Lockdown sparks urinary problems rise

Increased stress during the lockdown period is being blamed for a rise in urinary disorders in both cats and dogs that has been reported in a new survey.

Research by Royal Canin shows vets have reported a 39% rise in cats diagnosed with urinary disorders and a 10% rise of problems in dogs.

Vets in the survey, conducted among 200 vets and 300 consumers between 21 October and 3 December, link the rise in cats to increased levels of stress caused by changes in routines where owners and children have spent more time at home.

Analyses

Despite the 10% rise in new and recurring cases of urinary diseases in dogs, only a third of vets reporting an increase said they were running more urinary stone analyses than a year ago. Most (53%) said they were carrying out the same number of tests for dogs, with 12% carrying out fewer vets.

Vets said costs and time to get back results were the main barriers to using a urine stone analysis service more often, with 35% citing cost and 33% time as issues. Only 16% were aware of Royal Canin’s free urine stone analysis service, which has a 10-day turnaround on results.

Compliance

Elsewhere in the survey results, vets said that once a diagnosis had been reached, owner compliance was the biggest factor in successful treatment of urinary disorders in cats and dogs.

Other barriers included difficulty in getting urine samples from cats and reluctance of owners to invest in follow-up investigations.

Elisabete Capitão, vet and vet marketing manager at Royal Canin, said: “Our research revealed that many pet owners don’t understand urinary disease – a third don’t know what the causes are and more than a third mix feed a urinary diet with other food.

“Considering that owners want the best for their pets, poor diet compliance could be a consequence of this lack of understanding about urinary disease.”