Blood In Urine Again!

[Toots33]

Hi everyone,

Sven and Elsa have been keeping us on our toes again!

Elsa had a stone removed from her urethra last year and has been stable for the last 6 months and Sven has finally been diagnosed with IC. We know we can't cure Sven's IC but we manage it with diet and medication to keep her comfortable and as with Elsa, she'd been doing ok.

That was until last night when they surprised us with a lot of bright pink wee patches. We initially thought that Sven's IC had flared up until we saw Elsa do a bright pink wee and heard her squeaking when weeing. Trip to the vet for Elsa until ten minutes later we saw Sven do a bright pink wee as well and keep freezing which is something she does when she's in pain.

We've been to the vet today and to avoid any messing around and months of trial and error they've both been x rayed. The good news is there are no visible stones for either of them. So a course of antibiotics for both (Septrin which I asked for rather than Baytril) and back to the Metacam for Elsa (Sven has this anyway).

Something is puzzling me though. Is it just a coincidence that they both had pink urine on exactly the same day within half an hour of each other? Today there has been no visible blood for either of them although I know it can be microscopic. They always have red pepper in their diet and I know that this can colour the urine but this has never been the case for either of them. However, we started a new red pepper yesterday morning, they had some in the morning and there was no visible blood in their urine when we got home at tea time. They had some more at 6pm and by 8pm their urine was pink.

I know that this wouldn't answer the squeaking while weeing for Elsa but I'm just finding it hard to get my head around the timing of the pink wee for both of them. Maybe I'm just looking for an explanation other than another cycle of UTI's

Here are some pictures of the pink patches that we spent hours puzzling over last night.

 

[Wiebke]

Have they been on the lawn lately or is your house cold overnight? It is more likely a UTI rather than their normal issues.

 

[Toots33]

Have they been on the lawn lately or is your house cold overnight? It is more likely a UTI rather than their normal issues.

Hi @Wiebke

We haven't had them on the lawn as grass seems to trigger Sven's IC. I think the house has been pretty warm lately as the weathers improved and when it has been a bit chilly we tend to put the heating on. We didn't have any problems over the winter when I think it probably would have been a colder at night. They're also in the lounge with us which is the room in the house that we try and keep the warmest.

After seeing the blood last night we did a mad dash to the vets as early as we could this morning so didn't get chance to do a urine sample. We have got some test strips so I think we'll try testing Elsa's urine tomorrow to see if there is blood present. We know that her urine has been clear for the past five months ish so I think she would give us the more accurate sample.

 

[Toots33]

Tested Elsa's urine and there's definitely blood it in so looking like it's definitely an infection.

 

[sport_billy]

Sending lots of healing vibes hopefully the septrin will clear it up for you

 

[Toots33]

Sending lots of healing vibes hopefully the septrin will clear it up for you

Thank you . The Metacam seems to be helping with pain and hopefully the antibiotics will start to work soon.

I think they just like to keep us on our toes .

 

[rome_italy]

Look... I am not a pig, but I spent MONTHS struggling with a strange infection and blood in my urine. Urine test and colture were normal but urine was red and I had a great pain. Months of medicines and antibiotics caused only troubles and infections also into my bowel... then a finnish nurse ( a penpal of mine) suggested me to drink cranberry juice. In only some DAYS the blood desappeared... I know cranberry is considered good also for pets and guinea pigs. It works for preventing troubles but you could try to use it by now. It makes the skin of bladder slick for bacteria's feet...

 

[Toots33]

Just thought I'd update that the Septrin seems to be working really well and is clearing up the blood in Elsa's urine. She's back to her confident, grumpy self and is bossing us all around again .