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Incontinence

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Popcorn

I have a pair of 4 year old sows, rehomed by me about 6 months ago. One of them has what appears to be a urinary problem.I thought yesterday that she had diaohrrea, but since have observed that it is jsut the wetness from her underneath that is making the poos look runny. After changing all bedding I can now see that her poos are well formed and there is no problem but there is a large amount of wetness where she is sitting/sleeping and under her body. I bathed her yesterday when I thought she had the runs, but she is soaking underneath again with urine. Can older guinea pigs become incontinent ? have checked PGs site, but can not find a mention of it. She is eating fine, moving around fine, there is no blood or any disolouration of the urine she seems totally normal apart from this soaking wetness underneath her. Any ideas ?
 
Sometimes excessive urination and wetness around the rear can be a sign of a urinary infection. I've not come across incontinence in piggies before but I do think it would be possible.
 
I haven't heard of incontinence in sows either. You say she is moving around ok, but is she sitting for longer periods of time?

It could be an infection. Does it smell strong?
 
It could be an infection - is she drinking a lot or is the urine strong in colour? Also some piggies seem to like sitting in their urine for some reason ?/
 
Thanks for the replies. I think she keeps going back to sit in one corner, so I will clean that corner every 1/2 day and then I can judge if the smell or any colour change occurs (none seen so far). She just seems so well, no excessive drinking or so on...I wonder if she is just choosing to sit in wee ? It could be the start of an ifection I guess, so will take her at the end of tomorrow to vet if no change.
 
Well, she has been to the vet, and had all the palpitation checks, weight taken, heart listened to and so on. She is still behaving like a bright and breezy happy guinea pig, eating well etc. and all the checks today showed she was 'healthy'. However, she clearly still has her urinary problem, whatever that might be, and when I picked her up she weeed everywhere all over the vets table. She has been soaking udnerneath all day as well.There is no blood and the urine is normal colour. She has had an anti-biotic injection and has an oral course for a few days following that, but if it dosen't clear up then she will need further checks to see if there are bladder stones etc.
 
You say there is no blood. It is not always visible to the naked eye. Did the vet use a urinalysis stick?

Riff had a huge bladder stone and one of the first signs was urinary incontinence. Please keep a close eye on her!
 
He did say that a bladder stone was the next possible cause, so we will check after a few days for that. NO, we had a large amount of wee on a white paper towel and it was that which was checked, not a dip test. I guess though that the tabs will sort that anyway. I don't think its an infection as I've hda another piggy with UTI and it wasn't like this at all. How long did it take to get abladder stone diagnosed , was it via xray ?
 
Riff was on Baytril for some weeks, and then Septrin for another month. By now I was pretty sure it was a stone. She was crying when going to the lav and there was blood. The urine would dribble out. The vet kept saying there were no crystals in the urine so it could not be a stone. My question now is: did she keep missing them or were they not there? Anyway, Riff had an xray. There was a huge stone. It was removed the next day under GA and was nearly the size of a baked bean. I keep it by my bed to remind myself to never ever let anything run on that long again.
http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=26423
 
Ah okey Dokey, so really if there is no change very soon with the anti-b then it needs checking. At the moment she isn't making any noises of being in pain, or showing any behavioural changes when weeing. To be honest, I can't fault the vet as he was very thorough, seemed very clear on guinea ailments, and said that the next step would be to xray for stone/s, (she also isn't drinking more that usual). Thanks for your responses, very helpful.
 
Your vet was right about the x-ray. I wish I had insisted on one sooner. That would be the next step.
 
Hi Sorry I'm such a muppet, I missed this thread in my concern about my lady, Hope your girl is feeling better soon!
 
Well, she certainly does seem to be improved. She is 'dry underneath' this morning and it seems that the meds are working. She is dreadful at taking the oral a-biotics though and spits and struggles !
 
YOu know what, i didn't note the name of the med, will check tomorrow morning. They decanted a tiny amount into a wee brown tablet pot (not a WEE bottle, a small one!) so it isn't in the original packaging.

Is the SHEWEE for me or the guienapig ? :) I have to ask, I've seen these around a few times recently, on the internet, but does anyone have one/use one ?
 
I was going to ask if she was crying or squeaking when passing urine, but obviously not after reading the posts above.

Fingers crossed all goes on well for her.

Keep us posted!
 
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