help as she runs our behaviour clinics.
On meeting the family, discussing the cat’s behaviour and looking at the core territory and resources, Kat established the cause of the inappropriate urination was not stress. Dobby was in fact linking using his painful urination from his UTI with his cat litter tray!
The behavioural training program consisted of preventing access to areas Dobby had used as a toilet, positively intercepting any sign urinating off the litter tray and confining Dobby to a small area with access to food, a bed and litter tray to re-establish using the litter tray with no painful experiences for month.
It’s now 3 months since Kat’s visit and Dobby’s owners are happy to report there have been no accidents and are now slowly moving to the next stage of allowing more unsupervised access to the rest of the house. Well done Dobby!
Is your cat having behaviour issues or becoming stressed when they visit the vets? We can help! Our Park Farm site are holding ‘Cat Only Clinics’ every Tuesday from 3rd May, 9am-12pm to provide the best environment without other species of animals around, resulting in a stress free experience for you and your furry friend! For more information call our Park Farm site – 01332 554422
