A typical cat with idiopathic cystitis is 1 to 10 years old, lives indoors with people, uses a litter box, and consumes 75% or more of its diet in dry food. The cat may be unusually nervous or needy, overreactive to its environment, and often suffersfrom other medical conditions, such as obesity or upper and lower gastrointestinal, respiratory, and skin problems. Current evidence suggests that some cases of idiopathic cystitis represent a systemic disorder variably affecting the bladder and other organ systems rather than a primary bladder disease. Idiopathic cystitis may account for clinical signs related to the urinary system of irritative voiding (dysuria, stranguria, pollakiuria, gross hematuria, periuria) in up to 70% of cats that are less than 10 years old. In contrast, only about 5% of cats older than 10 years with such signs have idiopathic cystitis—instead, more than half of the cats in this age group have bacterial urinary tract infections with or without urolithiasis.2
展开▼
