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Bladder problem?

Smileylou11

Smileylou11

New Born Pup
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Hello, I'm hoping for some advice about my female piggy Toffee.

Last Thursday evening we heard her squeak when weeing, and she produced a couple of pink/red wees. We took her to the vet the next day and he prescribed meloxaid and catease capsules for a week, and to monitor her and see how she does.

She seems well in herself - she's eating and drinking normally and is as active as ever. We haven't heard any more pain squeaks but we are still seeing some pink-tinged wees and spots of red.

I took a urine sample into the vet this morning and we've just had a message to say they've got the results - there is a lot of blood and some protein in the urine. Unfortunately the rest of the message is really muffled and when I rang back the vet had left for the day so we'll have to wait until tomorrow to speak to him.

I'm looking for some advice really, what could protein in the urine mean? Is it more likely to be a UTI/bacterial cystitis/sterile cystitis or a bladder stone?

We lost a beloved pig in November to kidney/bladder problems so it's all very worrying :(
 
Thanks for your reply Claire - hopefully it's an infection we are dealing with then, which still isn't nice but would be preferable to stones.
 
Sorry to hear your lovely guinea pig is having some bladder trouble. My guinea pig, Diego, suffers with interstitial cystitis and his urine samples come back clear and never show up blood or protein (not to say this isn’t the case for other guinea pigs). We ruled out bladder stones with an X-ray so knew we were dealing with IC. Hope you manage to speak to the vet and your piggy feels better soon ☺️
 
I thought I would post an update having now spoken to the vet.

He says that it's unlikely to be a bacterial infection judging by the urine sample. He suggested that we do an x-ray, unfortunately the earliest appointment isn't until the 13th May. I've booked that, but the vet is going to see if we can get a referral to the exotic specialist any earlier. In the meantime we are to continue giving Toffee meloxaid and catease.

She still seems to be doing ok, although we have seen more blood in her wee the last couple of days.
 
Sorry that you may have to wait a while for your X-ray ... hopefully you can get in sooner with the specialist and put your mind at ease. I’m sure you’re probably doing this but keep a close eye on your piggies weight until she’s seen for her X-ray. I can tell when my boy is having an IC flare up as he normally has a drop in weight and may need a top of syringe feed!
 
Thank you DougalandDiego - yes we're keeping a close eye on that. She's maintaining her weight at the moment thankfully. I'm ready to step in with critical care if needed though.

She did lose weight when her companion died at the end of November. We had her checked over by the vet at that stage and they said she was in good health, so the weight loss was probably due to the stress (although I know the death of a companion can cause other health issues to surface). We found a new friend for her in January and she did regain some of the weight, but not all of it. It's been steady since then though.

It's very tricky to know how to fatten her up - she doesn't seem to have lost her appetite at all and is munching away on hay as well as polishing off all her veg, pellets and some fresh grass. I know it's difficult to monitor hay intake though, so I will keep encouraging her to eat as much of it as possible!
 
Some people on the forum use a small amount of oats to help put on some weight. I mix some in with my mushed pellets as mine don’t eat them on their own when they have needed to put a bit of weight back on 🙄😂 it does take them a while to put their weight back on once they’ve lost it. Hopefully once you’ve treated the bladder issue she will start to put the weight back on ☺️
 
I didn't realise pigs could have oats - I will bear that in mind! Her weight is still steady, but I decided to give her some critical care this morning as an extra 'boost'. She wolfed it down (in fact she tried to stick her whole face in the bowl!), so I will offer her some more of that later as well.

We've managed to get an appointment with the exotic vet this Thursday morning, so hoping to find out more at that stage.
 
I thought I'd just give a quick update on Toffee. She had an appointment with the exotic specialist this morning and had radiographs and blood sampling under general anaesthesia. They weren't able to get a sterile urine sample as her bladder was empty.

The vet said that the radiographs looked good and there was nothing of concern noted, which is great! We should get the blood results next week which will tell us if her kidneys are functioning properly, and we will see where we go from there. In the meantime we've been told to continue the cystease and to give meloxicam twice a day.

She seems to be doing well following the GA, which is such a relief as I was very worried about that! The vet said she started eating as soon as she came round, and she's had some hay and grass since we got her home :)
 
Hello again - Toffee is still doing really well, however our other guinea pig, Caramel, has started showing similar symptoms!

This evening he has done a few wees with spots of red in them :( so we'll be calling the vet again tomorrow morning. He seems fine otherwise - very lively, eating and drinking as normal.

Is it likely that this is a bacterial infection that both pigs have picked up? Is this common?
 
Hello again, I'm hoping for some more advice regarding my two pigs, Toffee and Caramel.

Toffee has been doing well, and she's been brighter the last few days. Her blood test showed no indication of kidney problems, so the vet said that we were likely to be dealing with a kind of cystitis. We've heard no more pain squeaks from her, so the vet advised that we could ease her off the meloxaid.

However, we're now having problems with our other pig, Caramel. We first noticed some small red spots in his wee on 29th April, so we took him to the vet the next day. The vet said Caramel didn't seem to be in any pain and advised us to give him the same treatment as Toffee - meloxaid twice a day and cystease once a day. We also took in a urine sample, and again this contained blood and protein (same as Toffee). Caramel has now been on the meds for 10 days. He seems well in himself - he's eating well (in fact he keeps putting on weight) and is very active.

Everything seemed to be going well, but today we're suddenly seeing a lot of large, intensely red patches in Caramel's wee. (We definitely know it's Caramel, because we temporarily separated them into adjacent runs to check). He hasn't shown any sign of pain or discomfort when weeing - I've been watching him closely and there's been no squeaking, hunching over etc. I've attached a couple of photos of the red wees.

We're waiting for a call back from the vet so we can get some advice on what to do next. We still have the appointment for this Thursday that we originally booked for Toffee, so potentially we will use that appointment for Caramel to be x-rayed instead.

It seems strange that we're suddenly seeing more red patches today, when he's been on the meds for over a week - I'm not sure what has triggered it.

The vet was surprised that both pigs were showing the same symptoms - I guess if it is a bacterial infection, both pigs could have picked it up? The vet hasn't suggested antibiotics though, which seems odd as I thought they would usually try this first. I think I also read that sterile C can be transmitted between pigs? We sweep the run every day and change all the fleece etc every three days. We also have the pigs on a low calcium diet with filtered water, restricted amount of pellets and constant access to hay. I don't know what else we can do. I'd be really grateful for any advice.
 

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Oh no I’m so sorry that both your piggies are having the same issue. I am currently dealing with a urinary problem with one of my girls that started with an emergency vet visit on Thursday. We are going back for more x rays and an ultrasound today because she is now squealing when trying to wee and poop:( I hope your vets get back to you regarding your piggies xx
 
Aw I'm really sorry to hear your piggy is unwell Josie_Ig, I hope all goes well today with the x-ray and ultrasound!

We managed to speak to the vet yesterday afternoon and confirmed that we'd bring Caramel in on Thursday for an x-ray. There haven't been any more red wees today (so far).
 
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