[Stones] HEALTH:dark colored urine

[Candy G.]

Merle,

A hardy (and hearty!) congratulations on Lucky's great
"stone-less" news!!  I am so thrilled for both of you.
Please give him a thousand happy kisses for me on his
dear little head.

Thank you so much for sending in this information.
Mollie has had this color/type urine several times and our
vet said much the same thing as yours did.  It is so nice
to have it written down in an informative and concise
fashion.  Thank you!

It is also good to receive "independent verification" of
what is going on from a source other than my own vet.
She is incredible and I trust her implicitly, but it is always
good to see that other sources are in agreement with
her.  As all of us 'repeat stone slaves' know, it is VERY
easy to get paranoid and concerned ANYTIME a piggie's
urine looks like it has even a hint of red in it and the
more information I can get on that, the better I feel.
(or, at least, it is my tendency to get all worried and
paranoid.....<sigh>)

Take care,

Candy; Topper and Mollie; and X
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I'm sharing with the lists some information provided by my vet.  I know
this question has come up a number of times -- both from stone-piggy and
non-stone-piggy ownsers. Hope this is helpful to anyone concerned about
this issue. His reply about dark-colored urine is below:

GP's normally have a lot of crystals in there urine as a reflexion of
calcium content and this can make it look colored when combined with
natural pigments in their food, usually the color is yellow to a tan or
orange color, the tan/orange color is sometimes mistaken for blood,
especially when it is seen already dry on bleached paper or paper towel
material as the rxn with these materials can make it look a bit more
red.  The colors are not always just a factor of the foods they are
eating although some foods like carrots can make a orange urine color.
If I remember correctly bacterial processing of the food in the GI tract
can produce various pigments that can then be absorbed and secreted,
this can explain changes in pigmentation when the food does not change.
Sometimes owners report changes in urine color after antibiotic
treatment is started or finished.  Hope this helps.
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