Expert: Jana Connell RVT, CVT - 4/9/2011

Question
I have a cat who is 15 years old. Female, spayed. I brought her in initially because of the small urine amounts and the frequency of them.  My vet did a urine test which found that she did have a UTI.  There was a little protein in it, however my vet said that it's probably because of the UTI.  She was put on a course of antibiotics.  They initially gave her baytril, but it caused her to stop eating. So they then switched her to a liquid antibiotic called chloramphenicol.  While she was on the antibiotic her urine out put was more normal sized.  After a few days or so after her last dose of the antibiotics her urine amounts went small again.   I waited a while, about 2weeks or so and they were still small.  So I brought another urine sample into the vet.  She could find no abnormalities, and her urine was nice and consentraited.  The protein found in the previous urine sample was gone.  So she said it's probably behavioral.  But if it was behavioral, why when she was on the antibiotics did she have normal urine out put?  This confuses me.  She still has small urine output. I'd say it was a little bigger than a medium sized gum-ball.  There are usually about three or four of them that she makes over night.

Just trying to figure out why on antibiotics her urine output was normal but off of it, it went back to being small.

Answer
That is a good question but I don't think I can do more then offer some possibilities. She apparently didn't have this output problem for most of her 15 yrs I am gathering.

UTIs burn, so I am going out on a limb and saying that she started holding her urine in and letting it out in smaller amounts due to the burning sensation and the feeling that she had to go all of the time.

When she was on the antibiotics the burning was gone so she was able to freely let go with her urine.

You need to let your vet know that this behavior was not there before the UTI and yes, she might have developed it now, but that you want to make sure she doesn't have a lingering infection.

If she doesn't then it just might take some time for her to relax and go back to her old ways.  Give her a few weeks and see how she does. But let the vet know (if you didn't already) that this was not her normal state pre-UTI.

I hope that helps some. Best to you both.