All About Cats

The First Cat Urinary Tract Infection Symptoms to Look For

Are you sick and tired of seeing your cat suffer from urinary tract infection? When left untreated, a cat urinary tract infection can become life-threatening. That's why early detection and treatment are incredibly important.

The first cat urinary tract infection symptoms that you should look out for are painful urination, frequent urination, and little urine. Your cat may strain to urinate or go frequently with only a few drops coming out at a time.

Cat urinary symptoms may also include frequent grooming of the genitals. Your cat may cry in pain while grooming, making this an almost certain symptom of cat urinary tract infection. You may also notice your cat urinating outside of his litter box.

When a cat urinates outside of his litter box, it is because urination has become painful. Cats associate the pain of urination with their litter box, leading to them urinating in inappropriate areas of the house.

These are the cat urinary tract infection symptoms you need to do something about first. If you fail to detect these early symptoms, you will probably have to take your cat to the vet for treatment.

Some cat urinary symptoms that indicate an infection in its late stages include traces of blood in the urine, fever, lethargy, and a complete lack of urination. If your cat shows these symptoms, you will probably want to take your cat to the vet.

If you catch early cat urinary tract infection symptoms, you're in luck. You can probably get rid of the infection by using some home remedies and making some changes to your cat's lifestyle.

First of all, you need to make sure your cat is getting plenty of water to drink. Cat water fountains encourage cats to drink more water. Don't give your cat tap water because it contains lot of toxins that can weaken your cat's immune system and harm his health.

Drinking filtered water is the best way to flush out the harmful bacteria that accumulates in the bladder and urinary tract. Vitamin C (around 250mg per day) is a natural anti-inflammatory that prevents bacteria from adhering to your cat's bladder lining and it strengthens your cat's immune system to ward off infection.

Cranberry juice is also helpful in treating cat urinary symptoms because it acidifies the urine, making the pH balance of the urine inhospitable for bacteria. It also prevents bacteria from adhering to the bladder.

Regardless of whether your cat is showing early or late cat urinary tract infection symptoms, giving your cat a homeopathic remedy is a good idea. Homeopathy helps your cat achieve permanent recovery and can be taken every day without risk of side effects.

A homeopathic remedy will alleviate all of the painful cat urinary symptoms. It will also prevent recurrent infections because it contains natural ingredients that help to restore a healthy flow of urine and a strong immune system.

Make no mistake about it. Treating urinary tract infection in your cat can be a lot easier if you watch out for the early symptoms and treat the problem when it's still in the early stages.

Cat urinary tract infection symptoms can be treated quickly and effectively with homeopathy and other home remedies. Make sure to watch your cat closely so you can nip these infections in the bud.

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A Must Read Guide to Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease and Its Treatment

Feline Lower Urinary Tract disease can become one of those recurrent painful problems that turn into a nightmare for the affected pet, and owner alike. It can involve repeated visits to the vet, sample taking again and again for purposes of urinalysis, and occasionally, delays in prescribing the correct antibiotic. Going through the whole process again and again can make it worse if the infection becomes a recurrent one. What a headache a feline urinary tract infection can cause.

These sorts of infections can cause a host of problems to your cat including painful urination, kidney stones, bleeding, incontinence, and so on. It is better if the infection is spotted early and treated at home, but prevention is really the best option, as the condition can be very painful, and even fatal if not spotted soon enough.

There are two options that a pet owner can choose from if their pets need treatment for a feline lower urinary tract problem. The first is the older and more conventional method of treating the disease with antibiotics. Affected animals are given a three-week course of medicines that work at killing the infection.

The unfortunate fallout of this type of treatment can be that the bacteria causing the problem may only be suppressed but not eliminated. After the initial treatment is over, they come back stronger and more resistant to the antibiotic, so that successive outbreaks of infection will need stronger doses and prolonged treatment.

A second and kinder option for your pet may be to treat the problem holistically, which may consist of making changes in her diet to sort out the lifestyle factors that may be hastening these infections. Raw, fresh foods, which are free from the chemical additives in commercially, produced pet foods are vital to toning the pet's urinary system and removing the toxins that build up therein.

Excessive carbohydrates and inappropriate proportions of other additives in dry pet foods are now recognized as the cause of feline lower urinary tract disease. Preservatives and other chemicals add to the risk. In contrast, canned and raw food support the healthy functioning of the feline lower urinary tract Daily replenishment of fresh drinking water is also important.

