Fishy Smell And Milky Yellow Discharge From Sows Bottom

[Dilly's Piggies]

I was just having my normal nightly cuddle time with my favourite girl Melody, and I noticed this strong fishy smell, very abnormal I've never had this before, I had a good look at her bum and I didn't see anything different besides some dried milky yellow discharge sitting around the outside of her bottom, there wasn't any inside but I assume from this it has been prior. I don't know if this is actually a problem with her or perhaps she was sitting in some urine and it caused her bottom to smell?

I'm going to bathe her bum now and check on her again later to see if it's still the same, but what could be causing this?

 

[Poppy'sMum]

Have you done a dipstick test on her wee? It could be the start of a UTI If not, I would pop her on a white towel & see if she wees & if it is pinkish then it might have traces of blood in her wee. However UTIs don't always show up as bloody wee & I would get her checked by a vet if it is not smelling normal, just to be on the safe side.

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

Have you done a dipstick test on her wee? It could be the start of a UTI If not, I would pop her on a white towel & see if she wees & if it is pinkish then it might have traces of blood in her wee. However UTIs don't always show up as bloody wee & I would get her checked by a vet if it is not smelling normal, just to be on the safe side.

Oh goodness not another UTI! I have one that just finished antibiotics and one currently on them for it, I'd hate for Melody to have it too. I really must be doing something wrong for 3 of them to have that. She just had her bum bath, smells much better lol! I'll get her on a white towel and check if there's blood but I haven't seen any around the cage since Willow started her antibiotics, so fingers crossed hers is clear

 

[Poppy'sMum]

Are they kept together? One of mine caught a UTI off my bladder pig when she had an infection once

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

Are they kept together? One of mine caught a UTI off my bladder pig when she had an infection once

The piggy that has just finished her antibiotics lives in a different herd, but Willow (who is currently on them) and Melody do live together yes, I did ask the vet if they can catch it from each other since it's bacterial and he said it's rare, I thought it would be quite easy for them to catch it from each other?

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

7 hours after her bath and the fishy smell is back again, also this came out, it was sitting there and looked like discharge until we pulled it out, I believe this is a sow plug, which I know is normal, as far as I know the fishy smell is not normal with this, can someone confirm?

 

[Poppy'sMum]

I would definitely get her checked by a vet, any smelly discharge is not normal.

 

[Tiamolly123]

Hi what did your vet say & did you take the thingy with you

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

Hi what did your vet say & did you take the thingy with you

I haven't taken her yet as I wasn't sure if she needed to go, since removing the 'plug' the smell has gone, still keeping a close eye on her, I have no idea what happened with this, plug is so gross lol!

 

[Tiamolly123]

Worth having a check, shouldn't be expensive, or ring the vet nurse, see what she thinks. Whatever it was it shouldn't have been there.
My motto is better safe than sorry.

 

[Adelle]

My 15 month old sow had the exact same thing, fishy smell and yellow discharge- I then found blood and protein on her urine dipstick and she is now on day 3 of antibiotics. The discharge and smell have now gone away but ofcourse il continue the course. Hope this helps X

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

My 15 month old sow had the exact same thing, fishy smell and yellow discharge- I then found blood and protein on her urine dipstick and she is now on day 3 of antibiotics. The discharge and smell have now gone away but ofcourse il continue the course. Hope this helps X

Oh really? Did the discharge and smell come and go or did it stay for the whole time? Melody's bum is normal and doesn't smell fishy now but of course I'm still keeping a very close eye on it as this wasn't normal. I put her on a white towel as advised and her urine was clear, not acting any different, no squeaky pees but I don't have any urine dipsticks in so I can't test that at the moment, I really do need to buy some, can I get them from ebay? I was scared to absolute death this morning reading up about it, and when I saw it could be pyometra my heart sank, Melody is my favourite pig and is very special to me, it would crush my heart if anything happened to her. I hope your sow is doing better now? Melody is also 15 months old

 

[Adelle]

Oh really? Did the discharge and smell come and go or did it stay for the whole time? Melody's bum is normal and doesn't smell fishy now but of course I'm still keeping a very close eye on it as this wasn't normal. I put her on a white towel as advised and her urine was clear, not acting any different, no squeaky pees but I don't have any urine dipsticks in so I can't test that at the moment, I really do need to buy some, can I get them from ebay? I was scared to absolute death this morning reading up about it, and when I saw it could be pyometra my heart sank, Melody is my favourite pig and is very special to me, it would crush my heart if anything happened to her. I hope your sow is doing better now? Melody is also 15 months old

That's interesting, as poppet just had a really strong season before this happened (her peak I would say) and I too thought it was some sort of mucous plug. But the UTI treatment has definately fixed that part of it but will continue until a few days after her urine test is normal.

