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Blood In Wee And I Am Sick To The Stomach!

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Sian25

Sian25

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Someone please help ASAP. I've never had any experience of piggies with blood in their wee before and I am now panicking!

I have just been sat next to the Guinea pigs cage and noticed my Milan quietly squeeking as though he was in pain. When he moved away I checked the area for any urine. He has leopard print fleece so it was hard to see so I wiped it with some tissue and to my horror it was red in colour :(

He has a hay tray with fleece and puppy pad underneath so I checked the puppy pad in there and the picture below shows what I found! There is a normal colour wee then a bloody wee. I have not heard him crying in pain before now and I changed his hay tray and puppy pad this morning and there was nothing unusual so it must have come on quickly.

He has been eating quite a lot of his carrot house today but the wee looks definately blood rather than carrot staining doesn't it?

It's obviously Sunday tomorrow so it would be an emergency vet that he would have to see. Is this classed as an emergency or do I have to wait until Monday? My poor baby boy :( I am absolutely terrified that it's stones rather than a UTI because despite low calcium diet, filtering water etc, his wees are still very powdery.

Please someone help :(

image.webp
 
Don't panic, as horrible as this experience is, it's not as far as I am aware generally a medical emergency.
It's not normal either, but is quite a common complaint. Blood can be most commonly caused by bladder infections or bladder stones. Both can be painful for the piggies, and require vet treatment, but if this doesn't happen over the weekend your piggy is not likely to deteriorate during this time.
I'll post this now to put your mind at rest, then carry on... xx
 
Right, I'm tagging @Wiebke @helen105281 @Abi_nurse to see if they can help you.
Many of us here have had piggies with bladder issues, and finding out the cause is necessary for treatment advice.
In the mean-time, until you can get your appointment I suggest giving plenty of liquids x
 
Try not to worry -my piggie has had this twice, both times responding really well to antibiotics. Know how you feel though, it's awful seeing blood. Guinea pigs are very susceptible to bladder infections x
 
I agree it can wait until Monday, it is most likely a UTI but the vet will need to rule out stones. The preferred antibiotic is Septrin though some vets like to try Baytril first. A probiotic would be needed too to help his tummy while on antibiotics. Pain relief should be give too, usually Metacam. If he seems to get worse tomorrow you may want to look at getting him seen, mainly to ask for pain relief but if it is intermittent then it can wait until Monday morning.
 
Thanks everyone. I feel slightly better but it's a horrible thought that he's in pain. I'm desperately hoping it is a UTI as opposed to stones!
 
If Milan's weight/appetite remains stable and he is neither showing signs of major pain (which you are not yet reporting) or outright apathy, then you can wait until Monday; it is not an outright emergency, just a "see your vet as soon as you can get an appointment during regular opening hours".
Only if he is really screaming with pain when peeing, losing more than 50g in/going off food within 24 hours or becoming apathetic do you need to see an emergency vet tomorrow. Please switch to weighing daily at the same time in the feeding cycle to have a realistic comparison.

I am sorry, seeing signs of illness on a weekend can really panic you. It is about ten times more likely that it is a urine infection (UTI) than a bladder stone problem. Stones in young guinea pigs are extremely rare, by the way.

What you can do:
- make sure that Milan is drinking plenty. You can syringe water twice daily, as much as he is willing to take in one go. Do not give more than half a small syringe (i.e. a mouthful) to an adult guinea pig, and less to a younger piggy at any time to make sure that it doesn;t go down the wrong way. Wait until he has swallowed everything before giving more. Encourage him to drink (most piggies with UTI are very thirsty anyway). Try to aim for 10-15 ml, but don't panic if it is less - any little helps. This will help to flush any bacteria out of the bladder and help ease the symptoms of an acute UTI.
- You can also give him some mildly diuretic veg such as lettuce, cucumber or celery, but not so much that he gets diarrhea! This again will help to flush the bladder and ease the acute symptoms.
- If it is the beginning of an UTI, you will likely see red pees, which do not necessarily contain blood intermingled with clear pees, which can test positive for blood. Believe me, I have been there with piggies of mine... :mal:

As a consolation, so far the symptoms are still in the mild/early stages of a UTI. ;)
 
It is horrible. I've been through it with one of mine and she used to squeak when she wee'd.
There's possibly something you can do for him tomorrow if you can get hold of any pearl barley. There's a recipe for barley water which can help to sooth the bladder before you get your appointment. It's simply a case of boiling the pearl barley for the time it states on the pack and giving him the water from it. It has a reputation for soothing the bladder but is not to be used in place of the meds. It can be used at the same time as Baytril, I don't know about other meds.
 
