Brown Urine?

[Laurelin]

It just really became apparent to me that one of my dogs is peeing brown urine. I had been finding a few brown spots occasionally on the pee pad. Today I came home and there were 2 normal pee spots and one brown one.

I don't know which dog it is though I think it might be Summer because Mia peed on me two days ago (she has incontinence occasionally) and it was light yellow. Then again, Mia is the one with occasional incontinence and also has been dragging her butt along the ground a lot recently.

I'm really worried now. Summer (well both of them actually) had a full blood workup this year and it was fine. I really hope it's nothing but I guess I will be bringing them both into the vet on friday. Good vibes?

 

[elegy]

would they allow you to catch urine samples from them? i know they're small and squat low, but it would allow you to know whose pee it is.

 

[Laurelin]

Probably not. I think I'm going to set them up separately tomorrow and not let them out at lunch. Hopefully one of them will pee on a potty pad while I'm gone.

It sounds like there's a lot of different things it could potentially be.

 

[*blackrose]

First thing I'd do is have whichever one's urine it is checked for a UTI, then go from there. Hopefully you're able to get it figured out!

 

[Laurelin]

So I set Summer up in an x pen and Mia up in the kitchen both with pee pads so hopefully they will stay put and pee on their own individual pads so I can see who is having the issue. As I was leaving Mia was pitching a fit that her sister was put in a playpen and was trying to free her so.... we will see if this works.

 

[animalcraker]

Hopefully you'll be able to figure out who it is. Did your blood work up you did this year on them included a urinalysis? If not I would consider doing that in the future with their annual exams, especially since they have some incontinence issues. Most of the labs that do the testing offer a discounted blood panel that includes the urine check, usually it's called a senior wellness panel or something similar. For dogs who have had previous full work ups that were normal the senior panel is a better way to go. It usually has less blood values that they check, but it covers the basics and you get more added value with the urine check being included.

 

[Laurelin]

I'm not really sure what they ran on them both. They had a deal for their annuals + blood workups. Summer got the senior panel since they run those on dogs over 7 years.

Vet appointment at 5 with both of them unless I get home and I can tell who is having the issues.

*Fingers crossed* Shouldn't have looked at petMD.

 

[elegy]

Eh, the obvious answer is a garden variety UTI. The brown is from blood. Hopefully that's all it is and it's easily treatable.

I would not go looking for zebras yet

 

[Beanie]

I agree with elegy, I think UTI is the most likely answer here. Especially since one of them seemed to be peeing more frequently only a few weeks ago. No panic required yet!

 

[Saeleofu]

UTI is my first thought too. Can't rule out stones, but UTI is (usually, unless you're Gavroche) easier to treat, so I'll go with that

 

[TinyDragon]

I would think UTI. Another possible reason is a tick bite... Although I have no idea how common are ticks in your area at the moment and if you get Babesiosis out there?

 

[Laurelin]

Welp, my dogs are liars. Everything we tested for came back absolutely normal. Urine looked yellow and clear. Vet said they both look great (though Mia's weight is bothering me a touch, but that's another thread).

So.... watching them for normal colored urine for a while.

Oh and of course NEITHER peed while I was at work today after setting up the playpens and pee pads.

 

[CharlieDog]

I thought dark brown urine was a sign of dehydration? Or is that only in people?

 

[DogKisses]

^^^That.

 

[sassafras]

I thought dark brown urine was a sign of dehydration? Or is that only in people?

It can be, but by the time the urine got brown, the dog would probably be otherwise acting pretty sick and should be visibly dehydrated.

Usually it means there is blood in the urine, which can be from various causes... infection, stone, polyp/tumor, and others.

 

[Laurelin]

Yeah I asked about that. He thinks one of them may have puked up some bile or something on the potty pad vs it being urine. We're watching them closely for now but they're both acting normal.

 

[CharlieDog]

It can be, but by the time the urine got brown, the dog would probably be otherwise acting pretty sick and should be visibly dehydrated.

Usually it means there is blood in the urine, which can be from various causes... infection, stone, polyp/tumor, and others.

Learn something new every day!

Regardless, if my dog had brown urine, I'd definitely make a vet appointment if it stayed brown. Indy had a little bit of blood (bright red) in her urine after her spay, but it went away quickly, and wasn't enough to cause a HUGE major concern, though I did call the clinic. I unfortunately went with a low cost clinic that I'd used many many times in the past, but after Indy's spay there, I won't ever recommend them again, nor will I ever take a dog there. They're SUPERB with feral cats (we've done a lot of TNR around here) but for some reason the work they do on dogs has gone way down hill. Their advice was crap and they wanted me to bring her back in, but after the way they'd butchered her sutures I took her to my regular vet.

When he saw how they'd sewn her up he just shook his head. I'll be paying my regular vet to do spays from now on.

And I plan to leave my next dog intact anyway (and a male, hopefully).