Last night I dreamed that Lucky was peeing in my shoes. In the haze of a dream, I was inexplicably lying on the floor beside the shoes.
I awakened to find that, no, I wasn’t sprawled out on the floor, but I was lying beside a puddle of pee. Lucky had dozed off on the pillow beside me and lost control of his bladder. And it wasn’t the first time.
Several ago, Lucky had surgery to remove over 20 small stones from his bladder. The surgery saved his life but the stretching that the stones had done to the bladder left him with some loss of control.
In the first year after the surgery, the loss was fairly frequent; he’d often drip urine as he’d sit in your lap, unaware that he was losing control.
That progressed to limited bladder control, but one that meant a trip to the litterbox sometimes every few minutes–and the boxes at one end of the house were sometimes just too far.
In response, we added “pee trays” to the living room and bedroom to help him reach a box when he couldn’t manage more than a few steps.
The pee trays were just one of the many accommodations we’ve made to the house to help Lucky–and they’ve really worked.
Just last week a reader asked me for tips on dealing with incontinence so I wanted to pass along our tips that have helped Lucky be comfortable, begin to regain control of his bladder–and helped us to live comfortably alongside our sweet Lucky.
We tried both cat diapers and “onesies” to catch the urine; Lucky wouldn’t have any part of either option…so we’ve come up with these solutions:
Pee Trays
As I mentioned above, Lucky’s bladder sometimes just won’t make it to the litterbox so we’ve added pee trays to the living room, and bedroom. In the last year, we’ve been able to cut the number of trays from five to two so we’re definitely showing progress! The trays are plastic boxes (former office storage boxes) with no litter.
We came upon the idea for the bare boxes after watching Lucky peeing (frequently) in the sinks and bathtub; the coolness of the sinks was soothing to him.
We change the boxes several times a day, washing them in the tub (and clean the tub every other day). We keep a spare set of boxes so a set can be drying at any time.
Each pee tray is adjacent to a small rug to minimize wet paw prints…although we’ve still found we need to mop around the boxes every other day. Surprisingly, the boxes don’t smell strongly of urine because we change the boxes throughout the day.
Furniture Protection
Because Lucky sometimes loses bladder control while he sleeps, we cover chairs, couches, and our bed. Chairs and couches are covered with washable slipcovers (with an extra layer of protection below the cover).
Bed pillows also have waterproof covers.
Our bed sports three layers of protection:
- a removable, washable cover on the mattress itself. We have a YogaBed which we reviewed a few years ago; it has a zippered cover which can be removed and washed.
- a waterproof mattress protector over the mattress. This is the type of waterproof cover that’s often put on children’s mattresses
- a second waterproof cover that we put OVER the bed covers. This is taken off at night but protects the blankets during the daytime if Lucky decides to sleep on the bed. It’s not the prettiest look…but it’s functional!
Veterinary Assistance
Lucky has been on numerous medications in the past year including Prozac, which the vet prescribed thinking the stress over potential pain could be causing blood in Lucky’s urine.
Lucky took Prozac for about a year (we had it compounded at a pharmacy and rubbed it in his ears); he did very well on it but was somewhat spacey. He also has painkiller to help during bloody urine episodes, which thankfully are becoming far less frequent.
Currently I give him an Adequan injection every three weeks to help strengthen his bladder; it really seems to be working. He’s a champ about the injections (and I’ve overcome my squeamishness…I never dreamed it would be easier to give him an injection than a pill!)
Cleaning, Cleaning
We do more laundry and mopping than we did in previous years but that helps control the odor.
Although we’ve become nose-blind to the smell, I know that guests can no doubt smell the problem.
We use odor eliminators (enzyme cleaners) on all stains we can spot, and I have a blacklight for tracking down pee prints and stains in the night. (Urine glows purple under the blacklight!)
We have very few friends and family members that now visit our home–not everyone really wants to deal with the sight of the pee trays in the living room. We’ve learned to work around the problem (you know, restaurant meals are quite nice!)
It’s all worth it as we see Lucky happily playing with Jetty, snuggling with Inca, and sharing a plate with Barli and Tiki. Family takes care of one another and, in this season of thankfulness, we’re grateful that Lucky continues to show improvement. And if you’re living with an incontinent cat, please let us know if you’ve come upon some handy tricks and tips!
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