>nobby is a year and a half old gib.  recently blood started to appear
>in his urine. he shows no sign of difficulty urinating.
>
>symptoms clear up for several days but return.  at it's worst, when his
>urine is very dark, he is listless and eats little.
>
>specimins were taken free and by catheter.  culture was negative, with
>no white cells or "grains", but blood was confirmed.  ultrasound and
>x-rays show nothing unusual.  blood sample had normal platelet and
>white cell counts but glucose was slightly low.  (it's possible that
>this was because the sample was taken after a few days of little food
>intake.)
 
If this was the sum total of the testing, I think that we need to do just
a few more things.  The first thing that I would do is to rerun the tests
on a sample of urine taken directly from the bladder - this will eliminate
the possibility of the blood coming from the lower urinary tract -
urethra, penis, prepuce, etc and isolate it to bladder and/or kidney.
Even catheterized samples can contain blood from the lower urinary tract.
You also don't mention a culture and sensitivity of the urine, or if
contrast studies were done on the x- rays of the bladder and kidney - this
may increase the specificity of the tests and identify problems that
cannot be identified.
 
Even though WBC's were not seen on the urine, the fact that he is listless
during times when he is bleeding suggests that a bacterial infection may
still be at the root -and remember, most stones start with an initial
bacterial infection
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3632]