Where holistic cures are desired, owners can try homeopathy. Homeopathic remedies can help is promoting a healthy bladder, assist in normal urine production, and boost the immune system. These are natural remedies that generally have no side effects and can be used for extended courses of treatment too. They also act more gently, so that the pet recovers from the illness easily and with minimum stress on the digestive and other systems. Ideally they should be used on their own, but can even be added to diets to prevent a recurrence of the problem.

Pet owners are thus able to choose the option that best suits them. They will note that urgent cases may even need surgery and extra care, and think about making the necessary changes to the pet's diet and lifestyle for the sake of their pet's health sooner, not later.

Janet Markowitz has been a German Shepherd Breeder for over 20 years. She has always been interested in using natural and holistic remedies for her Shepherds whenever possible. She has found that by using natural Remedies in conjunction with conventional medicine, she has achieved great success in the health and longevity in her dogs.

http://www.PetsNaturalRemedies.net

Signs of Cat UTI - Catching Them Early

Take a look at the classic signs of feline urinary tract infection (feline UTI) in your feline companions, and find out why your pet's behaviour seems to be so different when she has this sort of infection..

Your pet sends you clear signals about the presence of a UTI in the following ways:

- Initially, the signs may not be very noticeable. If you are always conscious of your cat's behaviour, you will see that she is grooming her genital area more than usual. She will bite and lick the region again and again, even pausing during urination to do so. Think back to when you or someone you know had a urinary infection. It causes an itching and burning sensation that results in an uncontrollable desire to scratch the area. Your cat doesn't know what else to do and tries to physically soothe the itchiness by licking, biting and nibbling the area.

- The cat may seem unwilling to engage in play, be uninterested in the interesting titbits of food you may tempt her with, and turn away from petting and affection. This is when the infection is beginning to cause more trouble internally and your pet is beginning to actually feel unwell. Also, it hurts when she moves around so she decides to just stay put.

- Your pet may then have a few 'mad' or 'spastic' episodes, which may have her chasing her tail or rushing about. The discomfort is probably driving her crazy and this behaviour is because she doesn't know how else to express it.

- If your pet starts to avoid the litter box, or comes close to it when urinating but then urinates just outside it, you will be sure that the problem lies fair and square with her urinary system and that your pet in now in pain. Animal experts reason that the animal begins to believe that the box is the cause of her pain, and urinates outside it to escape from the extreme discomfort that urination brings on. You may see traces of blood in her urine.

- A final and dangerous stage is reached when you have signs that your cat has stopped urinating and has lost her appetite and thirst. Her problem is now reached severe proportions and she will need immediate and probably prolonged medical treatment or even surgery.

Feline urinary tract infections are bacterial in nature and cause extreme discomfort, whether in humans or in their pets. They can get really dangerous or even fatal if left untreated, because of the resultant damage to bladder tissues and formation of stones and cancerous growths in the kidneys and bladder.

While females tend to contract these infections more often than males, as a pet owner you should stay alert for these symptoms in your male pets as well. Age can be a factor in developing these problems, but younger cats can and do suffer from feline UTIs. Have a vet attend to your pet ASAP if you spot the signs of UTI.

Take steps to start on a healthy food program for your pet, and make changes in her habits that will ensure that the infection is eliminated and prevented from recurring. Look for natural foods and remedies that will help your cat.

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Feline UTI - Identifying the Problem by Home-Testing

Household pets such as cats and dogs can develop urinary tract infections, which are sometimes difficult to identify. The early symptoms are such that the only way an owner can recognise the problem is take note of the frequency of the pet's urination, any evidence of blood, and a change in smell of the urine and general well-being of the animal. If left untreated, feline and canine UTI can seriously compromise your pet's health.

Feline UTI can develop if crystals are formed in malfunctioning kidneys. The animal will excrete these in urine but there will be no visible signs of them. This situation may continue till the urinary tract infection actually sets in and leads to further discomfort for the suffering pet. It should be noted that those cats that have already had UTI are more prone to developing the problem again. An owner may sometimes not catch the problem till it is well advanced. It only becomes noticeable when the pet stops using the litter box for instance.

There is a way, however, that cat owners can manage this aspect of their pet's health at home. It involves keeping a regular tab on the pet's urine but reduces both stress for the animal and worry for the owner to a minimum. No training is needed, testing can be done whenever there is time and as often as required, and best of all it is easy to do.

