RELATED: Cat Urinary Infection Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment
I am going to add some words to fill out this very sparse Infographic. It is deliberately minimalistic in order to get the message across quickly. As mentioned, the information comes from a study from Thailand. I found the study very useful. Link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-56968-w
The scientists found that FLUTD affected cats of all ages although historically, as I recall, the general view is that older cats tend to suffer from it more than younger cats. But in this study they found no significant differences between cats of different ages.
Often FLUTD is associated with other illnesses such as polycystic kidney disease or kidney failure. The suggestion is that veterinarians need to identify the other concurrent problems in young cats with urinary tract infections.
Overweight cats are more predisposed to FLUTD than ideal weight cats. One reason may be because overweight cats are less active and urinate less frequently and drink less water. In addition there may be urethral compression and increased urinary dysfunction because of fat accumulation around the urethra and penis.
Further, obese cats might be “stress eaters”. They might be eating to alleviate stress which will exacerbate obesity. And stress can be linked to the environment which means multi-cat environment (see below).
Neutering male cats predisposes them to FLUTD. Castration affects the density of the elastic and collagen fibres in the periurethral tissues which decreases the compliance of the periurethral. Also castrated males are less active leading to obesity which is a common risk factor for FLUTD.
Dry cat food increases the risk of FLUTD by a factor of 2.64. Cats eating only dry cat food consume less water than when eating canned cat food and drinking insufficient amounts of water can lead to FLUTD by increasing the chances of crystal formation from concentrated urine.
In the study most cats with FLUTD presented with urethral obstruction.
The study found that cats that drink tap water had a significantly higher risk of FLUTD compared to those that drink filtered water. Other studies have not confirmed this.
Studies referred to in this study “found that overpopulation was one of the most common causes of FLUTD and cats”. I take that to mean cats living in multi-cat homes which can increase stress in some cats which can lead to a greater prevalence of FLUTD. This is about stress. Cat caregivers of multi-cat homes need to be very aware bullying, resource protection and intimidatory behavior.
An inadequate number of litter boxes in multi-cat homes can lead to FLUTD in some cats. Good litter box management is important. This is linked to the multi-cat home issue mentioned above. Jackson Galaxy the well-known American cat behaviourist has always stated that in multi-cat homes there should be one litter box per cat plus one extra.
