Feline idiopathic cystitis is the most common cause of urinary tract disease in young cats, with stress as the primary trigger and welfare-focused management the most effective treatment.
FIC welfare impact is significant both during acute episodes and between recurrences. During a FIC episode, cats experience pain and distress from urethral inflammation and straining, which can progress to urethral obstruction - a genuine medical emergency causing extreme pain and death within 24-48 hours without treatment. Between episodes, cats living in stressful environments experience chronic low-level anxiety that predisposes to further episodes. The welfare-centred management approach - reducing environmental stressors, increasing environmental enrichment, improving litter provision, and switching to wet food - is both more sustainable and more effective than medication alone. FIC is fundamentally a welfare disease where the cat's subjective experience of its environment drives pathology.