The art of urine collection

We call it “liquid gold” because it’s such a valuable diagnostic tool. With as little as a teaspoonful of urine, we can detect a multitude of ills including kidney disease, endocrine disorders, liver disease, urinary tract infections, even bladder cancer. We realize that the request to “please bring in a urine sample” can cause angst in even our most intrepid clients.  So I’m coming to the rescue with some hints on how to collect urine from your dog or cat.  You’ll never look at popcorn the same way again!

Collecting urine from your dog

Some of our clients prefer that we collect the urine sample. And of course we will, but there are still some guidelines you’ll need to follow. Give your dog plenty of water to drink, and make sure you keep him from urinating for several hours before his veterinary visit. Obviously, you can’t take him for a walk, or let him into the yard, but don’t forget to prevent him from eliminating on the way to the car or once you get to our office. That means you’ll need to pick up your small dog, or run up to our front door with your bigger dog on a leash. If you give him time to sniff, it’s game over! You can also bypass the mad rush to the hospital entrance:  Let us know you’ve arrived, and we’ll come out to your car and collect the urine while you walk your dog.

Before collecting urine yourself, it’s important to clean the tip of the prepuce (the skin that covers the penis) in a male dog and the vulva in a female dog. If that isn’t done, dried cells and mucus can contaminate the sample. Use a clean, moist cloth or a baby wipe.

Containers that can be used for urine collection are limited only by your imagination; the lid from a small jar is suitable for a toy breed, and a margarine container serves well for a bigger dog. Just make sure they’re spotlessly clean, and the right size for your dog. It may be easier to use a ladle or a paper cup that’s taped to a yardstick so you don’t have to bend over.  Or you can borrow our fancy Olympic Clean Catch, which is a professionally designed ladle-like gizmo with a long handle and a removable plastic container on the end. It makes collecting urine easy-peesy!  We also provide free urine collection kits, with a banana split container you can use to catch the sample and a sterile container in which to transport it to the animal hospital. Do you see a disturbing trend using food-related items here?

Collecting urine from your cat

Here’s where the art comes in. We cat lovers know how our feline friends hate it when we tamper with their litter box, but collecting urine necessitates some modification of the status quo.

Try this method, which I find works about half of the time: Place a clean litter liner over the existing litter, or put the entire litter box in a plastic garbage bag. Press the plastic against the litter so your cat can feel the litter through the plastic. She’ll urinate on the liner, and you’ll get a nice, clean sample.

A commonly used method of collecting urine from cats entails replacing their litter with inert substrates. Before using any litter substitute, make sure you wash and rinse the litter box well, or use a litter liner. We sell two litter replacement products that work nicely. One, Kit-4-Kat, is a hydrophobic sand. Urine beads up on the surface and is collected using the provided pipette. Because cats like the feel of the sand, Kit-4-Kat is readily accepted by most felines. Another product we sell is called NOSORB. It consists of tiny, non-absorbent black beads that you scatter in an empty litter box. I prefer that cat owners use one of those commercial products, which are clean and prevent debris from getting in the sample. But I’ve had clients successfully use unpopped popcorn kernels, and even quartz fish aquarium gravel (thoroughly rinsed). With all methods, tilt the box and use a spoon or a syringe to collect the urine. 

Whether dog or cat urine, a fresh specimen is best; samples checked within a couple hours of collection yield the most accurate results. That’s not always possible, so we tell our clients to do the best they can and refrigerate samples that can’t be brought in right away. Any urine is often better than no urine.Occasionally, neither pet owner nor animal hospital employee has success in collecting urine. If a urine sample is essential, or if we need a urine culture, the veterinarian can collect it via cystocentesis. We insert a small needle through the skin directly into a full bladder and withdraw urine. It sounds nasty, but it’s actually painless. Nevertheless, some dogs and cats will need sedation because they don’t tolerate being restrained.

If you want to borrow our Olympic Clean-Catch, need a urine collection kit, or simply need further advice, give us a call; with our assistance, urine good hands!