Dealing With
Feline Inappropriate Urination

Inappropriate Urination (IAU) causes serious problems for cats and their people.This behavior is terribly annoying, but we must remember that cats are not "vindictive". Cats do not try to "get back at" their people. Some cats who urinate outside the box are ill. Others are reacting to anxiety, stress, or a problem with their litter boxes. In addition, IAU is very upsetting. Cats with IUA may be banished outdoors or surrendered to animal shelters. At Cats Exclusive, we want to help keep your cats healthy, happy, and at home.

Medical Problems: Physical illnesses can cause IAU or make it worse:  

• Kidney or bladder disease
• Diabetes, hyperthyroidism, or other endocrine disorders
• Inflammatory bowel disease, allergies or other immune system problems
• Joint, nerve or muscle disorders that make it hard to get into the box
  

Litter Box Aversion: An unappealing litter box can make your cat go elsewhere. A litter box should be:

• Clean
• Large-at least 1.5 times the length of the cat
• Convenient--accessible, with a box on each floor, one box per cat-plus-one (3 cats = 4 boxes)
• Safe--uncovered (most cats), quiet, with no risk of "ambush"
• Comfy--several inches of clumping litter with carbon-based odor control is preferred by most cats
  

For Inappropriate Urination Issues we recommend:

• Physical exam, behavior consultation and urinalysis
• Litterbox "makeover" to make doing the right thing attractive
• Environment of Plenty, with places to eat, sleep, climb, play, and hide
• Remove scent cues, with an odor neutralizer like ''Anti-Icky Poo" or "Urine-Off". Reset the scent message with "Feliway", a calming facial pheromone.

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MEDICAL EQUIPMENT UPDATE:
New Bair Hugger For Surgery

At Cats Exclusive we make every attempt to ensure your cats are kept as safe as possible during anesthetic procedures.

In addition to monitoring heart rate, blood pressure and oxygenation, we also check body temperature. The normal feline temperature is 100-102° F. This range is ideal for health tissue function, including healing of wounds and surgical incisions. When the body temperature is too low, it can lower the heart rate and blood pressure and delay anesthetic recovery and slow the blood flow to vital organs.

This is why we recently purchased the Bair Hugger system which uses warmed air to fill a lightweight bay that is wrapped around a cat or placed under them to help keep their body temperature normal just before and after surgical procedures. Each freshly laundered bag can be used pre-operatively as they do in human medicine, and during and after surgeries as part of a total plan to provide our patients with the safest surgical environment we can.