1186. A 9-year-old male Shih Tzu peed dark brown urine

Nov 18, 2013

Today, the family rushed the 9-year-old shih tzu to me for treatment as he had passed blood in the urine and had vomited once. On the floor of the waiting room, he peed chocolate brown urine. So his bladder was now empty. This was a dog I treated as a puppy.

I palpated the abdomen. The dog gave a loud cry when I felt the anterior abdomen, towards the kidneys on the upper part.
"He may be suffering from a kidney infection as the pain is so obvious. Usually the bladder is also infected," I said. "For a definite diagnosis, I need to take blood and urine for testing as well as X-rays." There was no objection.

I asked Dr Daniel to take the blood and give the IV drip and antibiotics and anti-spasmogesic painkiller.  

"No urine, no urine," my assistant said to me in the evening. I thought it was strange as the dog had been given an I/V drip. Soon he peed lots of reddish brown urine (bottle) and this would be collected for urine analysis. The dog went home in the evening.

Tests showed high total white cell count and neutrophils indicating a bacterial infection. Surprisingly, the urea and creatinine was below normal. This would explain the kidney pain.  Urine showed bacterial infection and blood. X-rayed showed no radio-dense stones in the kidneys and bladder.

So was this case an upper and lower UTI? The dog is on antibiotics and observation.