I'm bringing my new girl in for a wellness exam today, and i think theres a possibility that she might have recently contracted a UTI, so i need to get a urine sample for the vet. I'm not sure of the best way to do this. most things she normally urinates on are a cloth...not something i can get a sample from. her kitchen always has urine on it in the morning but it's dry. can i moisten a q tip and collect some of the dried urine off that? i just don't want to leave her at the vet, which i'll have to if she doesn't go when were there.

when you take her to the vet the vet knows and is the frist thing they will collect then the poo.

but if they don't go at the vet right away, i have to leave her there, which i really would rather not do. i was looking for a way to come prepared in case she doesn't go at the vet.

When is your appointment? If it's during the day after she's been asleep for a while, take her out of the pouch and put her in a clean (you might want to wipe it out with an alcohol swab, but be sure the alcohol is dry before you do this) tupperware container. This will make her a little nervous and she will probably go right away. If you have a clean syringe, you can suck up the urine in the syringe and take it to the vet that way.

If you also get a fecal sample, go ahead and take that in a ziplock too. However, I know that when they check fecals for parasites, it's best if the sample is fresh from the animal, like still warm from its body. As it cools, the parasites slow down and are harder to see.

The sample needs to be as fresh as possible, so do this right before you go to the vet. You'll probably have the same chance of this working while at the vet as you do at home, but if it will make you feel better to have the sample in hand when you go, then do it this way.


Maybe try to encourage her to drink some apple juice or Glideraide right before she goes in the pouch when you're planning to get a sample when she comes out. Mine will drink Glideraide from a small syringe very easily. She just licks it off as I push the syringe down. She will usually drink several cc's for me like that and then she has to go a short while later. If you feed her some mealies at the same time, that will encourage a fecal sample.

thanks!

I always try to get a urine/fecal sample before going to the vet using a similar method as Sundra. When the vet examines the glider often they will urinate/defecate then as well and my vet will use those fresher samples, but you will still have the back up samples you collected at home just in case your glider decides to be stubborn

well i got lucky, she both urinated and defecated at the vet, the urinalysis came back with no abnormal parasites but it was acidic, the vet said the acidity was 9 which was pretty high, but she didn't hiss at all while urinating, which she did last night. she hissed last night while urinating though, and i didn't know if it was just just coincidence or UTI, so i wanted to get her checked out. unfortunatly, my vet isn't as experienced in sugar gliders as i'd hoped...but theres no others closer to me. she does know about gliders, but lacks a large amount of experience. for instance, she didn't have a "normal" urinalysis to compare Kanga's to, but did find out before i left what she should be looking for. It was really expensive, especially being on a college (= no money) budget, but i love Kanga already, and i'll do anything to make sure she's healthy, even if it means throwing a bit on the credit card to do some tests.