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diarrhea

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colleen

Bit of a messy topic here lol.
anyways, one of my guinea pigs has had a messy 'behind' for many months now. So i took her to the vet a while ago. the vet said she had diarrhea (possible due to the abundance of green grass after the winter) and put her on oral antibiotics for a week. It seemed to work while she was on the antibiotics, but a few days after finishing the course of medication, it came back again.

i haven’t been back to the vet, as i have waited to see if her diet was the problem, which it isn’t. but now I’m doubting that she has diarrhea as i think it may be her pee that is causing a discolouration of her white fur. she has long fur, and all around her bottom her fur has been stained this light brown colour (not the brown colour of poo though) and is wet and has a strong musky, almost ammonia smell.
I gave her a bath the other day and naturally when i placed her in the water I'm sure she peed. the water turned that same brown colour, and there was too much of it to just be what was washed off her fur. I have also noticed when changing their bedding, the newspaper is also stained that same brown colour. I’m pretty sure its her pee causing the problem.

Do you think she has a bladder infection/intestinal infection? Should i go back to the vet and tell them this that I don’t think it is diarrhea? Any thoughts would be great!?
**P.s She has had this problem for quite some time now, and seems otherwise healthy. Her weight is good, and she eats and drinks fine, and is still active.
 
Hi Colleen,

The only question I have at the moment is, does she poop normally? If it is diarrhea, she won't be having any normal poops, and I suspect if it was truly diarrhea she would be in a far worse condition by now! A urinary infection sounds fairly probable given what you have described.
 
A UTI has a very distinctive smell, which your description fits. Try her with pure cranberry juice as a first aid measure.
The brown colour would indicate the presence of blood.
Assuming that it is a UTI, she may need an xray to see if there are any stones/sand in the urinary system.
There is no need for a general anaesthetic if she does have an xray taken.
It looks like a trip to the vet. for a course of Septrin antibiotic.
 
The smelly, discoloured pee and wet bottom sounds very much like UTI!

If your vet is not keen on prescribing pediatric septrin 0.5 ml twice daily (which is an orally given form of bactrim), print out this page from guinealynx to convince him. It is much better (and less hard on the guts) than baytril (correct dose: 0.4 ml twice daily) for urinary tract infections. Make sure that you ask for painkiller and probitoics as well!
http://www.guinealynx.info/uti.html

Please ask for an x-ray without GA to exclude any bladder trouble as the cause of the infection. (as recommended on guinealynx as well!)
 
Laura-CCC4 said:
Hi Colleen,

The only question I have at the moment is, does she poop normally? If it is diarrhea, she won't be having any normal poops, and I suspect if it was truly diarrhea she would be in a far worse condition by now! A urinary infection sounds fairly probable given what you have described.
Click to expand...

thankyou soo much everyone!
her poos are normal, and i suppose you could say, well formed. It’s definitely not sloppy as they should be if she had dirrahea.

I had do do my research on UTI's, and it sounds much more likely than diarrhea. I was reading about UTI's on the Guinea pig Lynx website, and it said that blood would be present in their pee, and she would be in pain. however i have never seen blood in her pee, and she doesn’t seem to be in pain, although she could be good at hiding it.
A quote from the guinea pig lynx website: "A sour smell could indicate a cyst, bladder or urinary tract infection, or stones."
this sounds even more likely, as the 'sour smell' does fit the description. but like i said, i haven’t seen any blood in her pee, or around her bottom.
 
The amount of blood in her pee is not necessarily so big that it is blood red.

More usual is a mix of normal coloured wees with some rusty/orangey/pinkish wees. A vet can check the urine and find out whether it contains blood.

UTI is not something that should be taken lightly and always chaecked up on by a vet.
 
thanks Wiebke.
If that is so, then I'm guessing there could be blood there, as that colour you described is very much the colour of her pee, and staining on the fur.
A trip to the vet is in need!
 
Quoting myself!
"The brown colour would indicate the presence of blood."
 
I heard someone else mention recently that you can but hemasticks from a pharmacy which you can use yourself to test for blood in urine.
 
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