Find Answers To Your Questions About Cat Urinary Infection Treatment

Do you have unanswered questions about the cat urinary infection treatment your vet provides?  Even though cat urinary tract infections are the most common reason for feline vet visits, many cat owners are confused about what their vets are doing.  The aim of this article is to dispel the confusion and give you some answers.

Are Feline Bladder Infections Contagious?

The short answer is no.  Cat urinary tract infections can't be passed from one cat to another or from a cat to a person.

What's The Difference Between Feline Bladder Infections And Cat Urinary Tract Infections?

People get really confused about this, and for good reason, since the terms are used interchangeably.  However, to answer the question, a cat bladder infection really only affects his bladder.  A feline urinary tract infection (also called a UTI) can affect any part of your cat's urinary tract.  This includes his kidneys, his ureters (the tubes that carry urine from his kidney to his bladder), his bladder, and his urethra (the tube that carries urine out of his body).  

Usually, when someone is talking about a UTI, they really mean a feline bladder infection.

What's The Difference Between A Urinalysis And A Urine Culture?

Your vet may want to perform both of these tests.  Many cat owners don't understand exactly what they are, and what they're for.

Usually a urinalysis is done first.  Your vet looks at the sample to see if the urine is cloudy or bloody.  Cloudy urine is due to the presence of white blood cells, which indicate an infection.  If the urine is bloody, there's obviously a problem.  Your vet may see that crystals are present, which indicate cat bladder stones.  The urine is also checked for protein.  

Based on the results from the urinalysis, your vet may want to do a urine culture.

A urine culture involves separating out the bacteria found in the urine sample from your cat.  These bacteria are then grown in the lab.  This test gives your vet some important information, namely, how many bacteria are present, what kind of bacteria it is, and which antibiotic will kill it.  

It takes at least a couple of days to do this test, as the bacteria need time to grow.

Why Do I Need To Give My Cat All Of The Antibiotic?

The good thing about antibiotics is that the cat urinary problems go away quickly.  However, this doesn't mean the infection is gone.  Many cat owners make the mistake of not giving their cats the antibiotics for the entire ten or fourteen days.  If you stop the antibiotics too soon, the infection can come back, as it hasn't been totally eradicated.  

A more serious problem is that of antibiotic resistance.  More and more disease-causing bacteria are becoming resistant to common antibiotics.  One of the reasons is that people are not finishing up all the antibiotics, which encourages the bacteria which aren't killed right away to keep growing.  So you can see that it's very important to finish the antibiotic treatment, no matter how much your cat resists it.

Natural Remedies For Pets Can Help

You may be interested in learning more about herbal pet remedies.  These remedies are safe and effective, and can be given every day to prevent cat urinary problems.

Now that you're armed with this information, you can understand cat urinary infection treatment better.