Mystery Blood

[GinaG]

My 2 year old sow has been treated for kidney stones and has calcium deposits in her pee, something I'm constantly trying to rectify. Often a signal that something is wrong is blooded wee on the puppy pads under their fleece. However, recently during lap time I noticed both sows have sort of clouded urine, which fits in with the calcium deposits, but no blood, so I wonder where the blood is coming from that I'm seeing in their cage. So today when I did a poo sweep, 2 little piles of poo were surrounded by what I presumed was blooded urine, i.e. the liquid stain was stained, but surely if there was blood in their urine then I would have seen it during lap time, but both definitely had clouded and not blooded pee?!

 

[Deleted member 114675]

old wee on puppy pads can look discoloured as it oxidises . Perhaps this is what you are seeing?

 

[GinaG]

Oh ok that's a possibility I never thought of that!

 

[Wiebke]

Urine leaves the body clear, but it oxidises and turns reddish/rusty as it ages.
Blood and urine have a slightly different specific weight and usually separate out when they dry. Small amounts appear as red dots in a brownish/rusty pee puddle on a puppy pad while larger amounts dry in a distinctely red ring on the outside of a pee stain - if there is no blood, the edge is usually a darker shade of the same colour that the pee dries to.

It can be very confusing, but red looking pees often test blood-free while clear pees in guinea pigs with urinary tract issues can score high on blood in a dip test. So if you really worry, it is much better to check fresh urine by that method. I would however not recommend this if you have anxiety or obsessing issues, as it can open real can of worms if you are on the worrying side of things and send you into panic/spending lots of money on vet trips unnecessarily.