From:
dr_bruce_williams
Date: 2001-12-13 12:12:00 UTC
Subject: Re: blood in urine
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., "weaselwerkstatte" <skunkworks@p...>
wrote:
>
> nobby is a year and a half old gib. recently blood started to
appear
> in his urine. he shows no sign of difficulty urinating.
>
> symptoms clear up for several days but return. at it's worst, when
> his urine is very dark, he is listless and eats little.
>
> specimins were taken free and by catheter. culture was negative,
with
> no white cells or "grains", but blood was confirmed. ultrasound and
> x-rays show nothing unusual. blood sample had normal platelet and
> white cell counts but glucose was slightly low. (it's possible that
> this was because the sample was taken after a few days of little
food
> intake.)
If this was the sum total of the testing, I think that we need to do
just a few more things. The first thing that I would do is to rerun
the tests on a sample of urine taken directly from the bladder - this
will eliminate the possibility of the blood coming from the lower
urinary tract - urethra, penis, prepuce, etc and isolate it to
bladder and/or kidney. Even catheterized samples can contain blood
from the lower urinary tract. You also don't mention a culture and
sensitivity of the urine, or if contrast studies were done on the x-
rays of the bladder and kidney - this may increase the specificity of
the tests and identify problems that cannot be identified.
Even though WBC's were not seen on the urine, the fact that he is
listless during times when he is bleeding suggests that a bacterial
infection may still be at the root -and remember, most stones start
with an initial bacterial infection
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM