Urinalysis

collected when animal urinates, best to collect mid-stream to minimize genital contamination

• manual compression of bladder, mid-stream best.  
• Take care not to injure animal

• insert sterile catheter into bladder via urethra.  Syringe is attached to catheter, urine aspirated out.  
• Initial should be discarded due to urethral contamination from insertion of catheter

• best method for urine culture.  
• insert needle with syringe into bladder, aspirate into syringe.

• Must record conditions of sample--if can't be tested immediately, refrigerate for up to 8 hours.  
• refrigeration can cause increase in crystal formation, bacterial growth and degeneration of casts (bacteria cause more alkaline pH).  
• Bring sample to room temp before testing.

• observe color, turbidity and odor.  Record.  
• Use reagent strips (Multistix).  Check expiration and know directions first.  Specific gravity is not accurate, cats can get false Leukocyte positives.

• perform with refractometer, not accurate on strip.  
• Lots of suspended particles, spin first and read after.

• can be diagnostic, so do it right.
• Put urine in tube, spin slowly for 6 minutes.  Pour off supernatant.  Stain with SEDISTAIN or VOLU-SOL.  
• place cover slip over one drop.  Scan at low power, go up to 400 on anything interesting.  USE A REFERENCE

• epithelial cells: squamous, transitional, renal
• crystals: triple phosphate, calcium oxalate, uric acid
• casts: hyaline, granular (coarse or fine), WBC, RBC, epithelial, waxy or mixed
• Bacteria
• debris
• mucous strands
• sperm

urochrome pigments.  Degree depends on concentration.

• turbid, particles suspended on it.  
• Place against letter print background, try to read.

• RBC, WBC, epithelial cells, casts, crystals, mucous, fat, bacteria or contamination of sample.  
• Horses usually have cloudy urine, often due to mucous (mucous glands in renal pelvis and ureter)

normally cloudy due to mucous

milky appearance is normal.

• let urine come to room temp
• MIX

presence of crystals in urine.  May or may not be significant.

• urine pH, concentration and temperature, and solubility of elements.  
• Some are normal, may not be diagnostically or clinically significant.

• Take into account history etc.  
• decrease in kidney disease or increased fluid intake
• increase in increased fluid loss or decreased intake (sweating, panting, diarrhea, vomiting)

• samples left at room temp become more alkaline from loss of CO2.  
• Depends largely on diet in healthy animals
• Bacteria increases pH

ammonium smell, increased pH, degeneration of casts and cells.

• reagent strips usu detect albumin.  
• False-positive results in alkaline urine depending on diet, UTI or urine retention
• Transient proteinuria from muscle exertion, emotional stress, convulsions, after parturition and in neonates.

• glucosuria or glycouria.
• Only glucose on reagent strips, tablets can be better, detect all sugars
• false-positive due to drugs
• (epinephrine release, post high-carb meal, IV admin of glucose or post-anesthesia can cause)

• formed in incomplete catabolism of fatty acids.  Causes a fruity smell.  
• Often seen in diabetes mellitus

• Acidosis caused by ketones.  
• ketones can cause CNS depression and acidosis.

caused by high fat diets, starvation, fasting, long-term anorexia and imparied liver function.

• Only conjugated bilirubin in urine
• normal dogs have some, CATS DO NOT (nor do pigs, sheep, horses)
• Broken down by short-wave light, keep it in the dark or false-negative

false positives in cats, lots of false negatives.  Must examine sediment.

casts.  Cats with renal disease often have fatty casts (refractile bodies).  They have lipid in renal parenchyma

First thing in morning, pick up water at midnight

bile

ketones

protein

• intracellular protozoa
• Thin, long oval on slide (promastigate stage)

• protozoan parasite
• Oval structures, not much detail.

• bowling pin.  
• candida,sp. 
• Malassezia sp. in ear infections

fungus, looks like dandilion.  Hyphae also present.

• cutaneous, pulmonary or GI forms.  Often seen in herbivores (cattle, goats, sheep)
• Gram negative or positive.  Some endospores, terminal endospores.  
• Looks like a dotted line, maybe like a match.

• vector-borne from deer ticks.  
• stains a weak gram negative spirochete, coiled or wavy.  
• Wavy line

gram + spore forming bacilli.  Endospores, both bi-polar and terminal.

gram - pink rods, non-spore-forming bacilli.

gram negative bacilli

gram negative encapsulated bacilli

• dermatophyte test media
• agar turns red when dermatophytes grow
• Can use RSM (rapid sporulation) or ESM (enhanced sporulation) or SDA (sabouraud dextrose agar) to accelerate growth
• NOT 100% (bacterial and nonpathogenic fungus, use slide)

fully cornified

• changes in cells during estrus cycle
• Parabasal (non-cornified)
• Intermediate (non-cornified, bigger, nucleus smaller)
• Superficial (cornified, bigger, nucleus smaller)
• anuclear (cornified, no nucleus)

• three portions of ejaculation
• sperm-free fraction, sprem-rich fraction, sperm-poor fraction

• may be some sperm
• watery-looking fluid
• first fraction to appear
• not useful, discard and replace test tube

• used in semen evaluation
• milky color and consistency
• volume varies between species and animal/age/health.

• third and last fraction
• not ideal for analysis but sometimes used due to inability to change tubes in time

sample temperature

• swirling movement of sperm called the wave motion
• Evaluated as "very good", "good", "fair" and "poor"
• Performed at 40x, first thing performed

• nutrition-rich liquid media which adds to life of sperm and supports through freezing.  
• Bought/provided by ICG
• Keeps sperm viable

amount of swirling in gross motility at 40x