# Cat Blood Work and Urinalysis



## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

So, I'm thrilled to see that we have quite a few people here who obviously absolutely adore cats as well as their pups.
Since I'm a ignorant newcomer to the feline world, I've got a couple of questions. 
Do you guys get yearly bloodwork done on your kittens?
Windy is due for her yearly at the end of May, and I'm going to get a full blood panel and urinalysis done, just like I'm doing for Mollie. When I booked Windy's appointment the other day (whilst Mol was at the vets being treated for her sprained ankle), the receptionist looked at me with her eyebrow raised, so I take it that it's not a request they get that often. 
But, its the right thing to do, right? Windy's about 4 years old (if that makes a difference).
Now, my other major question is, how on earth do you collect urine for a urinalysis? I can't imagine trying to stick something under Windy's arse whilst she pee's, in fact catching her peeing will be hard enough. She hasn't learnt to pee on command (yet). lol.
What do you reckon?


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## twotonelover (Jan 10, 2011)

I don't have a cat atm, but if I did I would do yearly blood work 

As for collecting cat pee...I have no idea haha They pee so low to the litter it would be hard to sneak in there with a sterile cup like you would for a dog... Maybe put a small plate under her when she goes to pee and then pour it into the container?


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## minnieme (Jul 6, 2011)

I think a full blood panel would be good enough at first -- and then a urinalysis if some of the values were somewhat off. They'll likely do the urinalysis with the help of an ultrasound and needle directly into the bladder (google cystocentesis), but like I said... I don't think that's entirely necessary unless the blood work showed that something was up.


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## DeekenDog (Aug 29, 2011)

If she's not picky about her litter, you can clean out her box and see if she'll pee in it empty or you can buy a product called Nosorb that you put in the box. However, if she's picky about her litter, its a lot more difficult and you may want to just run the blood panel and then do a cysto collection if anything is off.


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## xchairity_casex (Oct 8, 2011)

i have personally collected urine from all three of my cats on several occassions.
I personally collected it by yep sticking a container uner there bums whilst they peed simply becuase the vets reccomendation would not work for them
but you might try what the vets reccomended to me which is to take the litter box and clean it out real good so there is no bacteria in it put it and your kitty in a small room fill the box with elbow macaronis and leave your kitty in there overnight (obviously pick up EVERYTHING dirty clothes on the floor,a cat bed,blankets,towels,ect that may attract kitty to pee on.
MY cats wouldnt do this however becuase
#1. they peed on the bare instead
#2. the yoweld all night to be let out.

it was a pain in the rear to get urine smaples the hard way though i must admit basically i moved the litter box out into the open and put fresh litter into it it once i noticed my chosen kitty enter i waited for them to dig a little got closeer and closer the second they squated gentley lifted there tails up held the cup up and voila
obviously they were very angry at me but it was either that or have the vet do it and i knew that would firghten my kittys too much.
you must absolutly careful NOT to get ANY litter into the urine it needs to be a clean container (learned this the hard way when i took one container in and the vets sent it back becuase one teensy little fleck of litter was in it)

if you however "miss" the big event while trying the hard way take an eye dropped and pump kitty full of water give a single eye dropper full every hour not too much at once you could cause a tummy ache and not too much too soon either. and dont be suprised if your kitty takes 6 or more hours before peeing that seemd to be hohw long mine all lasted in between
happy catching!


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

I can't imagine not getting bloodwork done on a dog or a cat - in fact, it seems to me like cats get more chronic diseases like feline leukemia and it seems like half the people I know with cats deal with diabetes.

On getting the pee? no clue. We all know that cats are a lot harder than dogs in so many ways!


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Absolutely get blood work done on Windy. I think its almost more important to monitor kidney and liver function on cats because they're the ones that can sneak under the radar for so long with mild underlying disease. Start now, and you'll set up a good baseline to compare future samples to. The receptionist looked at you crazy because most people don't have the money or don't care enough about their pets to do annual blood work on top of the physical exam charge on their animals. Typically people are more willing to spend more money on their dogs...well, and cats are just...cats to a lot of people. 

Although I will say that routine blood work is becoming more and more mainstream. I try and push the importance even to younger, healthy animals. 

As far as urine collection goes, you can use shredded paper from a paper shredder but you want to not let urine sit like that long because crystals will start to form and make it hard to read on UA. Since Windy is a girl, she has no sphincter on her bladder so it CAN be manually expressed but a lot of cats don't like that....I don't blame them as I'd get a little bent out of shape if someone compressed my bladder on purpose! Last option is a cystocentesis, like Jill mentioned. The only problem is that you can get a false positive for blood on UA because puncturing the bladder wall with a small needle sometimes produces a small amount of blood. Is this an issue? Yes if trying to diagnose a bladder infection/stones/tumor. But if she's having normal potty habits, doing this isn't as much of an issue as mostly you're interested in finding out specific gravity...basically concentration of the urine which is important! 

Keep us posted!!!


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

Thank you guys. I really appreciate your suggestions and advice.
If they do a cystocentesis, they will have to put her under, right? I can imagine that would be pretty painful otherwise.
The good thing is that she's going to be put under the next day anyway as I booked her in for a dental, so if I have a big fail in the normal collection method, I'll tell them to collect it then. 
Actually, I was going to suggest a sticky about raw fed cat bloodwork, (because I love the dog one) but then I remembered Windy is only partially raw fed, but it could be something to think about.


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## brandypup (Jan 23, 2012)

Yes I get blood work. I like monittoring their blood work it also gives us somethign to go on if she is ill and we can compare it. It also give the vets somethign to rely on while I feed raw. Since I do not do vaccines, indoor cats do not need them (actually neither do the outdoor ones) I try to give them their money in other benfitional (to me) ways. 

As for the urine. This is not something I do on a regular basis. Collection of urine needs to be sterile otherwise you can get stuff int ehre tthat will freak a vet out. Some vets go lala over ccrysstals (which can form during and after collection) among other stuff. So I only do that when needed. When I do it the vet collects it with the needle thing. the cats remain awake and never seem bothered.


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## minnieme (Jul 6, 2011)

MollyWoppy said:


> Thank you guys. I really appreciate your suggestions and advice.
> If they do a cystocentesis, they will have to put her under, right? I can imagine that would be pretty painful otherwise.
> The good thing is that she's going to be put under the next day anyway as I booked her in for a dental, so if I have a big fail in the normal collection method, I'll tell them to collect it then.


Actually, it's a teeny tiny needle and only produces a slight pinch -- so no, no anesthesia required. Unless Windy fights them like crazy, this is relatively easy to do......and not very painful. If the free catch method doesn't work and she does seem to hate your vet and technicians ( :wink: ) they may do light sedation for cysto collection.


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