Please Help - Urinary Blood and Clots

[mikkysaur]

Hi everyone, I’d appreciate any advice for my beloved 7 year old girl Oreo. She has a known bladder stone and occasionally urinates blood but I’ve never seen it bright red like this or sprayed throughout the cage. There’s also a blood clot and her weight dropped from 919 to 874 in one day and I’m so worried about her.

I have a vet appointment scheduled but I’m going to call tomorrow to get it moved up ASAP. In the meantime is there any advice you can give or questions I should ask the vet?

Currently Oreo is taking
0.15 ml potassium citrate twice a day
0.5 ml meloxicam once a day
I’m giving her critical care with the oxbow urinary/joint support treats mixed in because they have glucosamine, and I’m also mixing in HealthyGut probiotics from Chewy

I see her eating hay and sometimes pellets. I tried giving her veggies for lunch and she wasn’t interested. I feel so helpless and hate knowing she’s in pain. Thank you for any help

Images here because I don’t know how to embed
IMG 1098 hosted at ImgBB
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[Truffolo]

Sending wishes for comfort and support Poor piggy

 

[Merab]

One of the health experts will be able to help you.
Hope the vet appointment can be moved up and all goes well.
Sending support

 

[Wiebke]

Hi everyone, I’d appreciate any advice for my beloved 7 year old girl Oreo. She has a known bladder stone and occasionally urinates blood but I’ve never seen it bright red like this or sprayed throughout the cage. There’s also a blood clot and her weight dropped from 919 to 874 in one day and I’m so worried about her.

I have a vet appointment scheduled but I’m going to call tomorrow to get it moved up ASAP. In the meantime is there any advice you can give or questions I should ask the vet?

Currently Oreo is taking
0.15 ml potassium citrate twice a day
0.5 ml meloxicam once a day
I’m giving her critical care with the oxbow urinary/joint support treats mixed in because they have glucosamine, and I’m also mixing in HealthyGut probiotics from Chewy

I see her eating hay and sometimes pellets. I tried giving her veggies for lunch and she wasn’t interested. I feel so helpless and hate knowing she’s in pain. Thank you for any help

Images here because I don’t know how to embed
IMG 1098 hosted at ImgBB
IMG 1441 hosted at ImgBB
IMG 1443 hosted at ImgBB
IMG 1444 hosted at ImgBB
IMG 1446 hosted at ImgBB
IMG 1447 hosted at ImgBB

Hi

HUGS

I am so very sorry.

This does sound very worrying indeed and needs an urgent vet examination. Please try to get her seen as soon as possible as an emergency; one possibility could be that the stone has moved and could be blocking the urethra. There are however other possible causes; including that the bleeding could be coming from the reproductive rather than the urinary tract.
Try to give the vet clinic a call as soon as they open tomorrow morning or - if you have them in Denmark - contact an out-of-hours veterinary clinic now.

Here is the link to our one stop emergency and bridging care advice collection, in which we have included links to all necessary information and how-to guides.
Please step in with feeding and watering support. There should be a link on how to improvise.
Emergency and Crisis Care as well as Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

I am keeping my fingers firmly crossed for your little one.

 

[mikkysaur]

Thank you so much everyone, your support means the world to me

Last night I took her to an emergency exotic vet. We did a blood test, urinalysis, and X-rays. She now has two bladder stones instead of one, and the original one is a bit bigger. No blockage but very high white blood cell count due to infection, and mild anemia from the blood loss.

They gave her fluids, pain/nausea injection, and we added gabapentin and SMZ antibiotics to her medications. This is just a bandage for the next 2 weeks to try and fight off the infection, and once she’s doing better we can consider surgery

Since last night she has been very lethargic and just faces a corner in the cage. She was moving around and eating/drinking a little, but not as much as I’d like to see her back to normal. She is still peeing blood, and her poops are less mushy

I feel guilty that I’m not doing enough. I’m so scared to put her through surgery, but now I feel like because I delayed it she’s suffering even more

 

[Wiebke]

Thank you so much everyone, your support means the world to me

Last night I took her to an emergency exotic vet. We did a blood test, urinalysis, and X-rays. She now has two bladder stones instead of one, and the original one is a bit bigger. No blockage but very high white blood cell count due to infection, and mild anemia from the blood loss.

They gave her fluids, pain/nausea injection, and we added gabapentin and SMZ antibiotics to her medications. This is just a bandage for the next 2 weeks to try and fight off the infection, and once she’s doing better we can consider surgery

Since last night she has been very lethargic and just faces a corner in the cage. She was moving around and eating/drinking a little, but not as much as I’d like to see her back to normal. She is still peeing blood, and her poops are less mushy

I feel guilty that I’m not doing enough. I’m so scared to put her through surgery, but now I feel like because I delayed it she’s suffering even more

HUGS

I am very sorry that there is another stone but relieved that is not a separate health issue needing extra treatment.

Please give the meds time to kick in and build up. Especially antibiotics takes about 5 days before they are at optimal strength and then gradually wane in the 5 days after they have been stopped. The same goes for aneamia - the body needs a bit of time to replace those lost blood cells.

Oreo will hopefully be a bit brighter again with every passing day. SMZ (sulfamethoxazole) is the name for one of the two active substances in bactrim/septrin, if that helps you. It is the antibiotic that is most used for the urinary tract.

Please step in with feeding and watering support. That is where you can right now make a positive difference and help Oreo feel better sooner.
Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support Levels

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

The good news is that bladder stone ops in sows have generally got a better recovery rate than boars; in sows it depends on how much the bladder has been damaged and how well that heals off. I've had quite a few piggies with bladder stones at some point when my diet was just out of the sweet spot - which can affect piggies that are too high or too low in the phosphorus : calcium : potassium balance.

