Feline lower urinary tract disease is extremely common in domestic cats, causing significant pain and distress, and is frequently associated with stress from indoor housing and inadequate environmental provision.
Feline lower urinary tract disease causes cats to experience the pain and urgency of urinary inflammation, often leading to inappropriate elimination that is then misinterpreted as a behavioural problem. The relationship between stress and idiopathic cystitis means that environmental factors causing cat stress directly contribute to physical illness. In males, urethral obstruction causes life-threatening urinary retention with associated pain and toxaemia that requires emergency intervention. Prevention through stress reduction - providing adequate resources in multi-cat households, environmental enrichment, and feeding wet food - is more effective and less distressing than repeated treatment of recurrences.