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Summary: Cats will often urinate outside of their litter boxes when they have a urinary tract disease. Learn more about urinary track diseases and their symptoms in this free pet care video from a practicing veterinarian.
Tracy Carreiro is a graduate of Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine. She has been a practicing veterinarian for nearly 20 years. Growing up on a dairy farm, she grew to...read more
"Urinary tract disease is one of the most common and frustrating problems that cat owners face. Cats will often urinate outside their litter box when they have inflammatory urinary disease. Which means, that their urinary system their bladder and their urethra is inflamed and swollen. And, it feels uncomfortable. Much like, when people have a urinary tract infection. There's burning and discomfort, so the animal is constantly squatting and urinating. Because, they feel the urge and need to pee. I'm going to show you in this litter box, the difference between what a normal urination would like like in regular litter versus a cat who has Urinary Tract Disease. So, you can see that there's a big wet spot here. And, if you move the litter underneath it actually is quite a large amount of litter that's been wet by a normal urination. In this situation with a cat who has urinary tract disease, there's just these little drips and drops that happen. Sometimes, they'll be as large as a quarter size. But, that's still not a normal amount of urine for a cat to make. So, if you notice these changes with frequent small amounts of urine in your cat's litter box or if your cat is starting to urinate around the house in unusual places."
eHow Article: Cat Urinary Tract Disease