‘Yes Yes‘, or as the French say ‘Oui Oui‘ (pronounced Wee Wee)  Urine Sample Collection’

“Could you bring a urine sample with you for the next day” the vet says casually. “Yes, Yes” you reply or if you’re French it’s “Oui Oui” and it’s off you go to collect Wee Wee.

Getting a urine sample can be a simple or frustrating experience depending on how accommodating or shy your pet is, but a little know how can make for a much easier and more pleasant experience.  For a homeopathic vet, the information gleaned even from the collection process can be very helpful in coming to a suitable treatment.

Shy guy? A Natrum Muriatricum (Nat Mur) type of pet is one who likes total privacy and if this is your pet you may never actually have seen your pet pass urine and boy are you going to have trouble getting a urine sample! The Sulphur (Sulph) pet, on the other hand, has no problem supplying a sample. A sulphur dog will lift its leg at every opportunity and you will be able to get a sample as it sprinkles all over the vet’s surgery, while hoovering the floor with its nose as it sniffs and investigates everything.   You will note that we often describe the patient in terms of the homeopathic drug it matches.

The how, when and why of urine sample collection for pets

To deal with the stress of getting a sample, should you find it difficult to get, first give your pet some Homeopet Anxiety Relief in its water. The homeopathics certainly won’t interfere with the results of the test and will almost certainly lead to a more relaxed approach to the whole event, from both sides! The Homeopet Anxiety Relief Range can also be used to reduce stress in patients where for accuracy reasons the urine sample is taken via needle through the abdomen, in a process called cystocentesis. In this latter case, Homeopet products can be used but because a general anaesthetic or sedative might be required, as a precaution it is best to avoid all supplements, treats or food for several hours prior to the to the procedure.

So ‘how?’; ‘how much?’; ‘when?’ and even ‘why might you need to collect your pet’s urine?’

Lets answer ‘when’ first.   A urine sample is best obtained first thing in the morning, with the patient having been kept indoors overnight with free access to water. In some cases water restriction is necessary, but only on your vet’s say so – never restrict access to water without veterinary instruction.  For example, a kidney patient can die from the consequences of water deprivation.   Another advantage of an early morning urine sample, especially, if you live in a town or city, is that you are unlikely to become of too much interest to the neighbours as you follow your pet around with a scoop or saucer! Next to ‘how?

Collecting urine from dogs

For dogs, take them out on lead (so they can’t get too far away from you, unless you have awfully long arms or a polystyrene cup attached to a broom handle). Male dogs usually cock their leg and urinate on a regular basis, especially over the competitions’ sprinklings. Then it is just a matter of placing a urine sample collector or pre-sterilized dish (such as a margarine container or other flat plastic food container) in the stream of urine to collect the sample.

Proper urine sample containers are available from a local chemist, drug store, pet store or your veterinarian. Alternatively, the dish needs to be cleaned and sterilized by washing in boiling water. Special urine collection scoops and vials can be bought, but are in many cases unnecessary for initial samples.

Avoid the use of vitamin containers or containers with similar contents as contamination can alter the results. For bitches, the situation can sometimes take more work. You need to have her on a lead and you must wait for her to start passing urine before putting the saucer underneath. If you attempt to put the saucer underneath a bitch before she starts, whatever chance you had of collecting the urine sample is gone! Some bitches will hold on for days if disturbed before starting to urinate. Yet once a bitch starts urinating they can rarely stop before you get a sample!

Collecting urine from cats

For cats, a whole different set of rules apply and the litter tray rules supreme for sample collection at home. You will need to provide a clean, sterilized litter tray with no cat litter in it. The litter tray should be slightly tilted to one end so that the urine runs away from any faeces the cat may also do in the tray. You can put in commercially produced plastic pearls (see photo left in pack and right in litter tray), or shredded plastic, but this is not as easy to get in these days of paper shopping bags.

What I do is roll up the plastic and use scissors to cut strips off the roll, which looks just like shredded paper. Then I shake the cut plastic strips apart to make fluffy, sterile, non-absorbent litter, which for some reason almost all cats will use, especially if they are locked in a room with a lino floor. If the bathroom is normally used as your feline’s toilet room, then be sure to put about an inch of water in the sink and bath so kitty doesn’t decide to use one of these giant litter trays! As I was originally writing this article and had duly told my client all the things to remove from the bathroom, only to discover the cat had started using the potted plants in the bathroom as the ideal replacement litter tray – once removed a sample was forthcoming, so you really need to think like a cat, when setting up the room.

Why collection urine from your pet?

Finally why? Well information, as they say, is king! And a lot goes on unseen inside a pet, in to which a urine sample may well provide insight. For a conventional vet or one using homeopathy, knowing more about what is going on is always useful. Crystals in the urine (picture right), of which there are many types apart from the struvite / triple phosphate in the picture, might indicate a particular homeopathic remedy, for example Lycopodium in the case of crystals appearing as red sand in the urine.

Tom Farrrington MRCVS., MVB., VetMFHom, is a Veterinary Surgeon & Homeopath with over 25 years experience who works out of “Pets & People Homeopathy” in Co. Cork. He is the Chief Veterinary Medical Advisor for the HomeoPet range of medicines and natural remedies that are available to pet parents in many countries around the world. If you have any questions related to your pet’s health and natural pet care, please contact our Customer Care Line Staff – we’re here to help.