How urine tests can help us diagnose disease

A urine test is a simple and effective method for us to check the health of your pet’s urinary system. The process involves collecting a urine sample from your pet, which can then be tested within the clinic or sent to a pathology laboratory for analysis. If you notice a change in your pet’s urine, such as discoloured urine then you could try to collect a urine sample to bring into the clinic for testing. Alternatively, we may ask you to collect a urine sample from your pet to aid in the diagnosis of particular diseases.

How to collect a urine sample

With dogs, collecting a urine sample is usually a matter of waiting until they go to urinate, and then catching a sample of the urine into a clean and dry container such as a plastic bowl or jar. Once the sample is collected, you can bring it into the vet hospital for testing.

For cats, collecting a urine sample can be a bit trickier. If your cat uses a plastic litter tray, you can remove the cat litter and replace it with shredded bubble wrap, and then when the cat urinates you can tip a small amount of urine from the tray into a clean plastic container.

If you’re unable to collect a urine sample from your cat, then you can organise to bring them into the clinic. We can often palpate and express a cat’s bladder to collect a urine sample. If this is not possible, we may consider using a technique called cystocentesis, which involves collecting a urine sample from the bladder by passing a needle through the abdomen – we can explain this procedure in more detail if it is recommended.

The benefit of testing your pet’s urine is that it provides us with a large amount of information on the health of your pet’s urinary system. Urine tests can be helpful in assessing for conditions such as urinary tract infections, kidney disease, diabetes, bladder stones and other metabolic conditions.