2006 Volume 15 Issue 3 Pages 79-83
Because of its diversity of pathogenesis, feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD) is one of the most recurrent and difficult to treat diseases. In FLUTD, however, bacterial infection is not easily detected, since urinary samples are often contaminated, and the isolation of bacteria is difficult. In the present report, we adopted an enhanced culture method using blood culture bottles to isolate bacteria from the cat urine, and compared the detection rates and species of bacteria with an common isolation method. Although microorganisms were isolated in 75% of FLUTD cats by the enhanced culture method, only 26.3% were isolated by the common method. From 20 cats suffering from FLUTD, the same urine samples were tested for bacteria, and 80% turned out to be positive by the enhanced method, whereas only 20% showed positive by the common method. From these results, we recommend this enhanced culture method instead of the common method because the latter may possibly lead to an underestimation of the infection, resulting in underdiagnosis and undertreatment of FLUTDs.
