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Patches of Blood in Hutch!

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Goldie

Goldie

Adult Guinea Pig
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As soon as I opened the bedroom compartment of the hutch where Josie, Sparrow and Stuart live, I saw red patches on the megazorb. I moved the megazorb away and I could clearly see many patches of fresh blood on the newspaper. It was also in the "wee corner" of the lounge area.

I thought it would be easy to find out which piggy was passing this but none of them had any blood on their bottoms or their hair in that area -they are all long-haired and light coloured around their bottoms so I thought that would be easy, but nothing.

I know it is a case of watching and waiting. All are eating well, however I have noticed someone is drinking more than usual.

They are all quiet piggies now as Josie will be five years old on 18 June, Sparrow will be 4 years old in August and Stuart 4 years old in October. All were my babies ... I hand-reared Stuart and Sparrow so I am very attached to them.

From my experience, blood in urine can be bladder or kidney stones or a tumour. I don't think it could be an infection as none of them are crying when they wee. Or the blood could be coming from the uterus, which isn't good news either? No evidence of blood coming from anywhere else either.

Any ideas?
 
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I am having the exact same problem with one of my boars. He has been piddling blood for a few weeks now and an x-ray revealed a possible stone. I was referred to a specialist who wants to fill Mimsis bladder with water to get a better look at the object. I have been stressing out trying to decide if i should subject Mimsi to this procedure and a GA at the age of four. I had Mimsi at the vets a year ago but they thought the bleeding was coming from his back passage. So if it is this stone like object in his bladder that has been causing the bleeding it has given him no other sypmtoms. (No weight loss, eating and drinking well, no pain when urinating). I am making my decision tomorrow but I think I will leave him at the moment and if he presents any other sypmtoms then I know I can get him seen immeditely.
Good luck with your piggy..
 
Oh Bev, you must be so worried. Once you find out who has passed the blood, I know you will get vet treatment but I guess you will have to take one out at time and pop him/her on a white towel and wait a while to see what happens.

Keep us posted and best of luck!
 
Always be ready for the worst, but..

It could be plant pigments. I sometimes see the odd reddish stain in the Megazorb, and although I'd worry it would be very infrequent and all teh piggies seemed fine. Then I had two very small babies, one with one side of his face bitten off at birth, the other who developed pneumonia at three days old. After a few days I found some reddy brown stains on the bedding, and feared the worst. Meeps was barely able to move at the time due to his illness, and Pan appeared fully healthy (apart from the half a face!).

Turns out, after being thought of as cystitus, it was plant pigments in the urine! I caught one of them peeing on some kitchen towel, and it came out green. Turned pink, then dried red, within a few minutes. What a relief! And this is after my usual vet, who I thought generally very knowledgeable, had discounted this as he'd never seen it in piggies...

So yes, do all you can to be sure, but don't panic yet as it *could* be something utterly harmless :)

Edit - PS: Four isn't all that old if the piggie is otherwise helathy. I've had ops done under GA on a couple of mine that were around that age or a touch older.
 
It was definitely fresh blood yesterday in patches particularly in the bedroom where they sit ... however today, no blood at all.

Very strange :{. Even my youngest daughter who is a Staff Nurse came out and inspected them.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that it won't happen again or it was one of them managing to pass a bladder stone or crystal.

All came straight out for their cucumber this evening but I will certainly be monitoring the situation!
 
I hope they're all ok! Snoop had some blood in his urine recently which turned out to be a UTI, after a course of antibiotics hes up and running again! Its scary when piggies are ill though especially as they get older but fingers crossed its resolved on its own!
 
How are your piggies. Has there been any more blood?
My piggy Mimsi has stopped passing blood in his urine. I have decided not to submit him to the bladder test and surgery at the moment as he has no other symptoms. The specialist is happy to leave him for the time being as he is very healthy otherwise. Also as he was under GA last Friday it my be a bit early to put him under again. Its so difficult to know what is the best thing to do, but at the first sign that my piggy is in pain or losing wright and I will get him to the vets immediately.
 
Blood in a pigs urine is usually associated with Estrus and is NOT a serious condition unless she is unable to urinate or stops eating. We do not usually give pigs antibiotics because they can cause problems themselves.

You will need to increase her vitamin C because a pig under stress requires 2 - 3 times the normal C ration. In addition, put a little bit of unsweetened cranberry juice in her water daily to lower the acidity of her urine. You also want to encourage as much drinking as possible.This will help to restore the balance in her urinary system.

Give her some cut up cucumber as this is a diuretic. However, discontinue all sugary fruits until this problem resolves.

We did all of this with my piggie last year and her little problem went away in no time =) Cranberry juice and non-sugary fruits will do the trick We even called the vet and asked if what we were doing would work and they said it should work, so we tried it and WA-LA!
And now it's happening again with my piggie and just started yesterday, so i've gotta do this method again with her to make her awww better

Try this with you're little pig and see how things go
 
Goldie said:
No, still no more blood ... thanks goodness!
Click to expand...

Oh love i'm so pleased to hear no more blood......i just read thru and thought OMG..........not another of our little ones ill :( so many sick ones at the moment :(

Paws crossed everything will be ok, perhaps it was something they ate? so hard to tell :{

Lots of wheeeeeeeeeks and loves to them all and HUGS for you xx>>>xx>>>xx>>>xx>>>
 
Just catching up. Hope there's no more blood and all piggies stay fighting fit :)
 
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