Hi folks,

it´s been a while since I´ve posted here last.. sorry for that, I lurk
once in a while, but otherwise I have absolutely no time to catch up
with everything, my time schedule changed completely.

Most of you may remember me.. for those who don´t - I´m Marta, I have
2 kitties, Luna and Tabasco, both spayed/neutered, almost 2.5 years
old. This post is about Tabasco, here is the situation:

I just came back from a 3 day vacation. A friend promised to come here
during my absence to feed the cats and to scoop the litterboxes, which
she also did. When I came home, everything seemed to be okay. Then, as
I was cleaning the litterboxes today, Tabasco came into the box (he
often does this right after I cleaned the box) and peed. I looked into
the box and noticed that he only peed a few drops, which worried me a
bit. I decided to observe him during the day. During the next 3 hours
he went to pee like every 30 minutes with the same result, peeing only
a little bit - the last two clumps have been a bit bigger, but still
pretty small - a bit bigger than a big hazelnut (still in its shell)
maybe. He is not really straining while doing this, he simply seems to
have the need to pee often.

He doesn´t seem to be in pain or discomfort and he plays with his
sister. I made sure he has access to lots of water (which he drinks).
His breath smells normally.
Both he and his sister are fed a mixed diet - commercial food
(California Natural and Felidae) and raw diet (lately, it´s been
mostly commercial food, though). They get almost no dry food.

I know that this might be an UTI and I´m, of course, worried. Should I
take Tabasco to the vet immediately or is there something I can do?

What worries me most about going to the vet is the fact that Tabasco
hates going to vet, and that I am not sure what the procedure of
taking a sample of cat´s urine looks like. I´ve read that it is
possible by taking a sample DIRECTLY from the bladder (with a needle)
and this is something that I don´t want him to experience if it´s not
necessary. Last time I wanted to have his urine checked I simply
waited for him to pee, put a little bown under his "butt" while he was
peeing and took it to the vet who then sent it to a laboratory. But
this time, with so little urine, it could be difficult. What am I to
expect?

The vet lives/workes just down the street, I might just as well go
there and ask, but I thought I´d ask you as
well. Thank you in advance.

Marta