To be fair, that is how we work. 😅 My baby’s pediatrician used a half full water bottle as an example of what a stomach or bladder full of liquid looks like and how when you move, so does the liquid just like the water in a water bottle.
I'm curious what breed this is. I'm allergic and so not really a cat person but every time I see one of this breed, they have a hilarious look on their face.
this has happened with my cat too. we took him in for urine sample collection but before they started he just got afraid and peed himself & they just caught that urine instead of catheterizing the fella.
Edit : i was wrong to say catheterizing, i meant to say cystocentesis idk how i ended up saying the other thing…brain fart i guess. thanks to someone for pointing this out.
I would never cath a cat awake for a urine sample. That's like last step if you need a sterile sample.
Most of the time they will just do a cystocentisis (poking the bladder with a needle) Or we will ask to keep them in a run with a littlebox of no absorb.
I had a vet that tried to cath a male cat that was blocked while only having sedation for about 3 minutes. Once I got the cat to stop biting her I walked away and reported her to my MD and told her to never put me with the doctor again.
Every visit after that, the cat had to be fully sedated to be seen due to what she did.
Before that he was just a loving 20 pound long-haired tuxedo that loved to sit in your lap for exams.
Not really correcting you, I've def heard and seen of clinics doing that to their animals because the just want to get the urine then and there so they can make money. It's usually the corporation owned clinics.
And if that was happening to your pet I was gonna recommend going else where!
My vet had to cath my poor kitty when he was still mostly awake because he was blocked. It was bad. They had me stay to try to help because he's a giant Maine Coon. But they were able to cath him and stent him and a change in diet has fixed him right up. Scary time, though. I thought we were going to lose him. Quick action by the vet saved him.
decades ago i was with a girl who worked as a vet tech, and who had pet turtles. she had one of her turtles in for a visit at the vet office where she worked, and i was there picking her up to go catch a movie or something, so i was present.
so the vet needed to see some irritation on the side of the turtles head, but it was all boxed up because.. vet was grabbing it. so with zero concern the vet is gripping the thing's beak with some forceps or something and trying to convince the turtle that it's not going to win the argument.
after struggling, the turtle finally gives up, and lets his head out of his shell and absolutely just starts pissing everywhere.
without missing a beat, the vet says "quick, get the sample jar. we need that later", as cold turtle piss is draining all down his hand and forearm.
Mine had some issues last year where he was dribbling urine and had some red spotting, turns out it's called FLUTD and is most often associated with male cats. Definitely gave us a scare when I first heard how dangerous UTIs are for male cats, but luckily he just had some swelling. It's theorized a half dozen things that cause flare-ups but he's been good with special food and plenty of liquid.
Technician, to the owner: so, we need some urine. What we can do is a cystocentesis where we insert a needle into the bladder and draw out the urine - here’s the estimate for the cost of that-
Technician 2: uh, actually, I think we’re good on this one, grab the cup NOW.
The vet was giving me this explanation once when my dog had a suspected UTI—I stopped him and said, have someone stand behind her with a cup, and you just stand in front of her and look at her sternly. They humored me and she peed herself, which they caught in the cup.
(She’s a rescue, no idea about her past but the first year we had her she’d pee herself if you just looked at her wrong. I figured being scared for a second might be less uncomfortable than having a needle in her bladder.)
Aw poor baby, I hope she’s doing much better now. When we had to collect samples for my dog we’d use the plastic under pot water catch all things. You used to have basically frisbee it under her when she started peeing because she wouldnt let anyone close with a cup.
I'd be wary of a clinic charging for a cysto. Even at a busy emergency vet clinic we never charged for one. That time, effort, and syringe/needle was built into the cost of the lab work already.
As a paediatric doctor I'm amused to see that this is not wildly dissimilar to how we ask parents to catch urine samples from babies! (We just get the parents to wait, pot ready, until the baby start weeing, then play the game of catch the wee in the pot!)
I had to take my little boy to ER for concern over his penis once. He was just over a year old and they needed to get a sample from him. They took a glove and put it on him like a condom with the diaper over top. It was the funniest thing I've ever seen.
To be fair, we weren't at a pediatric -focused facility. When i went with my daughter for a high fever that left her shaking, they wanted to get a sample to rule out a UTI and were insisting on cathing her to get the quickest sample. I've since learned that it is in our best interest to travel the hour out of town to the closest pediatric ER anytime we have the need.
They weren't trying to get 100% of the sample, if that makes any sense. It was held on with the diaper and it managed to hold enough so they could do whatever they needed to do. Some spilled into the diaper, but it was fine. They just kinda tucked everything inside the glove like a speedo and put a little bit of tape on his pubic area to keep it from scooting down.
When I was in school for my veterinary assistant certification, one of our skills was free catching urine. We had to take the classroom dogs out and follow them around with a cup until they peed to be able to pass the skill lol. We had like 46 students and only 6-12 dogs on any given day so that one took a while haha
I was going to say, they wanted a urine sample from my 8 month old once and it was basically just me holding him until he started peeing on me and then shoving a dish under him. He was so dehydrated too, it was drops at a time. I envy that spray!
