Urinalysis for Pets: How At-Home Urine Testing Can Benefit Your Pet’s Health

Urine is often seen only as a waste product of a pet's body, but it is an important indicator of their health. A urinalysis (urine examination) can help you and your vet detect urinary system diseases. A urine test can also help detect metabolic disorders and diseases of other systems [1]. Though a full urinalysis is done at a well-equipped laboratory, urine test strips allow you to test your pet's urine at home.

Urine testing strips have several reagents and chemicals that change color when soaked with urine. These color changes help to detect if the urine contains substances in an abnormal range. These tests are inexpensive, and you can do them at home without any special equipment.

If you get an abnormal result, you should consult your vet. So it's important to know cat and dog urinalysis normal values to interpret the results of pet urinalysis correctly. Dogs and cats often have few symptoms with disorders like urinary tract infections, and regular urinalyses are a valuable tool to detect health issues at their early stages.

Collecting Your Pet's Urine

There are several methods to acquire a pet urine sample [1]. Each has advantages and drawbacks.

Midstream sample. A urine sample is collected in a sterile container as your pet urinates. It helps if you've trained your pet to urinate at a particular place or on cue. This method requires patience and can easily become contaminated. However, it is pain-free for the pet and does not require a vet's assistance.

Catheter sample. Your vet passes a thin, sterile tube through your pet's urethra into the urinary bladder and collects the urine. This procedure allows urine collection on demand, but your pet will have to be restrained to allow it. Catheterization has a small risk of carrying infection into the bladder, causing a UTI.

Cystocentesis. Your vet collects a urine sample directly from the bladder by inserting a needle and drawing urine into a syringe. Your pet's bladder must be full, and the procedure does cause some pain. This type of sample has no contamination risks and is the most reliable for detecting urinary tract infections [2].

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The Urinalysis

A complete urine test should be part of a pet's health evaluation. It not only assesses the urinary system, but it also helps diagnose liver diseases like hepatitis and metabolic disorders such as diabetes. Many conditions in pets do not have overt symptoms, and regular urinalysis at a laboratory or veterinary urine test strips can detect disorders early.

A laboratory will examine the urine's color, smell, and clarity and test for its specific gravity and pH (acidic or alkaline). The chemical analysis includes glucose, proteins, ketones, nitrites, leukocyte esterase, and bilirubin content.

The laboratory will spin the urine sample in a machine called a centrifuge to concentrate it, and the sediment is examined under a microscope for bacteria, other organisms, and various cell types [2].

The sample should be examined within an hour of collection for the best results. A meticulous urinalysis can detect kidney diseases before they progress to kidney failure. Bilirubin, glucose, ketones, and hemoglobin levels can diagnose various metabolic conditions, infections, and blood diseases [2].

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Cat Urine Test

UTIs in cats have few symptoms and are often detected during a routine urinalysis. The urinalysis may show pyuria (pus cells in the urine), hematuria (blood in the urine), and bacteriuria (bacteria in the urine). (Urine dipstick tests do not check for pus in the urine).

Urine tests can identify kidney infections that can cause far-reaching damage to these vital organs, leading to kidney scarring, stone formation, hypertension (high blood pressure), and kidney failure. Early, effective treatment is crucial [4]. The gold standard to diagnose a UTI is a urine culture, in which the laboratory grows the bacteria present in the urine so it can be identified and treated correctly [3].

UTIs and other inflammatory conditions can increase protein in the urine (called proteinuria), so a protein-to-creatinine ratio is also helpful. [5]. Protein in cat urine is normally less than 1 gram/liter, and greater amounts in the urine can indicate kidney disease. Proteinuria also affects blood clotting, immunity, hormonal balance, lipid balance, and several metabolic functions [6].

Cat urine test strips are inexpensive and simple to use at home to detect possible disorders early. These strips measure chemical levels that may indicate disease — glucose to detect diabetes, ketones to detect ketosis, nitrites, and leukocyte esterase to detect UTI, etc. However, they give only a rough guide to quantities of glucose and protein and can't replace a microscopic examination or culture.

Dog Urine Test

Dogs should have regular health evaluations that include urine testing. Like cats, they can have several disorders that don't have apparent symptoms. A urinalysis will examine glucose, ketones, nitrites, blood, bilirubin, etc., to detect diseases. The laboratory will also look at the urine under a microscope to identify pus cells, bacteria, red blood cells, crystals, casts, and other abnormalities that signify diseases.

Dog UTI symptoms are minimal or absent, and detecting these infections is challenging without a urinalysis. Bacterial infections that originate from the urinary tract are the most common infections among dogs [4], and prompt treatment is needed to avoid significant kidney damage.

Examining dog urine protein levels is a vital part of a urinalysis [6]. Normal protein-to-creatinine ratios are usually less than 0.5, and higher values could indicate kidney disease [5].

You can use dog urine test strips at home to monitor your pet's health. These strips test for chemical abnormalities and can help you in the early detection of disorders. However, you will need your vet to perform a urinalysis at a laboratory to confirm any abnormal results. For example, if your strip test is positive for a UTI, your vet will ask the laboratory to confirm it by microscopic examination (for pus cells and bacteria) and culture.