Spotting urinary tract trauma: This lecture gives an overview of urinary tract trauma, which is a serious presenting complaint in small animal practice but may be initially hard for a clinician to recognise. The presentation discusses presenting signs and the challenges of how to diagnose.

Treatment options for urinary tract trauma: Injury to the urinary tract of the dog and cat is an uncommon, but serious potential sequel to blunt, penetrating or iatrogenic trauma to the caudal abdominal or pelvic regions. Bladder injury occurs most commonly, followed by urethral injury, with only rare occurrences of renal or ureteral injury reported. Preservation of function of the urinary tract is the optimal goal of treatment, but some procedures that achieve this may be technically challenging, require specialist equipment and/or may be associated with a higher risk of complications compared to salvage procedures; thus decision-making must be performed on an individual patient basis and requires consideration of multiple factors. In some cases urinary diversion alone will allow healing of the urinary tract without specific repair. This session discusses the possible treatment options for each area of urinary tract injury, with a focus on the bladder and urethra as the most commonly traumatised organs, with the aim of enabling you to feel better equipped to provide management or advice for affected patients.