Practical urinalysis in the cat: 1: Urine macroscopic examination 'tips and traps'

This is the first article in a two-part series on urinalysis in the cat. The focus of Part 1 is urine macroscopic examination. Part 2, to appear in the May 2016 issue, discusses urine microscopic examination.

Urinalysis is an essential procedure in feline medicine but often little attention is paid to optimising the data yielded or minimising factors that can affect the results.

For the best results, appropriately collected urine should be prepared promptly by specialist laboratory personnel for the relevant tests and assessed by a clinical pathologist. This is invariably impractical in clinical settings but careful attention can minimise artefacts and allow maximum useful information to be obtained from this seemingly simple process.

Clinical pathologists would be familiar with the information provided in this article, but it is rarely available to general or specialist practitioners, and both can potentially benefit.

Most of the required equipment is routinely available to veterinarians. However, instructions have been provided to give practical alternatives for specialist procedures in some instances.

Evidence for much of the data on urinalysis in cats is lacking. Validation of the human equipment used routinely, such as dipsticks, is also lacking. As such, the evidence base for feline urinalysis is quite poor and information has largely been extrapolated from the human literature. Information from feline studies has been included where available. In addition, practical clinicopathological and clinical observations are provided.