Anyone who enjoys the company of a pet knows how important their health is. To ascertain the presence of any pathology, the veterinarian may request a urine test.
Don’t panic: this is less difficult than it seems. While getting a urine sample is not easy, there are several tricks to make it easy.
Let’s find out all the tricks of how to get a urine sample from a dog.
Dog Urine Sample: What Is The Urinalysis For?
Urinalysis is used to promptly identify pathologies affecting numerous organs.
The urine test is a simple, inexpensive, and non-invasive procedure. It is able to reveal important information on the state of health and the presence of any pathology. Generally, this test is done to check for diseases affecting the dog’s urinary tract.
Furthermore, urinalysis can also be used to identify pathologies affecting the dog’s genital apparatus. Also, it’ll discover diseases affecting other organs, such as kidneys and liver, in advance.
Precisely for this reason, it is advisable to collect the dog’s pee and carry out the urine test. Remember to do it once a year as a precaution.
The Necessary Equipment to Collect the Dog’s Urine
Hopefully, you’ve understood that the urinalysis is part of the dog’s clinical tests that should be repeated periodically. Let’s find out how to proceed.
Before collecting your dog’s urine, make sure you have everything you might need during this delicate operation.
Here is a handy list of what you need:
- Disposable latex gloves, which you will wear to collect the dog’s urine. After using them, be sure to dispose of them properly and wash your hands thoroughly;
- Collar and leash, which you will need to take your pet out during the ritual stroll dedicated to his needs;
- Urine collection container, which must be large and not excessively deep;
- Syringe, to take the collected urine and insert it into the test tube;
- Test tube or plastic jar, inside which you will insert the pee sample to be delivered to the vet.
How to Collect Dog Urine for Dog Urine Test At Home?
You can collect dog urine in many ways. Choose any ways that your dog is comfortable with. For example:
With a plastic cup:
Digs tend to be quite reluctant to undergo this treatment. It is for his own good, but the animal is not able to understand it. However, we will first need to equip ourselves with the most appropriate tools.
Consider a container for collecting urine. All you need is a plastic cup with a lid or a syringe. But it is almost impossible to take urine during peeing. Chances are, the dog will run away, angry. It’s a brutal invasion of his privacy. So we’ll have to find another way.
With a syringe:
We can replace traditional bedding, in absorbent material, with an alternative. Something similar that does not absorb liquids. Lentils are a good substitute. This legume does not absorb urine.
However, this will allow the cat to dig and craft the business discreetly. Then we can take a urine sample with the syringe. We remove the lentils and tilt the box of needs. We suck urine through the needle of the syringe. Even straw can do the same job. We can then take the sample with a pipette.
Aspirate Dog urine from surfaces:
Our dog may have problems that lead to incontinence. This is the case, for example, with cystitis. It is highly likely that the dog will leave small puddles of urine on the floor in such a case.
If we find ourselves in this situation, it will be very easy to take the sample. We use a syringe, drawing urine directly from surfaces. After collection, the sample should be delivered within 24 hours. Beyond this term, the composition of urine can be changed. If we can’t go to the vet immediately, we keep the urine in the refrigerator.
How to Get a Urine Sample from a Dog: Step by Step?
Now that you’ve decided on the way to do the operation, let’s discuss the operation in detail. The matter does not seem simple at all, but let’s not despair. Here are some tips for facilitating the undertaking and collecting the dog’s urine.
First of all, we have to arm ourselves with a lot of patience and a container of urine, and a deep paper plate. The container can be purchased at the supermarket or pharmacy. The dog urine container for analysis is what you buy for humans.
For them, as for us, it is preferable to collect the first urine of the morning. So when we take him for his walk, we must try to distract him and not make him nervous. Then we will be able to collect the urine more easily.
When we see that our dog has found the ideal place to do his business, get started. Just insert the paper plate between him and the ground. The amount will be depended on how much urine does a vet need for a sample. Luckily a few drops are enough, and that’s it.
Carefully and with the help of a funnel, we pour the urine inside the container we previously purchased. If we don’t want to use a home funnel, take a sheet of paper and make it a kind of cone.
However, a dog owner may not know how to collect a urine sample from their dog. So here are some tips to help you with this task.
Step 1
Take the tools you will need to collect your dog’s urine sample, including
- A clean container,
- A saucer or small collection cup,
- Or a dropper.
Many pets are very nervous when their owners are around while they relieve themselves. Be at a fairly distant pace so that he has his privacy.
Step 2
Wait for the appropriate moment and take action. If your dog is male, it can be easy to place a cup or saucer under his urine stream. However, if she is female, stay behind her, out of sight. Start sliding a saucer over to where she is urinating. It can be a bit messy, but it works best and collects enough for a urine test.
Step 3
Take some of the samples with an eyedropper if you can. Some lab tests do not require a sterile sample. So when your dog urinates, collect the amount of urine you want and deposit the urine in a clean container. Be sure to check with your vet about this in advance.
