Urinary issue ... we're stumped ...

[TrueColours]

OKay - here goes - I hope that I remember everything ...

Was in my mare's stall today picking it out when she peed. This was the weirdest pee I have EVER seen - it was a yellowy-orange colour (like the colour of the inside of a Cadbury's Creme Egg), thick like a milkshake and totally thick and opaque - more like pus than urine ...

At first I immediately thought of a vaginal infection, but nope - it was pee and not vaginal discharge at all ...

And it started dribbling down the inside of her bum cheeks and left yellowish streaks down her bay coat and then dried and crystallized like if you had salty water that dried on your skin and left a residue

Phoned the vet and he suggested starting her on liquid Sulfatrim (TMS) which I had so gave her 30 cc's of that and then went back into the stall with a sterile container, whistling like mad to try and get her to pee again ...

Her manure is fine - normal to bordering on soft - so she doesnt appear to be deydrated at all. Skin *pinch* test come back normal - so again - indication that she is properly hydrated.

There is no odour to it at all. You know how if a horse IS dehydrated and their urine is a deep yellowish brown colour, it is has a very strong ammonia smell - that is not the case here at all

So - I DO end up getting a sample after I whistle for awhile and this time it is still thick, still very opaque, but more of a deep deep yellow colour instead of that orangey yellow tinge ...

Drive it like mad over to the vet so they can spin and test it and in the 10 minutes it takes me to get there, chalky sediment has settled on the bottom half of the container - almost like if you had dissolved chalk in a yellowish liquid and then let it settle for awhile???

The vet spun and tested the liquid. Negative for everything - blood in the urine, white blood cell count, anything/everything they could test for, so they then tested the sediment and found the same thing - negative right across the spectrum of all tests.

So - she is not harboring a urinary tract infection that we can tell, she is bright, eating normally and acting totally normal. She has never been a huge water drinker, but she goes through 2-3 buckets in her stall and however much she drinks outside with the other mare and her foal from the water trough during the day ...

Nothing has changed - not her feed components, the water, the hay, nothing.

The vet recommended adding a tablespoon of salt to her meals twice per day which we are going to try but she is such a picky eater anyhow, the salt might be enough to back her off eating totally ... to try and increase her water consumption but I keep thinking if she wasnt getting enough water, we'd see it in the way of hard-as-golf-balls manure and in her skin test as well, which we are not

Plus I bought some tube electrolytes and gave her a 25ML dose of that tonight as well ...

Has anyone got the FOGGIEST of ideas what this might be and/or have you come across anything like this before?

IN all my years around horses and as many as I have owned I have NEVER seen anythng like this, nor has the Barn Owner and the vets seemed pretty stumped as well ...

Any thoughts on what else to test?

I am concerned that her kidneys may be overloaded / taxed trying to filter out this chalky stuff going through them

Now - she may as well be right and rain tomorrow, never to have this problem re-occur again. Who knows - but hopefully someone can shed some light on this one ...

Thanks a bunch, as always ...

[cewright]

Is it possible the mare is in the early stages of tying up! I believe the correct term is azoturia. Signs including muscle soreness or stiffness, sometimes the horse may sweat profusely. Urine can become discolored. When I see this starting in my horses I added a Vitamin E/selenium supplement to the feed. So far it has always worked If it is azoturia (or a related condition called rhabdomyolysis the color in the urine comes from breakdown products from damaged muscle tissue. So these conditions are to be taken seriously! Talk to your vet.

Good luck!

Chuck

[Bunty Lawless]

Is it possible the mare has been getting high doses of Beta Carotene?

Crystals in urine usually means infection or too much phosphorous in the diet. Sometimes the result of kidney disease.

Ask your Vet about parsley being used as a natural kidney cleanser. Glad you are adding salt to be sure she drinks plenty of water.

I would say kidneys are signaling something, unless she somehow got a hold of an iodine pill that changes the color of the urine to orange.

Good luck.

[TrueColours]

She DOES get about 5-8 lbs of carrots per day but that has been a constant with her for the last 7 or 8 years that I have owned her. That hasnt changed at all, and I didnt give her 10 or 15 lbs in the last few days that would cause an orange spike in the colour

Did get a message from the barn owner this morning. She has consumed twice her normal amount of water overnight so THAT is a good sign and of course now anytime she squats and lifts her tail to pee we are all going to come running to see what colour it is now!

Maybe it was just a one day blip for some reason but we are going to be watching her very very closely to see if we need to run further tests and what they would be ...

Now - this was posted on another forum and sounds EXACTLY what my mare is going through as well:

Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2007 - 08:32 pm:

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Hi-
My mare was bred June 3 by frozen AI. She checked in foal at day 16. Today is day 21. At day 7, I noticed that bright yellow chalkiness around her vulva from her urine, so, I assumed she was not in foal and was very happily surprised when she checked in. She normally gets that little bit of residue at some point in her cycle, sometimes by itself, other times accompanied by mucous just prior to ovulation(based on the calendar I've kept during this effort to breed). I understand it may be an indicator of raised estrogen levels. Today, day 21, there was quite a bit of the bright yellow, chalky residue on her vulva. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing, or could it be either? So far she is still telling the gelding next door to drop dead, and there is no other discharge, such as the sticky stuff I often see at some point during estrus. The first cyle that was 8 days before ovulation, and the second cycle, it was only two days before ovulation. She is extremely cuddly with me, something she only does right after leaving estrus. I am anxious!


Heather Cooke
Nursing Foal
Username: Hcvideo

Post Number: 20
Registered: 05-2007
Posted on Sunday, June 24, 2007 - 10:01 pm:

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Stacy
I had a mare I bred by AI that I think had the same thing. I took her to the vet school at the University of Fl (it's 20 minutes away) to be ultra sounded and the repo specialist said she was urinating out excessive calcium and not to worry. I hope that is what your mare is doing.
Good Luck

So - it almost sounds like its a "dont worry" kind of situation???