Accidents when sleeping

[Tiger and the squid]

On top of being lethargic, one of the reasons I took Tiger to the vet initially, when he was diagnosed, was because he was having accidents in his sleep. Due to the much more pressing concern of diabetes, this never got addressed.

Does anyone have any experience or advice for kitties who have accidents in their sleep? Googling it mostly pulled up results about female cats who have loose muscles, but Tiger isnt a lady cat. He uses the litter box just fine (except when hes mad at me) so I'm not overly concerned about any bigger issues. It's just an inconvenience and I dont want him to nap in his own peepee.

 

[Lillie]

I've had cats all my life and many were elderly with kidney problems but I've never seen this in any of my cats. I would make another visit with the vet just for this issue. Could it be that he was drinking so much water due to his diabetes that he couldn't hold it in his sleep?

 

[Bama Kitty Mom (GA)]

Does it seem to be mainly leakage [i.e. a little wet] or a full bladder's worth? As @Lillie suggested I would discuss this with the vet. I caught my dude cat standing to urinate so that the stream ran over the side of the litter box until I hustled over and pressed his butt downward to redirect inside the box. Fortunately puppy pads line the exteriors and the box sits inside a plastic tote lid that functions as a kind of "moat" around the box to catch errant discharge of waste. Most of it landed in his litter mat, though, so I need to get a bigger, deeper moat. He's got the x-large size box but he prefers to operate close to the edge so I don't think a larger box would be helpful.

 

[Noah & me (GA)]

Somewhere a few months back there is a thread "Does anyone have a pet that wears diapers". It will most likely be in Feline Health.
Noah is wrapped in piddle pads for trips outside the house. They're not expensive, work well and can be doubled up. I doubt adult human pads will match the size or can be laid flat but may be much thicker. Urine burn may be an issue. We used something called Waterless Bath when Simon could no longer groom himself but it seemed to become less effective as the bottle got older and we could only find it in large size spray bottles. You could line his bed with baking soda as a last line of defense.
Our local Laundromat had a policy of accepting pet stuff on the condition you washed the machine while empty once you were done.

 

[Elizabeth and Bertie]

My cat Bertie did this a number of times in the early days of his diabetes diagnosis. And at that time he liked to sleep on my pillow next to my head, so I woke up more than once to find my hair soaked in cat's pee.... ....He was just urinating so much at that point....

Once his blood glucose got under better control all was fine.

 

[Evie Corso]

Only time I’ve had that happen is when they were on steroids. I have had cats urinate in the cat bed, but not while they are sleeping. It is a convenient place to go as an alternative to the litter box, since it is great at absorbing liquid and doesn’t splash. Kitties don’t urinate other places when they are mad. There are always other reasons for not using the litter box. If a cat experiences any pain during urination, any straining to go, he will try going somewhere else, blaming the pain on the location, the litter box. He may switch back and forth, trying to find a cmfortable place that doesn’t hurt. (In a multiple cat household, they may be wanting to avoid another frisky kitty who is near the litter box. They may find the litter box too high to see over, too small, too smelly, or don’t like that they can’t see out of a covered litter box. My cats are entirely too tall for even the tallest covered box lol). Once his BG is regulated and any urinary tract problems are cleared up, you may want to offer a new litter box with totally fresh litter, to break the cycle. At a minimum, scrub the litter box with th diluted bleach solution, rinse well and refill with fresh litter, to help break the cycle. If he’s not on meds for high blood pressure or a steroid or any other med that may cause incontinence, I would have his urine checked for signs infection or inflammation.