Step 4
Bring the urine sample to your vet’s office. Most veterinarians prefer that the urine be no more than 2-4 hours out of the dog’s body. It’s for the most accurate results. But if it must be earlier, place the sample in the refrigerator for no more than 24 hours.
Step 5
Ask your vet to collect a sample for Cystocentesis. If the practitioner needs a large amount of urine or a sterile sample, they perform Cystocentesis. In this case, they can extract it directly from the dog’s bladder with a syringe. Although the procedure sounds unpleasant, the dog is painless. It is a reliable way to collect a urine sample from a canine.
How to store dog urine sample?
If our dog pees on the asphalt, just collect the urine with a syringe without a needle. Leaving it in there, take it immediately to the vet. Take it without “scratching” the asphalt to avoid pulling up debris.
If your dog is used to urinating only on the grass, it would be immediately absorbed. In that case, arm yourself with a glove and a container. The container can be a special container or even a simple plastic saucer. And calmly, without frightening him, keep the container under the jet to collect some pee.
Suppose you want a “manual” sample. In that case, the standard required for a correct analysis is 5 ml. it is including the sediment and the test strip. It is not always so easy to obtain them because the urination of the animal depends on its size and renal function. Sometimes it is possible to obtain only an amount equal to 1 ml. It may still be insufficient and may be required by the veterinarian to bring another sample.
The best way to store urine is in a fresh jar. It would be advisable to avoid containers already used with other substances (the honey jar, the glass of the house). The results could be altered. Therefore it is recommended to use a sterile container.
However, it is already sufficient to leave the urine in the syringe used for collection.
There is another concern about how to keep urine fresh. It is important to bring the sample to be analyzed as soon as possible. The optimum is within 12 hours of collection. Because the bacteria can multiply, and the results could alter.
If you cannot deliver the urine within this time, keep it in a cool place for a maximum of 24 hours.
If you still can’t deliver them, repeat the sample collection procedure all over again.
How to Interpret the Results of a Urinalysis?
A blood test is an almost exclusively microscopic analysis. Unlike a blood test in the urine test, the analysis is both macroscopic and microscopic. That means the test is done both with the naked eye and with a microscope.
In the macroscopic analysis, we observe the appearance of the rust:
- Quantity: Considering the size of the animal, the amount of urine gives us information on the existence of a possible disease.
- Color: If it is not yellow, it may indicate the presence of bile or blood.
- Turbidity: Urine must be translucent (visible through it). On the contrary, when we observe it against the light, we may see that it is cloudy (opaque). Or sometimes there are “things” floating. In these cases, there is undoubtedly an infection or disease. Those “things” that float can be red or white blood cells, bacteria, fungi, or urine crystals.
The microscopic analytical gives us microbiological and biochemical information:
- Microbiological: These tests look for microbes, mainly bacteria but also fungi. For this, culture is carried out, where the bacteria will grow. This way, we make sure which their spice is, and we can put an appropriate treatment.
- Biochemical: The presence of proteins, glucose, and bile pigments, salts, crystals. Depending on their appearance, we can diagnose liver and kidney problems or certain diseases such as diabetes.
Urinalysis in Dogs: How to Interpret Your Results?
The urine strip (special for veterinary medicine) gives us quite reliable and very fast results. In a couple of minutes, we can know, as a guide, the concentration of:
- Bilirubin: It should not be found in urine. Its presence indicates problems in the liver or gallbladder. It can also be due to prolonged fasting and vomiting.
- Ketone bodies: They appear when there is an alteration in the metabolism of carbohydrates. They are decisive in confirming diabetes. They can also appear when there are burns, hyperthyroidism, or during lactation.
- Urobilinogen: It is the bile pigment responsible for the yellow color of urine. Any alteration in it indicates liver and biliary problems.
- Glucose: If there is hyperglycemia, it can mean diabetes or stress, among others. Suppose the finding of glucose in the urine is positive, without reaching hyperglycemia. In that case, we can suspect alterations in the kidneys and their pathways.
- White blood cells: Their presence indicates that there is an infection.
- PH: In dogs, the value is between 5.2-6.8, and in cats 6-7. If the urine is more acidic, it can lead us to diagnose Feline Urinary Syndrome (FUS), medications, or excess protein. On the other hand, if they are basic, it may also be due to FUS, plant-based diets or certain treatments.
- Nitrites: There is a type of bacteria that transform a specific compound into nitrites. So if it tests positive for this marker, we have a clear bacterial infection.
- Proteins: Kidney diseases or heart failure, among others. It can also be due to contamination of the urine sample from dog.
- Blood: Due to the red color, its presence is easily detectable and is usually the main reason to go to the vet. It can be due to different reasons: from poisonings, parasitic diseases, or a simple wound in the urinary system to cancer.
The results are usually decisive in clinical diagnoses. However, it never hurts to make sure with more in-depth and specific studies.
Conclusion:We conclude our article on how to get a urine sample from a dog with the hope that you’ve got all the information here. As fellow pet owners, we understand your concern. That’s why we have this complete guide. With little care, compassion, and love, you will be able to get your pet to do anything, including getting urine sample from dog.
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