My dog's urine has red, liver-like pieces. Is a vet visit needed?

I am sorry to hear that your dog is experiencing this. Urinary tract infections would be the most common cause of dark red urine, but urinary bladder stones are also common and are more likely to lead to clots as well. Even less common but still a possibility would be urinary tract cancer. I would highly encourage you to have her evaluated by your veterinarian as soon as possible. A urinalysis and x-ray will likely be recommended. If needed an ultrasound is sometimes recommended as well. Best of luck and I hope she improves soon. Thank you for using Pet Coach.

A single value alone without any other information/references doesn't really mean much. That said, if the home test showed any abnormalities, I would definitely bring it up with your vet. They may want to retest urine in-house with a UA, or suggest additional testing such as bloodwork that may pick up any other minute changes ongoing. If the value is abnormal enough, or other values also show as abnormal, your vet can then prescribe any treatment as needed for overall body health and support.

I would be suspicious of a few things to cause these elevations, including: liver disease, or cholestatic disease (involving the gallbladder). Neoplasia also can't be ruled out here. I would highly recommend the next step here to be an abdominal ultrasound and a bile acid test to check the liver function. The ultrasound is valuable here b/c we can get a good look at the gallbladder and check for a mucocoele. I do hope that Bear's condition is able to be managed well moving forward. Best wishes and take care.

It certainly isn't normal for a dog's urine to have a black color to it, and yes it can indicate that Black has a UTI or bladder stones. I see that he isn't neutered. In dogs who aren't neutered, prostate problems could also be a cause of the color of his urine. These problems include benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostatitis, and prostate cancer. To answer your question, yes I would definitely take him into a vet today. Good luck, I hope this helps!

Dogs could have blood in their urine from a urinary tract infection, stones in the urinary tract or even an issue with their prostate gland. I recommend Rigby be seen by his veterinarian sooner than August to make sure nothing is going on. This is because some of those potential causes of blood in the urine can be very serious and require surgery. The lesions are saying on his belly could be due to a skin infection and unrelated to the blood in the urine.

Bilirubin can be present due to a liver problem or rapid destruction of red blood cells. Blood work and an abdominal ultrasound are the two most commonly used diagnostics. Treatment depends on the cause. Liver disease is managed with medication and diet. Red blood cell destruction is managed with medications (depending on the cause). I hope this helps and please feel free to post any additional questions.

Reddish urination during this period of time can definitely occur. However, this is not to say that it isn't coincidental and a separate urinary issue is not occurring. As long as July isn't experiencing any other clinical signs such as frequent small amounts of urination, straining to urinate, pain when urination, or urinating extremely large amounts, I wouldn't necessarily assume anything is wrong currently. If you have a working relationship with your veterinarian, he might be open to you collecting a urine sample in a container and dropping it off at their office for analysis. They will be able to tell you if there are large numbers of white blood cells and/or bacteria present, and potentially prescribe an antibiotic should they see fit. Hope this makes sense.