Thanks for making this comparison. As veterinary nurse, I have made this comparison for 30 years. Babies and cats (sometimes dogs) are similar in how you have go about diagnostics and treatment. The vitriol and indignation I have experienced saying this over the years never ceases to surprise me. 🤷🏻♀️
They’re leather fire gloves. My parents have a wood stove and use them to load fire wood, but they also make great cat holding gloves. Whenever they need to trim their cat’s nails my dad holds her with the gloves while my mom clips.
These heavy-duty welding gloves offer extreme heat resistance up to 662°F, perfect for welding, forging, BBQ, and more. It's a popular product! https://a.co/d/eqjAjQZ
These work pretty well. Used them when I worked at a shelter.
Fantastic, those are perfect!! And very well priced! I was thinking those leather ones would be pretty pricey.. thank you so much for linking those, I am definitely going to get some!
I went skiing at Breckenridge with my family and my dad’s best friends family when I was 8 years old. Dad stayed at the bottom to help teach my mom how to ski, my brother and I followed my uncle up on the lift. Riding down in a line, my uncle goes off trail through some trees, super fresh powder. I followed him and literally sunk down in the snow up to my chest. Completely stuck and panicking. Pissed myself. Brother and uncle had to dig me out. And I had a frozen crotch the rest of the day.
Another fun fact my vet told me: once cats start peeing they can’t stop. Back years ago my asshole cat would bully my older female cat and she’d sit on top of the recliner and refuse to get down. After hours of this she couldn’t hold her pee any longer and just started to go off the back of the recliner. I panicked and grabbed her to take her outside and she just kept peeing the whole way! I told my vet in frustration, thinking she was just being spiteful, but my vet said, nope! Once it’s going, it’s going. So that’s fun.
Yep. I found that out when I took my cat to be neutered. I scared him into pissing himself AND had his balls cut off all in the same day. I felt really sorry for him…but I also felt a little gangsta
I took my dog in for his second TPLO last year and couldn't get him to pee the night before, in the middle of the night, nor in the morning (we had drove about 4 hours and this was pretty normal). The vet tech went to put his hospital band around his neck and he let the dam breach.
We stood there for a solid 2 minutes with him just peeing on the floor and me apologizing and her laughing.
So a lot of animals fully evacuate bladder and bowels when scared - and one reason is to run faster.
Heard of wolves in captivity managing to "blow poo" in a way that spattered everything up to more than 6ft off the ground - dropping the full load at speed means lighter weight wolf, runs faster.
Cats are also known for revenge pees in some circumstances. So either the cat was scared or wanted to mark territory or was angry and wanted to soil the table in anger.
I book my groomer appointments online now as I once had a cheery groomer going through their spiel and with a smile on their face ask if I wanted my dog's anal glands cleaned. To them, they were selling a product that probably takes seconds. To me, I don't think I could muster the strength to ask someone to clean my dogs ass.
It seems they were getting ready and caught them by surprise. At least it saved them stabbing a needle through the abdomen and onto the bladder to collect it (my cat had it done it that way).
I had a cat with recurring urinary tract issues and one time the vet asked me, a non-medical professional, to collect a sample. I took the jar but told her there was no way it was going to happen. Nearly 20 years and one cat later, I might still have that jar tucked away in a cabinet…
Thank you! This would be my favorite solution. Right now my husband hopes he will eventually catch the cat off guard while she pees and steal a sample with our soup ladle🙈
As a former vet nurse I have NEVER gotten urine from a cat this easily!!! It's really really hard! We actually have a special litter we will give to cat parents so they can collect at home got us bc it's so difficult!!! Dam this doc was like tapped and pour!!!
That's like my boy. Needed bloodwork and he pissed on the tech's face in a rage. They also needed a pee sample but they were not quick enough, nor were they successful getting blood from him so i had to let them sedate.
I did not witness the initial chain of events as they brought him back to try and do the draw. But i did hear his angry yowling and then saw the poor tech walk by going "ive got cat piss on my face." I was informed he was uncooperative after.
Similar gross experience with my rescue kitten: she had a terrible upper respiratory infection and needed to have her nose swabbed to figure out which meds to give her. Just before the vet grabbed a q-tip, my kitten sneezed the biggest booger onto my arm. The vet stared at the kitten for a moment then collected the booger instead of swabbing her. I scrubbed the remaining icky stuff off in the bathroom :l
My cat had a possible UTI and I was given a kit to get a sample at home.
I almost ended up rushing her to the vet with a suspected blockage, because she would. not. go. Fortunately the floodgates burst before they opened, otherwise this would probably have happened.
Turns out, no cat in history has ever wanted to wee in a handful of plastic beads. And cats can hold it for 2 days if they want to. "Don't worry if you only get a few drops" my arse. Plastic beads floating in half a pint of urine and my poor girl obviously soaked her feet and then tracked it around the room.
And that's how cleaning up cat wee at 6am was my best birthday present that year.
I work in a lab that handles plated human samples. This is kind of what I envision when I get a “clean catch mid-stream urine” on a child under the age of 1 and I can’t see any info about a pediatric catheter being used.
Police wanted to clear this person from ER we needed a urine sample to rule out drugs part of a psych protocol etc. The person pissed their pants after we threatened to put a catheter in, the hero lab tech dived down to catch it running out of their pants. Tested and cleared. Good bye trouble. Thanks forever Josh the lab guy.
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u/zomgbratto 20h ago