I buy mine from Amazon :-)

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

That's interesting, as poppet just had a really strong season before this happened (her peak I would say) and I too thought it was some sort of mucous plug. But the UTI treatment has definately fixed that part of it but will continue until a few days after her urine test is normal.

I buy mine from Amazon :-)

So you think what came out of her isn't a mucous plug? Do you have any idea what it could be if it's not that? I just assumed it was as I've never seen this before, had female pigs for 15 years but never experienced this. This thing was rubbery, very much like a sperm rod in a boar, and there was the creamy yellow discharge prior to this coming out. I wonder if this is a plug that has caused an infection, can that happen? I hear the fishy smell can sometimes be from urine stuck to the plug, and now I've pulled it out the smell has gone?

 

[Adelle]

So you think what came out of her isn't a mucous plug? Do you have any idea what it could be if it's not that? I just assumed it was as I've never seen this before, had female pigs for 15 years but never experienced this. This thing was rubbery, very much like a sperm rod in a boar, and there was the creamy yellow discharge prior to this coming out. I wonder if this is a plug that has caused an infection, can that happen? I hear the fishy smell can sometimes be from urine stuck to the plug, and now I've pulled it out the smell has gone?

You could be right but a vet should test her urine to be sure. Poppets was either a mucous plug or to do with her UTI .. The antibiotics have helped all round so I guess I'll never know. If your little one has symptoms of a UTI on dipstick too, it would be too much of a coincidence for the mucous to be unrelated I would say X

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

You could be right but a vet should test her urine to be sure. Poppets was either a mucous plug or to do with her UTI .. The antibiotics have helped all round so I guess I'll never know. If your little one has symptoms of a UTI on dipstick too, it would be too much of a coincidence for the mucous to be unrelated I would say X

Did Poppet's fishy smell come and go, or was it there all the time? I got her to pee on a white towel again tonight whilst we had cuddles, it was clear again, she was a bit squeaky when she peed but she is really talkative anyway and was talking to me before, during and after peeing, so who knows lol, I bet she was saying "Mum for goodness sake this is so embarrassing!" I don't think this is urinary anyway, if anything I think it's reproductive, how would the vet diagnose that, can they get a vaginal infection like thrush, like us? Can they take a swab from inside her vagina and check it for infection or would it show up in a urine sample? Sorry, really gross topic lol!

 

[Adelle]

Did Poppet's fishy smell come and go, or was it there all the time? I got her to pee on a white towel again tonight whilst we had cuddles, it was clear again, she was a bit squeaky when she peed but she is really talkative anyway and was talking to me before, during and after peeing, so who knows lol, I bet she was saying "Mum for goodness sake this is so embarrassing!" I don't think this is urinary anyway, if anything I think it's reproductive, how would the vet diagnose that, can they get a vaginal infection like thrush, like us? Can they take a swab from inside her vagina and check it for infection or would it show up in a urine sample? Sorry, really gross topic lol!

The smell went away when I bathed her but then came back. It's now gone away again with the antibiotics.

I'd imagine the course of action would be for them to dip her urine (blood on a dipstick doesn't mean she's peeing red urine). If it shows anything then they'll treat for a UTI . If it doesn't then they'll likely scan her uterus and ovaries to look for any problems there X

 

[Dilly's Piggies]

The smell went away when I bathed her but then came back. It's now gone away again with the antibiotics.

I'd imagine the course of action would be for them to dip her urine (blood on a dipstick doesn't mean she's peeing red urine). If it shows anything then they'll treat for a UTI . If it doesn't then they'll likely scan her uterus and ovaries to look for any problems there X

Just to be clear, I can use the human dipsticks from the pharmacy right, it doesn't need to be a special kind?

 

[Adelle]

Just to be clear, I can use the human dipsticks from the pharmacy right, it doesn't need to be a special kind?

Human ones are fine :-) but my vet says to ignore the leukocytes and nitrites when using human sticks as apparantly it's not accurate and can have false positives. But blood and protein is what you are looking for and are accurate on human dipsticks :-)