"Doctor, my cat can now twitch his nose, life his head and appreciate the smells of my wife's curry in the kitchen," the owner suddenly remarked at the review of his cat's urinary problem after 2 weeks of treatment. I was surprised to hear him saying that his cat had lost his sense of smell for some weeks.
2 weeks ago, his cat had a strong urine smell in his belly. A white hairless skin patch full of urine stains in this belly area. What was the cause? The male cat pees away from his backside and not towards his belly. Even if he was incontinent or had a urinary tract infection (UTI), his urine would dribble onto his backside and anal area. But only his belly which was far away was affected.
This cat had given the owner some headaches. One day, he jumped at a bird near the window sill and fell four storeys down. Fortunately he did not suffer any internal injuries and was alive.
"As a prevention, I close all the windows nowadays when my family is not supervising this cat," the owner said.
"Will it not be stuffy when you don't let air into the apartment?" I asked.
"Yes. But this cat may leap at another bird at the window and crash," the owner said.
"The cat has 9 lives," I said. "He has used up one. But seriously, why don't you buy wire-mesh to cover the window opening?"
The owner was not so keen at this idea, but some cat owners do that, to prevent the cat running out of the main grille door and jumping off the windows.
Now, back to his cat's urinary problems. On instant diagnosis, the vet will assume that this cat has a urinary tract infection. No urethral obstruction as the cat could squat down and pee normally. Normal coloured urine and no urination problems and other signs indicating kidney failure.
Such a strong odour of urine in the belly. The cat licked off the urine but in the process, his rough tongue licked off all hairs in this belly area. This happened for some weeks. Therefore a prescription of antibiotics will resolve this cat's problems.
Yet the anatomy of the cat's male reproductive system would indicate that the urine stains on the belly could not be from the cat's male organ as it is located nearer to the anal area and points downwards and away from the belly normally. This was a normal cat.
"Something is wrong with your litter box," I said to the owner. Of course, it would be best to visit the apartment. The next best thing would be to listen to what the owner had to say. The owner had never mentioned about the litter habits of this cat as it did not occur to him that the litter box was the cause of the problem.
I mean, the cat goes to the litter box, squats and pees and get out. All normal cats do and this cat has had been using the litter box for so many years. He was around 5 years old now.
Well, the problem was really his litter box. The maid had covered the box well with overhanging newspapers. The cat stepped into the litter box. He squatted and peed onto the newspapers. As he stepped out of the box, his belly was splashed with his pool of urine. This happened frequently such that he could not clean himself but he tried to and continuous licking stopped all hair growth. So he had a patch of hairless belly.
Finally the cat gave up, I presumed. Therefore, his belly had urine stains. He lost his sense of smell.
I anaesthesized the cat. Cleaned him up thoroughly and asked the owner to get the newspapers just fitting inside the litter box. Put some sand below the newspapers. He was to continue washing the belly and giving the antibiotics. He was to come back for a review in two weeks.
I did not expect him to come back as most owners would not do when the cat's problems were resolved. However, he did turn up and that is how I am able to write this report.
"I told my maid not to spread the Straits Times over the edges of the litter box. I also punched holes in the newspapers inside the litter box. In this way, the cat's urine can flow downwards to the lower layers," he said.
The cat's belly was no long bald. The cat smelled good. He was a happy man. His wife must be happier too as the cat now stood by the kitchen door while she cooked curry, wrinkled his nose to tell her that her curry was first class and up to his feline standard.
