High Protein And Ph Urinalysis?

[Dilly's Piggies]

As advised by you guys on here I bought some urine dipstick tests to monitor my piggies urine, they arrived yesterday and we were curious about them so tested some urine from one of our boars (Chester), well it turns out his urine showed off the chart protein and pH levels, they were the maximum the test would go, can anyone help me understand what this means? I'm completely new to this dipstick thing so I'm not sure what I'm looking for, if you can help. He was normal for everything else, no blood, does this require further attention?

 

[DM030819]

@CavyConnoisseur High ph, like 8.5 is normal for a pig so that's not really something to worry about.

High protein is more of a concern though. I had a pig whose urine was tested by the vet every 3 months. She always said that the dipsticks aren't 100% accurate and so just give more of an idea not concrete results.

We experienced high protein a few times. At first we let it go in case the sticks were giving a false reading. But after a few times we investigated further, as it can be a sign of compromised kidney function.

Which needs a blood test to confirm.

My boys results came back all okay. So although he was losing protein in his urine (the dipsticks were always varying in readings) he wasn't in his blood.

Another thing to note is that my boy was a very poor drinker. I got more fluids into him by offering flavoured water. This changed the readings. The protein wasn't as high.

Then later in his life he started to drink more water on his own and the protein levels went almost back to normal.

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

@CavyConnoisseur High ph, like 8.5 is normal for a pig so that's not really something to worry about.

High protein is more of a concern though. I had a pig whose urine was tested by the vet every 3 months. She always said that the dipsticks aren't 100% accurate and so just give more of an idea not concrete results.

We experienced high protein a few times. At first we let it go in case the sticks were giving a false reading. But after a few times we investigated further, as it can be a sign of compromised kidney function.

Which needs a blood test to confirm.

My boys results came back all okay. So although he was losing protein in his urine (the dipsticks were always varying in readings) he wasn't in his blood.

Another thing to note is that my boy was a very poor drinker. I got more fluids into him by offering flavoured water. This changed the readings. The protein wasn't as high.

Then later in his life he started to drink more water on his own and the protein levels went almost back to normal.

Oh right okay, I wondered about the pH as every time I've had one dipsticked at the vets they kept saying 'pH is high' but knowing that's normal that's good! I just tested Tizzie, she has higher protein ++100(1.0), high pH 8.5 and blood ++80, now this is interesting because I've taken her to the vets multiple times about her urine, they never picked anything up on dip sticks or cultures, so why am I seeing blood in the cage all the time and now seeing these results on my own test... I haven't seen blood for about a month so I thought she was healed, obviously not

 

[DM030819]

I can't find anything on Google to say what's normal in urine unfortunately.

I'd keep retesting over the next few weeks and if you're still concerned them take her to the vet who will decide whether a blood test would be helpful or whether the result is okay.

The blood showing would be worth a trip to the vet. We used to get blood traces in my boys urine but that was because the vet had to force him to pee and apparently that can cause minute blood traces to register on the dipsticks.