Small spots of blood in elderly mares urine?

[ridersince2002]

Hello, Just wondered if anybody could help me work out what this is as im curious...
I help on a yard where we have an elderly mare (about 34). She lost some condition over winter and is now starting to get that back, but we let her loose in the yard. There is a stallion but she cant usually get to him due to us having lots of gates kept shut. However today somebody left one of the gates open and she was flirting over his stable door (he is well behaved for a stallion, but couldnt resist a bit of banging and shouting) and so i came round to retrive her. She had done a wee on the concrete by this point and i notices a small red spec in it. I looked a bit closer at this and saw a few little red spots, that looked like little clots in it. Not many, and i wouldnt normally notice if i wasnt paying attention, but i told yard owner and shes going to ask the vet on tuesday when hes coming for another horse.


I only go on saturdays and id like to have an idea of what it could be, as otherwise i'll be worrying all week until next saturday! So anyone got any ideas? Thank you for reading this

 

[Max123]

Her urine PH could be high causing bladder stones/crystals. Try to catch a sample of her urine if you can to save the vet having to put a catheter in to get a sample which is very invasive especially for an old mare. Keep the sample in the fridge and get it to the vet lab asap as it will give a more accurate reading and in the meantime you can test it with a human home test. Also don't feed her beet pulp or alfalfa until you get vet advice as this can cause crystals and Vitamin C is supposed to reduce the alkaline of the urine (I'm still not convinced it does but this is recommendation). Get the vet out as soon as possible in case its something more sinister as she is very elderly.