Bizarre Cat Health Hazard: Urinating on Electrical Sockets

As a pet rescuer, I have my share of "hopeless" cases that I end up keeping myself. Not all rescues can find decent homes, and when a rescued cat or dog has health or behavioral problem, they can end up as permanent members of the family. One such cat is Hadji, a very small dark brown male, who has easily used up 8 of his 9 lives.

A few days ago, Hadji, who enjoys the outdoors, much to my nervousness, came into the house for a snack. Hadji is full-grown but weighs less than 5 pounds and is about the size of a 5-month-old kitty. He is a brave little cat who already survived being dumped, having hot coffee thrown onto him, being attacked by large tomcats, and other hazards. Sadly, his health is not the best. He is neutered and has all of his shots, but he suffers from urinary tract crystals despite special diets.

One of the problems with urinary tract troubles is that the cat will begin to use the bathroom outside of the litterpans, thinking that the litterpan is somehow causing a burning feeling. It is never appropriate to punish a cat who does this. Their minds are unable to reason and they know only that it hurts them to be in the litterpan.

Hadji has developed the habit of spraying against the wall and squatting down on clean clothes and chair seats. We had no idea he had also developed an affinity for urinating into wall sockets, until the other night.

Hadji was in the bedroom, when we heard a strange buzzing noise and then a boom. The lights in that part of the house went out. I had a bad feeling and rushed in the door, meeting Hadji trying to get out of the door. His face looked like he had fine cobwebs all over it.

I grabbed him and immediately sniffed his face. Yes, the smell of singed cat was very evident. Hadji had somehow been shocked. We rushed him to the vet, who examined him and was very puzzled at to exactly how he had been shocked. The burned fur (no whiskers or eyebrows left on one side of his head, a singed trail down his side) was obvious. But no cords had been bitten and his mouth was fine.

Our vets are extremely intelligent and decided he had been in the path of an electrical arc, but we were puzzled as to what could have caused anything to arc.

Hadji was able to come home, although he was not feeling really very perky and there was some neurological involvement. At home, we looked all over the room and could not figure out what had caused the arc -- we unplugged everything and still the breaker would trip when we threw it. My husband is very clever and told me to stand in the room while he threw the breaker again. OH BOY was that a shock: A giant blue ball of electricity popped out of one wall socket and arced over towards the socket on the wall perpendicular to it. A big POP sounded at the same time.

Hadji had been caught by the ball of electricity, along the side of the head. But what was causing the socket to arc?

It was a "dead short," and almost a dead cat, as it turned out. Hadji had given a quick "squirt" into the socket, and when he turned, about that time the urine dripped down between the two contact points inside the socket and KABOOM.

Upon examining the socket, we found it looked like he had squirted in there quite a few times. He had also squirted into other sockets. My husband replaced them and we have either taped them shut or placed heavy furniture in front of them to block his access.

Anyone want a slightly singed little cat? Kidding! No, really.

So, please be proactive if you find you have a kitty who is not using the litterpan. Keep their access to plugs BLOCKED and I hate to say it, but sniff around and make sure they aren't trying to go against the plugs. Be aware some of them will then try to squirt into toaster ovens and other appliances such as heaters and fans.

The things we do for our pets!