At some point, you may be asked by your veterinarian to collect a urine sample from your cat. This may be necessary to assess kidney function, look for any signs of inflammation, infection, crystals, glucose or as a part of an overall wellness health check. Initially, this may seem like a daunting task; however, here are a few tips that will hopefully make the process as easy as possible.

To begin, it may be helpful to know your cat’s litter box habits; do they tend to urinate before or after meal times, after you clean the litter box, during the night, etc.  Knowing this will help minimize change in their routine and increase your chance of success.

For indoor cats, begin by giving their litter box a good cleaning with mild soap and water.  Replace the litter in the tray with non-absorbent kitty litter (Kit4cat) available at Centrepointe Animal Hospital. Some cats may urinate with nothing at all in their litter tray and others may even allow you to slide a shallow cup under them while they urinate.  Be sure to remove any extra litter boxes that your cat may have access to and remember to segregate one cat from another to ensure you are getting a urine sample from the correct pet.

Once your cat has urinated, transfer the urine into a clean container with a lid. Ideally, depending what the doctor is testing, the sample should be brought to the hospital within two hours. If you are unable to bring the sample to the hospital right away, store the urine in the refrigerator (maximum of eight hours) and bring it to the hospital as soon as possible.

It is best to contact the hospital ahead of time to ensure that the urine collected is at the ideal time of day so that the veterinarian can maximize the information gathered from the sample. Please call the hospital if your cat refuses to use the litterbox or holds their urine for more than 24 hours. Some cats are stubborn and will refuse to go if they suspect you are up to something.

Do not hesitate to speak to the staff at Centrepointe Animal Hospital for more information about collecting a urine sample from your cat.