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Baby With Uti? How Did I Not Spot This Sooner? :(

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MissAqua

MissAqua

Junior Guinea Pig
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I am so upset, I bought home a baby pig on Sunday from a rescue (Born 1/2/14) after meeting my boy who lost his cage mate. This morning I just noticed he was squeaking a bit when peeing. I went to put him on his own and something white to check and the newspaper he was on for Sunday was still in the travel holder, there it was, a red patch :( He must have been doing it since Sunday....

I am devastated that I have had him 4 days and I did not notice this, I am not used to such a talkative pig. He is fine other than this, eating running about etc. I have had pigs for 20 years and this is the first time I have had a pig do this... I feel like such a bad owner that I have missed it :( :(

Waiting for vet to open at 8.30...
 
It's okay, don't feel bad. You're definitely doing the right thing by waiting for the vet to open straight away. Hope all goes well for the little guy :)
 
I think it would be easy to miss things in a new or baby pig tbh as you don't know what is normal and what isn't the good thing is you've spotted something now :)
 
Thanks guys :/ Got an appointment 10.10 but not with the guinea pig lady, as she does not work today, but I know I cannot leave it till next week.
This will test to see how understanding my new manager is!
 
I don't know why you would feel bad! You spotted a potential problem by noticing the peeing squeak, you discovered that there is an issue and you are taking him to the vet. As far as I can see you did everything spot on. Don't be so hard on yourself! :nod:
 
The vet was very happy I had sucked up a descent sample this morning in a syringe I had ready for testing. Said there was quite a lot of blood. He is on 0.2 metacam daily and co-trim suspension (septrin) 0.1ml twice a day, not heard of this one, only ever used Baytril.
Has to go back in a week. Just for info cost so far £54.

He is now sulking a little bit under his teatowel with his cagemate.
 
Septrin is the recommended antibiotic for urinary tract infections; it is more effective, if slower to work than baytril. it is also a lot better tasting and not quite as harsh on the guts as baytril. The US equivalent of septrin is called bactrim. it would be good if you could get some probiotic into him; at the worst, you can get some from p@h.
http://www.guinealynx.info/uti.html
http://www.guinealynx.info/antibiotics.html

Please weigh your little guy daily to make sure that he is eating enough and no losing weight.

Little babies can come down with things very quickly; just the stress of the change in his life can have brought it on. the important thing is that you sought vet care as soon as you noticed.
 
MissAqua said:
I am so upset, I bought home a baby pig on Sunday from a rescue (Born 1/2/14) after meeting my boy who lost his cage mate. This morning I just noticed he was squeaking a bit when peeing. I went to put him on his own and something white to check and the newspaper he was on for Sunday was still in the travel holder, there it was, a red patch :( He must have been doing it since Sunday....

I am devastated that I have had him 4 days and I did not notice this, I am not used to such a talkative pig. He is fine other than this, eating running about etc. I have had pigs for 20 years and this is the first time I have had a pig do this... I feel like such a bad owner that I have missed it :( :(

Waiting for vet to open at 8.30...
Click to expand...

Its fine you should not feel guilty if sure the little dude will be fine hope he gets better soon :) x
 
Thank you for those links, I had found the UTI one this morning but not the antibiotics one, thats really useful. I am so glad of this forum as although I have not experienced these symptoms in a pig before, because I read this forum so much I could at least recognise them straight away.
 
Aww I hope he recovers soon. You are very caring and got him seen as soon as you suspected he was poorly. I know people who would leave it.
 
Please dont beat yourself up - it's good that you noticed, cared and are sorting the problem out. These things happen to us all. Hope the little soul picks up soon.
 
So, the poor little guy has got worse :( I moved the pigs on to wood shavings to be able to keep an eye out for blood, saw nothing until last night. Just got a sample from him for the vet this morning... its just red liquid... I can only but fear the worst :( :(
 
I would get him back to the vets. He may need a longer course of antibiotics but also an xray or scan to rule out anything else.
 
So he has had an x-ray this morning and has kidney and bladder stones :( The vet was very surprised to see them in a pig so young.
He said the only thing to do is manage the symptoms, I have more metacam and some new things on the market called CystoPro for dog urinary health but he said to try on on him.

I will have to research what diet to give him to try and reduce them forming. Poor little guy, he is so young :(
 
There will be a thread somewhere on here about stone pigs.Sure someone will direct you to it if you can't find it.Sorry for your bad news but at least he is in safe hands now
 
Oh that is surprising in a pig so young. Poor thing. Good he is on pain relief and the other thing sounds similar to Cystease. I can help you with diet if you let me know what fruit and veg you currently feed and what dry mix?
 
Thanks everyone, I am still really upset, he is so little :( When you hear the vet say there is nothing he can do was heartbreaking.
Vet said he had put on weight tho which was good and that to finish the corse of Antibiotics just in case but felt it was not needed.

Currently on Burgess Excel. Veg consists on Brocoli, cucumber, carrot, green beans, mini corn, apple, a small handful between the two of the twice a day. Pip also really liked the treat of spinach and parsley but after having a quick search on here I understand these are high in Calcium so should be avoided now?
 
First of all I recommend filtering his water if you can. Also give him plenty of fluids, by syringe if needed.

For the veg, I would cut out the spinach and parsley all together, and if you can cut out the carrot and apple too, then do so, if not feed very occasionally, same goes for the Broccoli.

I feed: Coriander, spring greens, green beans, cumber and celery and small amounts of pepper rotating the colours each week. Mine are on a special bladder diet mainly because 3 of mine have intersitial cystitis which is inflammation of the bladder.

Dry food is a minefield, the minimum you need to do is feed a food that has no calcium carbonate (thought to cause stones) in it but I would recommend either of the following:

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_pets/food/guinea_pig/vitakraft/262148

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_pets/food/guinea_pig/bunny/195679

The Vitakraft has higher calcium (though not from Calcium carbonate) so the Bunny would be better.

The commercial brands in the UK such as Burgess are very high in protein and have lots of bad ingredients such as mollases, soya and grains. Burgess for example has the following ingredients:

Grass, Maize, Wheat, Lucerne, Soya Bean Hulls, Peas, Soya, Oat Bran, Unmolassed Beet Pulp, Yeast, Soya Oil, Ligno-cellulose, Molasses, Calcium Carbonate, Monocalcium Phosphate, Vitamins, Fructo-oligosaccharides 0.25%, Salt, Minerals. Contains Natural Antioxidants. No artificial colours, flavours or preservatives.
 
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