I always keep my boys cages clean and Hoover them out 4 times a day so that's making me think it's more likely to be stones :(
 
Sian25 said:
I always keep my boys cages clean and Hoover them out 4 times a day so that's making me think it's more likely to be stones :(
Click to expand...
It can happen anyway, clean or not. Yes a dirty cage makes it more likely, but it's still a common condition even in cages that are kept to high standards :)
 
I have just found this on a bit of hay. Are you sure this is not an emergency? Surely just a UTI wouldn't produce this amount of blood?

image.webp
 
Is he still eating and moving well? Seems happy when he's not weeing?
 
A UTI can produce that much blood, I have had it with mine too. I don't think bladder stones would appear quite so suddenly.
 
Okay thanks guys! I'll try to relax a bit now.

Both my boys are booked in with Molly Varga to be neutered on 10th march but I'm unsure whether Milan will be well enough now :( I would rather wait until Monday to get Milan seen to anyway as I know Molly varga only works Monday and Thursdays.
 
Please accept my apologies for asking, but do your boys live together, and do you intend for them to stay together? If so neutering won't make a difference to their lives. Hope you don't think I'm poking my nose in, but there is an assumption sometimes that neutering will calm their behaviour, as it can with rabbits, but this is not the case in pigs.
 
No @Critter I have accepted that they won't live together.. I know boars are more likely to fall out in the future than two sows or boar/sow and I took quite a while to way up what was best. I have no space for extra cages so was worried about pairing the boys up through a rescue and then them falling out in later life and ending up with more separate boys so I have come to the (very scary) decision of neutering and going to a rescue to find them a wife
 
Aw I'm sorry to read that. I've had females that have fallen out too! Hope you find them suitable wives :) I had one sow that didn't like living with other sows, but was finally happy when I got her a husboar! :)
 
Critter said:
Is he still eating and moving well? Seems happy when he's not weeing?
Click to expand...

Sorry I must have missed this in the mist of my panic. Yes he's still eating and moving as normal and the last time i weighed him was Thursday and he's not lost any weight since then (although I weighed him Thursday morning and then tonight so weight could have fluctuated) I will weigh him again in the morning and keep my eye on him.

Thanks again everyone, I'll let you all know how he gets on :)
 
Good morning everyone. I didn't get much sleep last night with the worry but I have not seen any more bloody urine since around 12pm last night. His fleece is a leopard print liner so it is difficult to spot so I'm not 100% sure that there's no blood but I have checked his hay tray that is lined with a layer of fleece and puppy pad underneath and there is no blood present since I changed it last night. I also lined my bed with puppy pads this morning and give him cuddles, cucumber and syringed some water to him (although admittedly I couldn't get him to take very much) he seems to be drinking as normal on his own but I was trying to get some extra into him. He had a few wees on my puppy pad lined bed this morning and no blood there and no squeaking.

Does this still sound like a UTI?
 
My bladder piggy sometimes bleeds for the first day, sometimes the first week- even when the blood isnt visible though it still flags up on the urine dipstick test as its still there, just not visible. This normally resolves after a course of septrin and some loxicom (metacalm). I would still take him to the vets when they are open again and get him checked over but i wouldnt panic too much- UTI's are fairly common. Take a wee sample with you if u can get one :)
 
@Adelle do you have any tips on a urine sample? I'm guessing to put him on a hard surface until he wees but what would I collect his wee in?
 
Glad the bleeding has calmed down. I have found that it comes and goes, comes and goes. It can look like the issues is resolved when it's not. As for treatment, courses of antibiotics are often fairly long ones (in my own experience), just to be sure the infection has gone..
 
Sian25 said:
@Adelle do you have any tips on a urine sample? I'm guessing to put him on a hard surface until he wees but what would I collect his wee in?
Click to expand...
You can usually suck it up in a nice, clean fresh syringe. If this isn't possible vets can sometimes manipulate the bladder to force a wee. Some will, some won't. I used to find that giving a chunk of cucumber for the journey often resulted in a wee on the vet's surface without any other form of encouragement.

Ooops sorry @Adelle, just answered post aimed for you. sorry!
 
Sian25 said:
This video was this morning hahaha. I've never wanted a guinea pig to wee so badly so I could check the colour of it!

Click to expand...

Aw bless him! Doesn't want to wee, just wants fuss from you :) Lovely little man xx
 
Sian25 said:
@Adelle do you have any tips on a urine sample? I'm guessing to put him on a hard surface until he wees but what would I collect his wee in?
Click to expand...

Not to worry @Critter ! Is your boy quite a clean piggy and wont wee on you? Crunchie is, so i make her stay out for cuddles until she needs a wee (she starts pulling on my jumper to tell me), i then put her back in a confined area of the cage and she usually wees straight away- i then slide a small flat clean lid under her bum and collect the wee, then sook it up with a syringe. If you cant get one dont worry, your vet may express the bladder. My vet does this now when shes having a feel at crunchies bladder (usially thickened during a flare) and then sooks the wee up from the table with a syringe. The fresher the better so if u get one the morning of the vet visit then pop it in the fridge :)
 
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