How do you get a urine sample from a cat?

Question

I've just found out that my 2 1/2 year old cat has an urine infection and struvite crystals/stones. From now on he will have a special diet but I have to take regular urine samples and bring them to my vet. BUT how do you get a sample from a cat?

Answer 1

you give him a lot of water or milk or whatever cats drink and lots of it...and when u know it is going to pee put a bowl or cup and get it

Answer 2

I had to do that for my cat.

1. Once the cat hasn't peed for a while, you can put the cat in the bathroom with the door closed with the litterbox, until he pees.
2. Put a big black garbage bag in the litterbox with no litter, to see if the cat will go in there.
3. Buy a litter matt if you don't have one, clean it well if you do have one, and put it in front of the litterbox.

When I locked my cat in the bathroom before going to bed it only took her like 5 min to pee on her plastic litter matt. That way I didn't have to leave her in the bathroom over night and hear her scratching to get out.

Then I just poured the urine into a bottle or disposible plastic container.

My cat was on prescription food for 3 months to dissolve the crystals. Instead of buying the vet food after that, I've been keeping her on a very high quality diet of dry food that is left out, and I also feed her some canned food with added water and warm it in the microwave. She mostly just drinks the water because she won't eat the meat. The canned food is high quality too, found in pet stores. The more water the cat gets the better.

The high quality food is better than the vet food and because it has so much meat in it, it makes the urine acidic which prevents crystals from coming back. She hasn't peed outside her litterbox in like 5 months now probably, so this new diet is doing good. We adopted her in the summertime, so I believe she had crystals when we adopted her. Her previous owners must have been feeding her crappy food.

Innova EVO, California Natural, by Nature, Felidae, Eagle Pack Holistic Select are all good high quality foods.

Answer 3

The urine is going to be examined only for crystals so no need of sterile urine (if vets needs to do bacteriology on it, they usually take it straight from bladder by cystocentesis (sticking a needle to the bladder)

Here's how to do it with no stress:

1. There is a special litter available from most vets, it's non absorbing and washable (silica). When your cat has done it, just take a sterile 5 or 10ml syringe (ask from vet) and draw the urine up into the syringe. Bring it to you vet as fresh as possible.

2. If you don't have this special litter, you can use paper clippings or polystyrene pellets from some packaging, they will not absorb or pollute urine for the purpose of crystal examination.

Just make sure that the litter box is clean before you put any alternative litter filling in it!

Answer 4

Ask your vet for those non-absorbent beads others have mentioned.

You want to start with a fresh clean litterbox and add those crystals.

My cat was reluctant to go in there without her usual pile of litter, but eventually she had to give in!

Then I sucked it up with the syringe also provided by the vet.

FYI, rather than putting your cat on a "special diet" from the vet, consider switching him to a canned food. Increased moisture from a good quality canned food can alleviate or eliminate the problem.

Answer 5

There's only one way to do it safely, and that's to get some special, non-absorbable litter from the vet. You can replace your usual litter for this - when kitty pees in the tray, it will just be swishing round in a nice puddle for you to get in the bottle.

If your cat only ever pees outside, like mine, you'll have to shut him in a room with a litter tray overnight once in a while I'm afraid! Vets can suck urine out of the bladder with a needle (cystocentesis), but this is a bit stressful for the cat if it has to be done regularly.

DON'T squeeze the bladder as people have suggested, this should only be done by a professional!

Chalice

Answer 6

The only safe way to also ensure good results is to do a procuedure that involes taking the urine out by needle -- it is harmless. DONT let the vet squeeze their bladder. And letting them pee into an empty littler box wont work becuase it will contaminate the sample, and its impossible to knwo when theyll do that anyway, so you probably cant refrigerate it in time. My cat had a cysto.. I cant remember what it is called, but the needle procedure all the time, and it was fast, didnt harm her bladder, and always gave good results.

Answer 7

very easy - no need to even buy any special litter from the vet

What my vet told me to do was to get shredded fax or office paper and use it instead of your normal litter.

This paper is non absorbent so you will be able to collect a sample easily.

You don't even need to try hard to get the cat to pee in it because if he has crystals he will be trying to pee every 30 seconds as mine did. Very distressing watching him suffer!

He will need to be on a special diet to stop the crystals from forming.

Answer 8

I actually had to do this when my cat had a bladder infection. It was actually rather easy since he was peeing every few mins (or trying to, poor thing). I just held a small tupperware bowl under him while he was in the litterbox. I got enough on the second try to take to the vet.

Answer 9

Your vet should be able to tell you how to go about this. It's tricky, at best. You really have to watch when their bladder is full and when they're going to use the litter box. I'd ask my vet on the best way. THey're so funny about the whole litter box thing, maybe there is a way to collect it from the litter box without too much hassle? It may be that you'll have to take your kitty to the vet and have them do it. One of mine had a problem, and they basically squeezed his bladder to get him to pee. It wasn't pretty. Good luck on this one.

Answer 10

My cat has this problem...the vet sells special litter so it's easy to get a sample. Feel free to email me if you want any advice.

Answer 11

The easiest way is to take the cat in and they will draw urine from the bladder.