Start with organising the following items:

1) Non-absorbent litter (available with veterinarians) or clean gravel of the kind used in aquarium (available in pet stores);

2) Urine pH test kits- containing testing strips (can be ordered in; look for information at pet stores).

An additional useful arrangement could be having the litter box in a separate area (not in your kitchen), one that preferably affords the pet some privacy. Take care to note down the approximate times that the pet uses the litter box. This may take a few days of pet watching to work out. Identify a convenient time when you, the owner, can carry out the testing.

When they are ready to go about obtaining a sample, owners need to know that the cat litter box must be cleaned well before filling it with the gravel or non-absorbent litter. Also, fresh cat urine gives the best indication of the presence of infection. As it ages, cat urine will produce higher pH readings, and indicate a problem where there may be none.

When the pet's urine is still fresh, a pH testing strip may be dipped into it, the excess moisture shaken off, and the results compared with the chart found in the testing kit. A reading of 6.4-6.6 is normal but any higher or lower will mean having to take your pet to the veterinarian as soon as possible.

Testing your pet monthly is a good option, as the impact of changes in diet and lifestyle will show up while testing. Remember that this test only provides an indication, and is not definitive. Only a proper urinalysis can accurately confirm feline UTI.

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You Can Heal Feline UTI With Natural Foods

Feline UTIs are cat diseases that are distressing and painful, but are at the same time preventable and treatable. Look at the feline urinary tract infection problem at a deeper level, and you will discover that the cause is most often the food your cat eats. You can cure urinary infections quite easily with prescription antibiotics to clear out the bacteria that cause it, and prevent them by a change in diet.

Carnivorous by nature, cats must have meat in their diet to stay healthy. A feral cat subsists on small meals of raw meat that he gets from killing small prey like rats and moles. Most commercial pet foods contain only meat by products and carbohydrates.

The latter are simply not digested by their bodies and are positively unhealthy for them. For a busy household though it is the quickest option that is also the most attractive as well as the cheapest. So unfortunately from their youngest days, felines are given commercial produced pet foods that have everything but what they actually need. These may well be the actual, though not the immediate cause of infections for pets.

So once you decide in favor of a diet change for your cat in fighting Feline UTI, there are some things you need to find. Locate a pet food store in your neighborhood or perhaps merchants who supply high quality meats. They can be different from the ones you have been opting for so far and can include the meats like rabbit, duck and mutton. However, be cautious in your selection; be sure that the quality of the raw food is high. Giving your cat raw meat that is not really fresh is sure to ruin your chances of converting her food habits.

So now you get to the problem of what will happen when your pet actually sees the raw meat in front of her. Whether she will even look at raw food will be anyone's guess. Cats that are good mousers may be quite partial to an offering of raw rabbit and chicken, and can be easily introduced to the regular addition of it in their daily diet. Not so cats that are fussy eaters and small eaters. Changing them over may be tough or simply impossible.

There are options in these cases, and your best option would be to use canned food instead of dry pet food. These foods contain more moisture and a higher proportion of meat rather than only its by-products. Remember that raw meat too has much more moisture than cat biscuits, and this is what your pet needs. The moisture helps to keep their kidneys well flushed and clear of toxins. Cats do not drink much water and this added wetness of the food is all-important.

Finally, if you are successful in introducing a raw food diet, take care to ensure that the food is fresh or recently thawed. Don't give your pet too much either, as raw meat will spoil quickly and cannot remain in her bowl for long. It should be finished in one go, so this will call for some experimentation before you fix on an approximate quantity that can be thawed and eaten at once. Dealing with feline UTI can be a battle, but one which can be won.

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Identifying and Preventing Feline UTIs

There are a few things that can make cats really uncomfortable, and present a problem for the pet's owner, and of them identifying a case of UTI without resorting to the veterinarian's help presents challenges. Cats are thought to be behaving strangely, for instance when the source of the problem could be a urinary tract infection.

Owners who notice any signs such as the cat's urine in an odd place, or an animal going for it's hind end again and again, will be able to spot the telltale indications of feline UTI if they observe their pet over the space of a day or two. There are five classic signals that a cat can give you that will alert you to the fact. :

Reduced use of the litter box;
Repeated licking of the genital area;
Less playful and more moody;
Attempts to bite the genital area
Increase in 'mad behaviour' episodes.

