CATS · URINARY HEALTH

The litter tray is telling you something.

A cat will not show you pain. It will show you the tray — how often, how much, and where. Learn to read it and you will find urinary disease days before your cat looks ill.

WRITTEN BY THE BOZO WAGS CLINICAL TEAM4 MIN READUPDATED MAY 2026
A male cat straining in the tray and producing nothing is an emergency tonight, not tomorrow. Call and come in.
+91 97405 08008
24 hours
Roughly how long a fully blocked cat has before the kidneys and the heart are in danger.
4 in 5
Tray changes we investigate turn out to be medical — pain or crystals — not behavioural.
5 cm
Litter depth most cats will actually use. Shallow trays are the commonest reason a cat goes elsewhere.

Work down this list tonight

Answer in order and stop at the first yes. Each row is a different urgency, and the top row is the one that kills cats.

QUESTION 1
Is he straining, and producing little or nothing?
YES
EMERGENCY — CALL NOW
A blocked male cat is a few hours from kidney failure and a fatal potassium rise. Do not wait for morning.
NO — NEXT QUESTION
QUESTION 2
Going far more often, small amounts, maybe pink?
YES
SAME-DAY APPOINTMENT
Cystitis, crystals or stones. Urine test and often an X-ray. Painful, and it escalates into the row above.
NO — NEXT QUESTION
QUESTION 3
Peeing outside the tray, normal volume?
YES
APPOINTMENT + TRAY AUDIT
We rule out infection and pain first. Only then is it stress, tray hygiene or territory — in that order.
NO — NEXT QUESTION
QUESTION 4
None of the above, but something feels off?
YES
WATCH FOR 48 HOURS
Note visits, clump size and posture on your phone. Bring the notes. Cats hide illness; written numbers do not.

Normal, and not

WHAT NORMAL LOOKS LIKE
BRING HIM IN
Two to four urinations a day
Ten trips in an hour, or one in two days
A firm clump roughly the size of a lemon
Clumps the size of a pea, or none to find
In and out in under a minute
Sitting in the tray, crying, licking after
Pale straw yellow
Pink, brown, or strong-smelling
Uses the tray, every time
Sinks, bathmats, corners, your bed

The tray audit

Once we have ruled out disease, this fixes most of what is left. Cats are fussy for reasons that make sense to a cat.

1
One per cat, plus one
Two cats need three trays. In different rooms, not in a row.
2
Unscented, fine grain
Perfume is for you. Clumping, sand-like litter is what a cat chooses.
3
Five centimetres deep
Enough to dig. Topping up a thin layer is not the same thing.
4
Quiet, two exits
Not beside the washing machine, not in a corner he can be cornered in.
5
Scooped twice daily
And washed weekly with plain water. No phenol, no Dettol — it is toxic to cats.

What happens when you bring him in

1
Hands on the bladder
Thirty seconds tells us whether it is full and hard — the difference between cystitis and a blockage.
2
Urine, in-house
Crystals, blood, pH and concentration, reported while you wait.
3
X-ray or scan if needed
Stones in the bladder or urethra, and whether the kidneys have backed up.
4
Unblock, then prevent
Catheter and fluids for a blocked cat; then a urinary diet, water intake plan and a recheck at three weeks.
AKSHAYANAGAR · ROUND THE CLOCK
Urinary cases are seen the same day, every day.

A doctor is on the floor at Akshayanagar at any hour. Ring first so the catheter tray and fluids are ready before you arrive.

+91 97405 08008
NEXT IN THE JOURNAL
What a vaccination schedule actually protects against

Which shots matter in this city, which are optional, and why the second dose is the one that counts.