A closer look at the health of cats showing urinary house-soiling (periuria): a case-control study

Abstract

Objectives The aim of this study was to perform a case-control medical evaluation of cats from multi-cat households presenting with inappropriate latrining and spraying behavior. Methods Owners of 18 ‘spraying’ and 23 ‘latrining’ cats with normal control subjects available from the same households were recruited for a case-control study. Otherwise overtly healthy dyads (each dyad consisting of a case cat and a control cat) were brought together to the veterinary hospital of the University of São Paulo for a medical work-up (ie, physical examination, complete blood count, biochemical profile, urinalysis and urine culture, abdominal ultrasound of the urinary system and in females, where possible, cystoscopy). Results Medical problems were identified with similar frequency in the ‘sprayers’ (38.9%), ‘latriners’ (39.1%) and controls of the latrining group (26.1%), but not the controls of the spraying group (5.5%). The difference between ‘cases’ and ‘controls’ from spraying households was significant. Common potential health-related changes include renal insufficiency, cystitis and bladder lithiasis. Renal calculi, higher creatinine levels (within normal reference interval) and ‘glomerulations’ (detected during cystoscopy) were also found in the remaining sprayers and latriners that were considered clinically healthy. Post-cystoscopy, a new form of periuria occurred in two cats (one sprayer and one latriner). Conclusions and relevance These results indicate that spraying or latrining behavior in the home, as well as living with a cat that is not using the litter box as a latrine, are all associated with a higher level of urinary tract abnormalities; living with a cat that is spraying, however, does not have this association. The findings also suggest that both forms of periuria might be associated with interstitial cystitis. We therefore conclude that all cats with periuria need to be carefully evaluated medically and that treatment of latrine-related problems should consider all cats in the house, whereas spraying may be more focused on the individual displaying the problem.

Pain and Problem Behavior in Cats and Dogs

“…A history of lower urinary tract disease has also been found to increase the likelihood of a house-soiling problem nearly four-fold [33] (odds calculated in [34]). More recently, concurrent health data from house-soiling cases [35] suggest that lower urinary tract disease may be particularly relevant to cats presenting with spraying behavior, with 12/18 (67%) of ongoing cases but only 3/18 (17%) of household matched control subjects having easily detectable changes; by contrast, the values for latrine related issues were more similar but still relatively high for both at 13/28 (46%) for ongoing cases and 10/28 (36%) for controls. House-soiling problems are less common in dogs but have been reported in association with urolithiasis [36]; this might have a similar pain association.…”

A Case-Controlled Comparison of Behavioural Arousal Levels in Urine Spraying and Latrining Cats

“…Complete preliminary examinations were thus achieved with 18 urine spraying "case-control" dyads. As some individuals within these dyads presented medical problems, only 11 healthy urine spraying "case-control" dyads were finally selected to group S (the medical findings in these subjects were included in a separate publication [16]). Among the 11 "case" cats, there were two females and nine males, with all being neutered; 10 were mixed breeds and one was Persian.…”

“…Within these dyads, in 11 instances, at least one of the cats presented medical problems [16]; this left 12 healthy "case-control" latrining dyads. Of these, 10 were females and two males, with all being neutered; six were mixed breeds, two Persians, two Maine Coons, and two Ragdolls.…”

“…Although spraying and latrining are distinguishable in terms of their functional basis, with the former commonly linked to sexual or territorial marking behaviours and the latter with latrine-related elimination [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12], neither the presentation nor treatment may be as straightforward as commonly implied. For example, Pryor et al [15] treatment regimen for spraying cats has a strong emphasis on litterbox cleanliness while Ramos et al [16] found that while there was no difference in the prevalence of medical problems in "sprayer" and "latriner" cats, latrining houses (but not spraying houses) presented with more medical problems in their control cats. The relationship between each of these problems and the stress response also appears unclear, with it often assumed that cats who spray are doing so specifically because they are anxious over something in their environment [17,18] while those exhibiting latrining problems are simply finding an alternative outlet for their need for micturition, and so are not distressed to the same degree.…”

“…Therefore, this research, which was part of a larger study on feline periuria conducted in 2012 (with a previous piece focused on the medical problems being already published [16]), aimed to evaluate the differences in the levels of behavioural and physiological arousal in cats exhibiting either spraying or latrining behaviour versus control subjects from the same households, as well as the differences between non-housesoiling subjects from the two environments.…”