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Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 7:41 am Post subject: HELP!!! Incontinent Kitty!!!

My 10 year old Daisy had surgery last week for bladder stones. They kept her overnight and she came home with antibiotics, pain meds, and a good prognosis. It seems, however, that she is now incintinent. It took us a couple of days to figure out that it is definitely involuntary ... she will curl up on a lap and doze off. Sure enough, both my husband and I have been soaked while she sleeps! Our house is now encased in plastic and sheets and we are laundering sheets multiple times a day! She soaks herself along with whatever area she sleeps on so she stinks (you can smell her coming!) as well. This is a pretty miserable situation for us and I have to imagine that she is distressed as well. The vet has assumed a wait and see approach (she said that the bladder was very inflamed and there was an infection along with the stones) but we will be calling again today.

Anyone have any experience with this type of problem? We can deal with this on a short term basis but it cannot continue. We have another cat (a diabetic ... I work to pay vet bills) and two dogs so we are not strangers to pet messes but this one is a "doozie"! Is there anything that will tackle cat urine smell? Is there anything I can use to clean her up ... we cannot do a real bath until the stitches are out and the pet wipes are not keeping up.

HELP!

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:00 am Post subject:

I had a different problem in the past and I was able to use very small doggie diapers that were deisgned to let the animal poop normally. It's basically a cloth diaper that secures with velcro that you put a sanitary napkin in

I think this is the brand I used.
http://www.diapersfordogs.com/femaledog.htm

This brand can be used on cats. Because the cat can still poop freely you don't get a huge mess.

Posted: Wed Mar 30, 2011 10:23 am Post subject:

Since your kitty is fairly young, she may heal from the surgery and recover from her infection when the antibiotics take hold, as your vet has suggested and become continent again.

My old kitty girl Ms Fluffy would leak urine when she slept, in her last few years (she lived to be 21 or 22.) This was fairly easy to deal with because she slept most of the time and only in 3 or 4 favored predictable locations. I lined each bed with cut up pieces of flannel lined plastic tablecloths and then covered the plastic with disposable bedding material (old towels, cut up old clothing, and disposable hospital pads.) This sounds like the approach you've taken. It would be much more problematic to have a pet who walked around dribbling urine.

Now my poor old collie has terminal cancer, a mass on his abdomen, and whether because of that or just his age, urine just runs out of him while he sleeps. He sleeps most of the time. He has two thick foam beds which I have encased in plastic tarps and cover over with washable fleece blankets and old quilts. I launder his blankets every day.

I do have the same problem with Prince that he now smells like urine. Bathing him indoors has become very difficult and stressful because I have to lift him into the tub and he can't stand for more than a few minutes. I keep hoping this eternal winter will end so that I can connect the warm water garden hose outdoors and give him quick baths with diluted shampoo. I used to bath my old cats occasionally.

Good luck with your leaky kitty. I imagine this problem is worse with a younger more mobile pet than one who sleeps constantly and in only a few locations. Once the stitches are removed you should be able to bathe your kitty. I guess I would just do what you are doing, and bathe kitty occasionally when it becomes safe to do so. Perhaps confining your cat to a single room for part of the time might contain the problem in a single area and make cleanup easier.

Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2011 4:26 am Post subject:

I had a cat who would pee random places. It was mostly a behavioral issue (she got a clean bill of health in that area from the vet). We used to put her in special kitty diapers we got from this lady http://www.castlepaws.net/studpants.html. She makes the diapers herself from cotton fabric so they're machine washable. I just put half of a human incontinence pad in the diaper to catch the urine and that solved our problem. I took her to the groomers for a sanitary groom and then just changed her diaper two or three times a day (depending on how often she peed), wiping her down with a damp washcloth each time--just like you would do for a human infant. The diapers have a tail hole in them so your cat would be able to use the litter box to poop normally--it only catches the urine.

Sadly, our girl died of her many other medical issues, but those diapers gave her full run of the house in her final days with us.

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2011 7:13 pm Post subject:

I don't have any suggestions for the incontinence but just wanted to ask if the vet put your kitty on steroids for the inflamed bladder. My cat just had bladder stones, it was kind of a different situation since it was a male cat. My whole story is on the animal community forum. $3,000 later, tears, patience, and a lot of peepee pads, plastic, and towels later (knock on wood) he is just about better. Hang on there and it will get better.

Posted: Mon Aug 29, 2011 11:55 pm Post subject: Cheaper alternative?

I went on line to look for the custom-made cat diapers others had mentioned and while they seem like a great idea, they also run around $25 each. Other resources suggest using baby or adult regular or swim diapers, which seem cheaper. I don't know how much trash is generated by the "pee pads" inserted in the cloth diapers vs. using disposables.

There seem to be two theories. The most prevalent is to put the diaper on as you would with a baby but first cut out an X for the tail/stool. Another suggestion for urinary incontinence only was to just put the diaper on sideways so it covered the dribbly bits. Any thoughts? My little guy is healthy, just stubborn and decided to annoint our front room (couch and hardwood floor) just about the time we put the house on the market.

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