Drinking more?

One of the first signs of a lot of diseases that occur in older pets is that they start to drink and urinate more. It can be caused by kidney problems, diabetes, liver disease and more. All of these can be treated but the earlier they are caught the better.

If you think your pet is drinking more, or has maybe had a few accidents in the house which are unusual, there are 2 things you should do;

1) Measure their water intake over a few days. NORMAL ANIMALS WILL DRINK 50ml OF WATER PER KILO OF WEIGHT PER DAY. Take the figure to your vet and they will be able to weigh your pet and decide if the amount they are drinking is excessive or not.

2) Take a urine sample into the vets. There a couple of tests that your vet can perform quickly and cheaply in the surgery to assess the quality of the urine and decide if there is a problem or not.

Report

Comments

Post a comment in this discussion:

16 Jul 2008 15:53

Cat the Vet

Hi Nettie,

There are obviously several things that are concerning you with Spats, I will try to tackle them one by one;

Firstly, vomiting straight after eating is not all that uncommon in cats, it usually occurs after they have eaten their food too quickly and in those cases they will often eat it again straight away! However, I would start to get concerned if that was happening more that 2 times per week. The first thing to do is to worm him (and all your other cats as well) as worms can make them sick. I also think he should be reexamined by the vet, especially if the vomiting is frequent.

Dementia and senile changes do occur in cats, but it would be very unusual to see it in one which is only 9 years old, are you sure of his age?. Why do you think he has the problem? Have you noticed behavioural changes? Cats with senility often appear confused, may lose their toilet training, and vocalise inappropriately.

It is entirely possible that Spats has problems with his joints, especially if he went missing and was potentially injured. Fractured pelvis´s very commonly occur when a cat is hit by a car and these will often heal on their own with rest, but generally become arthritic as the cat ages. Seraquin is an excellent joint supplement and there are other, stronger, medications you can try. Talk to your vet again about your concerns. It may be a good idea for Spats to have some xrays taken so the vets can see if any arthritic change is present and also how bad it is.

Cat

Report

16 Jul 2008 11:02

nettie

my older cat spats has recenlty started vomiting undigested food after he eats he is 9 but seems to have dementia my vet dosent seem intrested i no that sounds bad but when i asked for something to supplemen his joints as he was having trouble jumping etc you no how it is shegave me seraquin but baiscaly said he wasent old enough to have problems. thing is he was missing for three years and only returned when he was badly hurt now he is nutured and dosent go out through choice i dont no what hes been through the vet nos all this they didnt test for anything just weighed him and gave antiboitcs for the abcesses he had what dom you think i dont want to annoy my vet but feal like iam hitting the wall on this one

Report