Domestic Pets

Injury Guide

INABILITY TO URINATE

The inability to urinate is a medical emergency and the dog or cat should be taken to the veterinarian immediately.It affects adult male cats and is a grave and often fatal emergency

Dalmations are particularly susceptible to this as a result of uric acid stones

CAUSES

This is rarely a problem with females, but is not uncommon in males and is usually the result of objects that have become lodged behind the os penis,the bone in the male organ

SYMPTOMS

The symptoms of urinary obstruction are an increased urgency to urinate - straining while doing so and short, repeated squirts rather than a steady stream.The owners of males should be alert to these signs

If the cat keeps licking at his penis and goes to his sanitary pan repeatedly,squatting and straining,but producing no urine or only a few drops,he is almost certainly suffering from a urinary (Urethral) blockage

Do not make the common mistake of assuming that the cat is suffering from constipation and waste precious time plying him with home treatment for that

TREATMENT

Owners experienced with this condition, can sometimes confirm it by feeling the tense and overfull urinary bladder like a large lemon in the posterior abdomen.Get the cat to the vet at once - a delay can mean death from uremic poisoning

Also watch after an injury, for failure or inability to urinate. This may indicate rapture of the bladder or Urethra.It is very important to report this to your veterinarian at once

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