Those pet owners who may have experienced UTI themselves would be aware that the itching and burning sensation caused by the infection makes life very uncomfortable.

A cat is no different. Cats start avoiding the litter box because they associate it with the pain of urination. They may even stop midway during urination to lick their genitals and cause that little accident you don't like. They cannot be their usual playful selves because the itching and discomfort is such that they are scared to move around and end up sitting around looking morose and unhappy. The animals take to biting or nibbling at themselves just to soothe the itch in their urethra.

UTIs are generally found more commonly in dogs than in cats. Also, more male than female cats develop this infection, mainly because the male feline urethra is rather narrow and therefore more easily blocked. Human intervention is necessary to ease their suffering.

Of course the first step to take after noticing the above signs would be to meet a veterinarian and have your pet's urine analysed. The signs themselves are merely indications or warnings. If a report finds that infection is present, it will mean that the infection will have to be treated, and this is usually done with antibiotics, which are available in capsule, tablet or liquid form.

A rather more attractive way than using antibiotics to tackle UTI in humans is through ingesting natural remedies such as apple cider or cranberry juice. This relieves the condition effectively. Talk to your veterinarian about natural remedies that you could make or obtain from shops that could be used to treat your pet with on a regular basis, thus preventing this problem from occurring in the first place.

Veterinarians are aware that herb mixtures and solutions provide quick and effective relief from feline UTI, even in the most toxic cases. Herbs can be used similarly for preventing the incidence of feline UTI. Diet and natural remedies can go hand-in-hand in ensuring that your pet stays frisky and playful throughout its life. Feline UTI is one of those painful and chronic problems that your pet can do without.

http://www.PetsNaturalRemedies.net

Remedies For Feline UTI - Conventional and Natural Remedies

Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) are not as common in cats as in canine pets, but once identified, the issues in resolving the problem successfully so as to prevent a recurrence of it can prove to be challenging. While struggling with their pet's discomfort and pain, owners may find themselves beset on all sides, when treatments do not work, or exacerbate the situation.

Veterinary medicine has long leaned on the administration of synthetic chemicals or manmade antibiotics to provide succor to suffering animals. However, it has been observed that even extended treatment with costly pet antibiotics do not ensure a complete recovery for the concerned animal.

Feline UTIs are conditions that cannot be ignored for long because they can seriously affect a cat's health, and entail increasing expenditure on pet care. Alternative therapies such as pet herbal supplements are now gaining in popularity with pet owners and veterinarians alike, as conventional therapies do not always succeed in controlling infections.

Here's a quick overview of the conventional and alternative remedies for Feline UTI.

Conventional treatments would involve urinalysis of the pet's urine sample for bacteria by a laboratory, which if found to be positive is followed by a course of prescribed antibiotics which has to be administered over a period of three weeks. In some cases, catheterisation or surgery may be advised in order to ease the animal's suffering.

However, antibiotics do not always suit the pet, and nor do they invariably banish the harmful bacteria. Moreover, antibiotics kill a lot of the good bacteria in a cat's digestive tract and impair its digestive processes. The immune system can be compromised as well and often the unfortunate animal may end up as a chronic sufferer of UTI.

Alternative therapies look at cure as well as prevention of the problem.

Part of the belief in this system of treatment is that the diet and care must suit the physiology and needs of the cat. Commercially prepared pet foods are far from ideal foods for cats (which eat only raw protein foods in the wild), while simple things like clean water and a regularly cleaned litter box go a long way in keeping your beloved kitty happy and healthy.

Alternative therapies therefore concentrate on holistic methods, wherein natural or herbal treatment is used to relieve the problem and restore the health of the feline urinary system, as well prevent an infection from happening again. These remedies seek to reflect the natural biochemic systems in a cat's body, which sustain the animal's health in the wild and protect it from changes in food and weather,

A number of herbal pet food supplements are now available for those going the way of alternative treatments. Natural antibiotics bearberry and barberry are among the herbal supplements that can be used for tackling feline UTIs.

Another well-known restorative agent for the feline urinary tract is the herb Cantharis. These and other standardized natural food supplements will bolster the pet's defences against unwanted and troublesome infections and help support the overall health of an animal's urinary tract. (507 words).

http://www.PetsNaturalRemedies.net

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