Why would my cat smell of urine?

November 23, 2020 5:30 PM

For the last couple of weeks my cat has smelled of pee. I need some help focusing on a cause.

In the past I would've brought her to the vet sooner, but with the new "handoff outside" protocols, I need to think this through so I can explain it to the vet as tersely as possible.

Adelaide is about five years old. She's a little tubbier now than in her picture, but not massively so. She's always been a healthy cat, clean in her habits. She's spayed, goes outside in the back yard a little, but doesn't wander.

She last saw the vet about a year ago for shots and checkup and received a clean bill of health.

I keep her litterbox clean both for her benefit and mine.

A few weeks ago she had a little respiratory trouble – wheezing fits. I was on the verge of taking her to the emergency vet, but waited a little and they subsided. I couldn't tell if she'd inhaled something or had picked up an infection, but she was eating and otherwise behaving normally and in a few days that problem cleared up completely and hasn't recurred.

Not long after, I noticed when I was petting her that she smelled a little pissy. Since that time it's become more noticeable. A couple of times I've dampened a paper towel in warm water and wiped her down under her tail, and it seems to help, but then it recurs.

She isn't urinating anywhere outside her box, but today she slept on my bed for awhile and I noticed afterwards that the pee smell had transferred to the duvet where she'd been, although it's not like she soaked it. Cat pee is pungent stuff. She's using her litterbox normally and there's nothing to report from there.

She eats kibble, by choice. The only other factor I can think of to mention is that I changed her kibble a few weeks ago, to give her some variety. Last couple of days I've reverted to the previous brand, but if the food change is the problem I probably haven't given the old food enough time to reassert itself in her system to make a difference.

She hasn't been under stress, unless having me home a lot this year counts. She's a quiet, non-neurotic cat normally, I haven't moved house or changed anything in the living setup. I'm only mentioning the brief wheezing and the food change because they're the only unusual factors at all.

What am I not thinking of?

posted by zadcat to Pets & Animals (13 answers total)

I dogsat for an (elderly) dog who did not have accidents but had some kind of issue that caused her to leak very small amounts of urine. She kept peeing outside as she normally had--it was some kind of physiological issue rather than a behavioral problem. (I don't remember if they found a cause other than old age in her case, though.)
posted by needs more cowbell at 5:41 PM on November 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

UTI? Could cause a dribble, apparently does cause urine to smell worse.
posted by Don Pepino at 5:47 PM on November 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

How has your own health been faring? Human illnesses sometimes throw the sense of smell out of whack, whether a cold's coming on or going away. (Also: When I clicked on your much-appreciated pet tax picture, it looks like your adorable cat is perched beside an aloe plant; if so, nibbling on that could've caused the wheezing.)
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:02 PM on November 23, 2020 [1 favorite]

Five years old is a bit young to worry about kidney disease, but cats that have kidney disease sometimes give off an unpleasant uremic smell. But I believe it emmanates more from the cat's breath than from the fur, so I'm not sure that it applies in your case. Still, you may want to get some testing done to look at kidney function.
posted by alex1965 at 7:41 PM on November 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Any chance she’s getting pee on her feet when she uses the box?

Is the smell stronger around her feet?

Check the all-important piss posture!
posted by armeowda at 8:16 PM on November 23, 2020 [3 favorites]

Are you sure shes not accidentally peeing on her feet, peeing on the side of the box so it flows back to her feet, or stepping in wet pee litter?
posted by cgg at 8:17 PM on November 23, 2020 [2 favorites]

This happened to me when my fastidious girl had somehow peed in her bed where she often slept in the daytime. It had been kind of festering in the pillow for quite some time but I only realized it when she came to cuddle up by my head at night. I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t going away. It took me quite a while to figure it out. (Something had surprised and scared her, I think when a military plane made a sonic boom, because she didn’t pee a lot and she was absolutely strict about her potty behavior. ) if there might be a spot she could have peed in where she’s repeating going to, maybe look there?? See if she’s visiting a spot she could have gone in.
posted by kitten kaboodle at 1:29 AM on November 24, 2020 [4 favorites]

when my sweet maddie had this problem, it was because she had a uti. we unfortunately left it untreated for too long, causing her unnecessary discomfort. so definitely take your kitty in as soon as possible!
posted by misanthropicsarah at 7:00 AM on November 24, 2020

My previously big boned girl had the same issue and despite seeming clean "behind" she was not quite able to reach everything without her belly getting in the way. This was brought to my attention at the vet's office in a not so subtle way when I brought her in with the same complaint. They told me to clean her daily until she lost enough weight to do it herself.
posted by onebyone at 7:15 AM on November 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: onebyone, did you succeed in slimming her down? This is not my first cat, but my previous cats have never had weight problems, so I've never had to diet an animal.

Thanks all for your thoughts. Got a vet appointment Thursday morning. I suspect it may be simply a matter of weight control, but I want to exclude the possibility of a UTI.

I checked her feet (negative) and am pretty sure I haven't got hyperosmia myself, as I'm well and my sense of smell is behaving normally for everything else.
posted by zadcat at 10:53 AM on November 24, 2020

Hi zadcat, yes, I was able to slim her down. It took a bit, no more free choice food and no snax, but she is slimmer (tho not svelte) and able to clean herself.
posted by onebyone at 11:34 AM on November 24, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have a 5 year old cat who smells like pee all over (not just underneath). It's kidney failure.
posted by storminator7 at 8:25 AM on November 25, 2020

Response by poster: Back from the vet. For anyone looking back on this question: yes, she is too fat. But there's also skin folds around her back end in a way that trapped urine and some feces. The vet shaved her and cleaned her up, and gave me instructions for keeping her clean and reducing her weight. She will need to go to a groomer several times a year to have the area shaved to avoid this happening again.

There was a minor infection, and she's had a shot of antibiotics.

Thanks again everyone for advice. Good luck with your cat, storminator7. Five years is young for that.
posted by zadcat at 8:25 AM on November 26, 2020 [2 favorites]