Tired/slow after vet visit with no vaccinations.

My little guy has been urinating outside the litter box fairly frequently over the past day or two, I took him in for a vet visit as I thought I may have escalated from behavioral to medical earlier today. They attempted to get urine straight from his bladder with a needle but he gave them too much of a fight to try very hard and when he was brought back into the room. He had a bit of an episode where he could not control his bowels, then panted for a while and drooled and seemed to be quite in shock. He seemed to calm down and come back into himself after about 7 minutes or so. They kept him for a few hours to monitor him and see if they could get a urine sample that way. I didn't get any further updates until he was sent home and was only told that they were not able to get the urine but he seemed to calm down. My SIL picked him up. When I came home to see him for the first time after, I noticed that he was not immediately greeting me at the door, and when I went to find him he was moving very slow and not able to jump or do anything very energetic like that. I've been monitoring him since and there are some good changes in behavior coming back to normal but he still seems very lethargic. Is this normal after a visit where they did not give him any vaccines or sedation? I'm hoping to get a urine sample from him tonight and bring it in tomorrow as well as call them to see if I should bring him back in.

Hello!  I'm sorry that you cat is having a lousy time and the short answer is that you should indeed call your vet.   But before we get any deeper I felt I should qualify; i wouldnt expect to see excessive lethargy in cats after most uk vaccinations and if your cat seems unwell, it is a probably a good thing that they didnt give him one.

Urinating outside the box is a sign of cystitis (not usually caused by bacteria in the urine, so we dont call them urine infections any more.   Of course, particularly if a sample is caught from a litter tray or trickled over the fur, it will have bacteria in it, but this is not the same as having a urine infection).  It can be a sign of social stress in the household.  It can also be a sign of eg hip pain, stomach pain or back pain in cats, affecting their ability to squat or climb into high sided litter trays.   In my opinion, forcing a cystocentesis on a conscious, stressed cat with any of these things can be spectacularly unpleasant, so stopping and letting him calm down was a good plan.  Furthermore, urine will come out of any but a blocked cat eventually, so in a non urgent situation, sending them home with a modified cat litter and waiting for a wee sample sounds to be a reasonable idea.

However, I agree that your cat does not currently sound to be normal and it sounds as if they may need to be checked.   Your vet should be aware - but please remind them - that this cat is liable to be stressy and would probably be better seen in a different room, without waiting for long to be seen, perhaps with the lights dimmed, and maybe with a nurse on standby, maybe even by an ER vet.  In an ideal world they might be allowed to spend some time calming down before being examined.  Vets often ask owners to wait outside if they seem at all anxious themselves because cats pick up on this.  However its reasonable to be clear about what to consent to them doing in the room eg hold for a blood sample, beforehand.

To some extent your vet may be between a rock and a hardplace this morning;  either a) your cat is very stressed and further vet interference might mke things eorse or b) they have some concurrent illness and not seeing them will make them worse.   There may therefore be no ideal way to help your cat - its a question of paying attention to details and trying to handle the situation in the best way they can.  This may start with speaking to you and doing good triage.

If it isnt an emergency (see triage), it may be worth checking eg our blog / the icatcare website for information about managing low stress veterinary trips.