Remember how Duncan likes to lie on the edge of the tub and watch me bathe? Well, the last couple of baths, he’s been dangling one paw in the water the whole time. And every now and then he dips his head down and laps up a whole bunch of steaming hot bath water like it’s chamomile tea.
Duncan is the thirstiest cat I’ve ever known. He can drink for three minutes without stopping. He interrupts a fresh bowl of wet cat food to drink out of the fresh bowl of water as soon as it hits the floor. He licks the bathtub after I’m done with it.
I hope he’s not diabetic. I can’t even bring myself to clip his nails, let alone jab him with a needle every day.
By the way, you can still vote in the Canadian Blog Awards until Wednesday at 11:59 pm.
Knitnut.net is a finalist in two categories:
1) Best Blog Post (The Real Reason I Support the Crack Kit Program)
2) Best Activities Blog
could be thyroid too for excess thirst, not to say I’m a vet, just saying. Or maybe bathwater’s just yummy?
I have lady cats who are petite compared to Duncan, They have a water fountain which they like and so they drink a lot of water. One of them drinks til she gets the fountain to gurgle as it refills the resevoir.
Duncan might just need a lot of water because he is a big boy. If he is eating dry food, he should drink more water. I had a male cat who had kidney disease when he got older, he not not only drank a lot of water, he also urinated frequently.
I wouldn’t worry too much unless you notice other issues.
My cat has been drinking more and more over the past couple of years and her kidney enzyme levels (whatever those are) have been sneaking up in her annual blood tests and they’re now above normal. We took her to the vet for a urine sample last week and are waiting to hear whether she’s got a kidney infection or kidney disease (though the vet says it’s most likely kidney disease). Aside from the increased drinking (and peeing), she has no other symptoms.
You may want to bring Duncan in for a blood test if he hasn’t had one recently, just in case. It’s always good to catch these things early on.
I hope he’s ok!
My cats drink bathwater too… and lick out the tub. It worries me that they like the taste of human soup!
“a fresh BOWL of wet cat food”
does this mean he’s eating more than a tablsepoon now?
Duncan looks to have some Maine Coon in him. Our female maine coon is a black and white version of him and drinks a lot as well. That sounds odd doesn’t it? We do try to keep her to wine and beer – no hard stuff. We also have a tabby male who is very thin and licks the shower and drinks from the toilet. Just saying cats are wierd, that’s all. Oh, and both of them drink from the fish bowl. The fish appears to think they are friends. Swims up to greet them.
With the drinking just keep an eye that it’s not increasing – if he just drinks a lot, that’s fine, but if he’s drinking more and more, that’s not fine.
I actually took Freya to the vet because I thought she had arthritis – her back legs were really weak and she was having a hard time jumping up on things. Turns out hind end nerve damage is another sign of diabetes.
But don’t worry too much, they don’t even really notice the needles, especially after you get fast doing at it. You poke them in the ruff, where they don’t have many nerve endings. It’s just the schedule that’s kind of a pain.
I agree that you might want to catch it earlier rather than later. If you catch diabetes early, they’re more likely to convert back to non-diabetic.
Wouldn’t they have tested Duncan for all this stuff at the shelter before they gave him to you? I would think that should that testing the animals for a few of the most common problems would be standard. They would certainly have had to determine if he was diabetic, wouldn’t they? I would think his size has a lot to do with the amount of water he needs. Also, maybe your house is pretty dry with the heat on? Is there a lot of salt in his food? Some of the commercial brands add too much salt. My cat drinks a lot, too and loves to lick the bathtub and kitchen faucet and any beverage we might have standing around.
Luna can have a full water dish and she still prefers licking the condensation off my bedroom window. Its her big show of being wild and hunting for sustenance I think. The dry crunchies are a source of shame.
I’m a recently new blogger and found your blog on the blog awards, when I read the blog you are nominated for I just had to vote for you, hope you win.
Thank you for all the kitty health advice. He seems healthy enough – good skin and fur, and he smells yummy. I think what I’ll do is call the Humane Society and ask if he was tested for diabetes while he was there.
Nursemyra – yeah, poor guy lost a whole kilo during his first week here. I’ve been feeding him a can a day plus crunchies since then. He likes that better.
And Betty – thank you.
My kitten Tucker also sits on the edge of the bath tub while I bathe, and lets his tail sit in the water the whole time so that he can lick it afterwards…. I always found this a bit strange, but now I feel better knowing I am not alone. AND he hangs out in the bath tub and waits for the water to drip so he can drink it, and come running when I turn on the sink- even though he always has water in his bowl.
By the way, when do you find out if you won?
Hi Kati! (Hey everybody, this is my niece Kati.)
I think I’m learning that all cats are kind of odd, not just mine. I always thought that cats had an aversion to water, but judging from the comments on this post and a few others, it’s not true of ALL cats.
(Voting ends at midnight tonight. From what I understand, results are going to be released gradually throughout the week. So maybe I’ll find out tomorrow….)
So long as your cat’s not urinating excessive amounts, you’re prolly safe on the diabetes front. My cat Claude developed diabetes and it’s in the litter box I saw the first symptoms.
See? I like your blog, I’m reading back issues.
Duncan sounds like my dog. She’s got diabetes insipidus, which is not the same as diabetes. It’s basically a lack of the hormone that tells the kidneys to retain water (or the inability of the kidneys to process the hormone). The point being that she too would sit and drink for minutes on end and then pee accordingly, to the point where she would pee in her sleep. As long as an animal (or human for that matter) with DI has constant access to water, they are fine, but they are prone to overheating and dehydration if they don’t have enough. If you do take him to the vet and he can’t find anything, you might want to ask about this. They currently think it’s underdiagnosed because people with outside animals don’t notice as the animal can drink and urinate freely, and a lot of people who have indoor animals just have the offending animal put down.
Hope he’s OK though and he just likes to drink warm water!