Perhaps you may want to start a thread in our diet section and review your diet with some of our more experienced members in this area. There are so many locally different factors, starting with which country you are in, from water hardness to pellet brands to veg and forage, including any treats, which often get overlooked. That is another area where you may be able to make a difference, even if you need to only make a comparatively small tweak.
Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones


Please take a deep breath and try not yo beat yourself up about everything.
Life is not a nicely signposted motorway/highway. It's a winding country road you have to navigate without a map and with many way posts missing or leaving you puzzled as to which way they actually point to.
Experience in life comes from bumps, and it is mostly about not repeating the same mistake all over and learning how to get up again and go on after hitting a bump - and working out what lesson you can take from it. Life is not about never putting a foot wrong; it is about learning get up and go on because that is where you grow and become a stronger person as an adult as you go through life.

I am rooting for Oreo and wish her all the best in getting well enough for her operation.

 

[Merab]

Just offering support for you at this difficult time.
Hugs

 

[mikkysaur]

Just offering support for you at this difficult time.
Hugs

Thank you so much, it means a lot to me and Oreo

 

[mikkysaur]

HUGS

I am very sorry that there is another stone but relieved that is not a separate health issue needing extra treatment.

Please give the meds time to kick in and build up. Especially antibiotics takes about 5 days before they are at optimal strength and then gradually wane in the 5 days after they have been stopped. The same goes for aneamia - the body needs a bit of time to replace those lost blood cells.

Oreo will hopefully be a bit brighter again with every passing day. SMZ (sulfamethoxazole) is the name for one of the two active substances in bactrim/septrin, if that helps you. It is the antibiotic that is most used for the urinary tract.

Please step in with feeding and watering support. That is where you can right now make a positive difference and help Oreo feel better sooner.
Weight and Weight Loss Explained: BMI, Weighing, Poos and Feeding Support Levels

All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

The good news is that bladder stone ops in sows have generally got a better recovery rate than boars; in sows it depends on how much the bladder has been damaged and how well that heals off. I've had quite a few piggies with bladder stones at some point when my diet was just out of the sweet spot - which can affect piggies that are too high or too low in the phosphorus : calcium : potassium balance.

Perhaps you may want to start a thread in our diet section and review your diet with some of our more experienced members in this area. There are so many locally different factors, starting with which country you are in, from water hardness to pellet brands to veg and forage, including any treats, which often get overlooked. That is another area where you may be able to make a difference, even if you need to only make a comparatively small tweak.
Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones


Please take a deep breath and try not yo beat yourself up about everything.
Life is not a nicely signposted motorway/highway. It's a winding country road you have to navigate without a map and with many wayposts missing or leaving you puzzled as to which way they actually point to.
Experience in life comes from bumps, and it is mostly about not repeating the same mistake all over and learning how to get up again and go on after hitting a bump - and working out what lesson you can take from it. Life is not about never putting a foot wrong; it is about learning to get up and go on because that is where you grow and become a stronger person as an adult as you go through life.

I am rooting for Oreo and wish her all the best in getting well enough for her operation.

Thank you for your kindness and reassurance, I appreciate you immensely

 

[Wiebke]

How is your girl doing now?

 

[mikkysaur]

How is your girl doing now?

Hi, thanks so much for asking and keeping Oreo in your thoughts. Oreo is doing well now and eating, moving, gaining weight, and there's no more blood in her pee. She still postures up and squeaks sometimes when she urinates. I'm really grappling with whether or not to go through with surgery since she's already 7 years old, but we're going to two different vets today and tomorrow to get their opinions. To be honest I’m really scared at the thought of putting Oreo through surgery

 

[Wiebke]

Hi, thanks so much for asking and keeping Oreo in your thoughts. Oreo is doing well now and eating, moving, gaining weight, and there's no more blood in her pee. She still postures up and squeaks sometimes when she urinates. I'm really grappling with whether or not to go through with surgery since she's already 7 years old, but we're going to two different vets today and tomorrow to get their opinions. To be honest I’m really scared at the thought of putting Oreo through surgery

7 years is a grand old age; it is the upper end of the average lifespan for our mass produced pet piggies (whether they end up in rescue or not).

Personally, I have drawn the line at 6 years for any major operations for mine as the risk-benefit ratio is getting a bit unfavourable for the fast rising cost for my own liking (seeing the number of piggies I have) but I know of 7 year old piggies who have come through surgery.

 

[mikkysaur]

7 years is a grand old age; it is the upper end of the average lifespan for our mass produced pet piggies (whether they end up in rescue or not).

Personally, I have drawn the line at 6 years for any major operations for mine as the risk-benefit ratio is getting a bit unfavourable for the fast rising cost for my own liking (seeing the number of piggies I have) but I know of 7 year old piggies who have come through surgery.

Thanks for this reassurance, I feel like most posts I see online are about 6 year old piggies recovering from surgery. Maybe I’m just getting hung up on the extra year and trying to tell myself that an operation at 7 years old is not a death sentence for my baby. I really appreciate it

 

[CTWC]

I have no advice really but I will keep you both in my prayers and thoughts and hope that the vets can provide you with an idea of what they think is best medically however I also think that provided pain can be managed sometimes we need to follow our hearts too

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks for this reassurance, I feel like most posts I see online are about 6 year old piggies recovering from surgery. Maybe I’m just getting hung up on the extra year and trying to tell myself that an operation at 7 years old is not a death sentence for my baby. I really appreciate it

You have to brace yourself that the operation may not come off. The risks are over 50% but they are not 100% fatality. Please also listen to your vets, as it how they are feeling about it. A failed operation is always hard on the operating team as well.