Research Communications of the 24th ECVIM-CA Congress

Urine culture resulted positive in 104 dogs (41%) and 18 cats (33%). The presence of UTI was significantly related to urine physical properties (color and turbidity), USG and leukocyturia: infections tended to be more frequent in urine samples characterized by a light yellow color, cloudy or sub-limpid aspect and low USG. Nevertheless, urine was limpid in 30% of infected samples, and a normal USG was found in 28.6% of dog's UTI but only in 4.8% of cats. Although leukocyturia tends to become higher in infected samples both in dogs and cats (p < 0.0001), in 23.1% of infected sediments WBC count was normal. Haematuria detected by dipstick was significantly related to UTI in dogs but not in cats, nevertheless the RBC count in sediment was not related to infection in both species: RBC count was normal in 30.4% of infected feline samples and in 36.4% of canine samples. No significant relation between presence or absence of UTI and albuminuria, bilirubinuria, glycosuria was detected, while UPC tends to become significantly higher in dogs. Although the chi-square test showed a significant relation between infection and the detection of bacteria in urinary sediment, a pseudobacteriuria was found in 20.5% of samples; furthermore bacteria weren't observed in 25.1% of infected samples (USG<1.013).