Collecting a Urine Sample from a Cat

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  • Sometimes your veterinarian will request a urine sample. Urine can give a lot of information on a cat’s health status. If you have a diabetic cat, you may be required to monitor your cat’s urine at home.

    What you will need

    • Clean cat litter tray
    • Non-absorbent cat litter or aquarium gravel (washed thoroughly)
    • Syringe
    • Urine storage container or a clean storage jar. Avoid using anything which has contained sugar (such as a jam jar), as this can affect urine test results.

    Collecting the sample

    • Remove the regular cat litter, clean the litter tray and make sure it is dry.
    • If your cat will urinate in an empty try, just put the tray down and wait. When the cat has urinated, collect a sample with a syringe and put it into a clean container.
    • If your cat refuses to urinate in an empty tray, your veterinarian may be able to provide you with a non-absorbent cat litter.
    • Alternatively, you can try adding other non-absorbent products such as plastic beads or aquarium pebbles, cut up straws or polished gravel.
    • Once the cat has urinated in the tray, use the syringe to collect the sample and decant it into the urine storage container.
    • If you need to store the urine sample for your veterinarian, place it in the fridge. The fresher the sample, the better, so it is best to try and get the sample off to your veterinarian as quickly as possible.

    If you are unable to collect a urine sample from your cat at home, your veterinarian will be able to assist you.

    Author

    • Julia Wilson, 'Cat World' Founder

      Julia Wilson is the founder of Cat-World, and has researched and written over 1,000 articles about cats. She is a cat expert with over 20 years of experience writing about a wide range of cat topics, with a special interest in cat health, welfare and preventative care. Julia lives in Sydney with her family, four cats and two dogs. Full author bio