When you are a cat owner, you want to be sure that your cat is as healthy as possible in their life with you. However, many people who own cats do not take them to the vet regularly or at all. Because of this, many cats suffer serious health problems that could prove fatal if not dealt with properly. To avoid this happening to your cat, get to know some of the reasons that you should take your cat to the vet or animal hospital. Then, you can stay on top of your cat's health needs and get them the care they require when health problems occur.
Your Cat Is Not Using Their Litter Box Properly
If you have a cat that is normally very good about using their litter box but begins to have accidents just outside of their litter box or elsewhere around the house, it might not just be a sign of bad behavior. This behavior can actually be a sign of a urinary tract infection.
Urinary tract infections, or UTIs, are infections of the urinary tract system. They can occur in the urethra, the kidneys, or the bladder and will affect your cat in numerous ways. They will have the urge to urinate more frequently and could even experience pain in their abdomen. This can result not only in missing the litter box but also using it more often.
Your Cat Is Coughing a Lot
When you hear your cat cough, you might assume that the issue is that they got hair in their throat while grooming themselves or that they are coughing up an actual hairball. And while this may be the case for isolated incidents of coughing, it is not necessarily the case for continued and frequent coughing.
If your cat coughs fairly regularly for a couple of days, you might have cause for concern. At best, your cat may have a minor respiratory viral infection. But there are also other possibilities. Your cat could have a bacterial infection that requires antibiotics, for example. They could also have some type of pneumonia or even be suffering from tumors in the respiratory system. Heart problems could also be the culprit of coughing in cats.
After two days of coughing or so, you should take them to the animal hospital or vet as soon as possible. Because your cat coughing could be caused by such severe issues, swift treatment is best.
Now that you know some of the reasons you should take your cat to the vet, you can be sure you get them in for care as soon as they need it.
