Margot was a timid cat, who had recently been rehomed.
“She keeps peeing on our bed!” they told us.
We gave Margot a careful health check, and collected a urine sample. We needed to know if
she might have picked up cystitis in all the excitement of her move. Or perhaps she had a
problem that was making her drink more, giving her an urgency to urinate more, such as
diabetes.
When these proved negative, we checked whether she might have a painful back or joints,
making it uncomfortable for her to get up and visit her toilet. But her owners reported
excellent mobility, so we judged that her problems might be behavioural.
And this is where our Registered Veterinary Nurse (RVN), Lisa’s special training came to the
fore.
When a cat is not unwell nor in pain, but chooses to urinate in places we would prefer them
not to, we label this ‘inappropriate urination’. It can be difficult to live with, but has many
possible causes, making it tricky to cure.
Lisa started by establishing in her own mind whether Margot was scent marking her new
territory, or expressing her anxiety about the toilet facilities being provided. This was a very
time consuming exercise involving Lisa having to ask lots of questions, and trying to imagine
Margot’s new home environment, and what could be upsetting her so much.
She then had a brainwave: this consultation would be so much easier if we were actually in
Margot’s home!
And so arose the concept of home visits by one of our RVNs, specifically for cats with
inappropriate urination.
We now can offer the opportunity for Lisa or one of her colleagues to visit your home and
see for herself where the problem might be arising. In this way we hope to be able to offer
strategies and solutions to settle the problem down quickly.
We are keeping the cost as low as we can – just the nurse behavioural consultation fee of
£42 and the visit fee from £42.10.
If your cat ever starts expressing herself in this rather less than acceptable fashion, do call
us and ask for our district nurse.
