Question:
I had an unusual thing happen to my kitten that I would like to share with your readers.I have a 10-year-old cat and I use clumping litter in his litter box. When I acquired our new kitten at about the age of 5 to 6 weeks, I added another litter box. One day, I noticed that the kitten seemed to be having difficulty urinating. He kept going to the litter, box but nothing was happening. I suspected a urinary or bladder infection and was preparing for a visit to the veterinarian.After several unsuccessful trips to the litter box, I looked at the kitten and noticed a crust around his penis. I scratched at it and a drop of urine appeared. I put him in the litter box where he urinated a small amount. I washed the area and he immediately went to the litter box and urinated quite a lot. It seems he was "cemented" shut from the litter. Have you come across this problem before? Your readers should be advised not to use clumping litter for very young kittens.
B.P., Fairfax, Va Apr 18, 2004
Answer:
Clumping cat litter can cause various problems, from fur becoming matted on cats' hind legs (this is a particular problem for furry cats like Persians) to allegedly causing constipation and intestinal obstruction when cats lick and swallow the litter sticking to their fur and paws.Frequent handling of a kitten during play and petting should always include a general body-check so the kind of difficulty your kitten developed (which could have been fatal) can be nipped in the bud.
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