2d (edited) ā¢ Vet Casesāļø
š Case Study: Why Is Rioās Urine the Color of Dark Cola?
Meet Rio, a 4-year-old Brahman cross cow on a ranch in northern Mexico. Her owner notices she has stopped eating, is standing apart from the herd, and when she urinates the stream is dark reddish brown, the color of cola or strong tea.
You arrive and examine her. Temperature 105Ā°F Heart rate 130 bpm. Mucous membranes pale and beginning to yellow. The urine in the dirt is unmistakably dark red.
That color tells you everything.
This is babesiosis, specifically intravascular hemolysis. Babesia parasites have invaded Rioās red blood cells, replicated inside them, and burst them open from within, releasing free hemoglobin directly into her bloodstream. That free hemoglobin is now being filtered through her kidneys and spilling into her urine, turning it the color that gave this disease its historic name: redwater fever.
You draw blood and make a smear. Under oil immersion you find large pear-shaped organisms sitting in pairs inside the red blood cells at an obtuse angle to each other. Classic Babesia bigemina.
Treatment is diminazene aceturate plus aggressive IV fluids to protect her kidneys before the free hemoglobin causes tubular damage.
š” The takeaway: Red or brown urine in a febrile cow with anemia is babesiosis until proven otherwise.
For a full course on this condition, see the classroom or follow the link below:
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š Case Study: Why Is Rioās Urine the Color of Dark Cola?
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