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Squeaking a little when weeing

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Sorry I'm a bit late in the day. I have just replied to you facebook status. I asked my vet for Septrin and he did his own reserch before prescribing it and when he was happy, he ordered some for me. In the meantime, he gave me baytril but the Septrin came in a couple of days later. My vets always keep septrin in stock now so in the end, my nagging was worth while :) xx
 
Just got back and I'm not at all convinced on what i was told. I saw the regular vet as the cavy vet is off until Thurs, she felt his bladder and said it dont feel like stones but to rule that out he would need a xray. She gave me a price and said that no GA would be used if he was good and kept still but most of the time they need a little gas to keep them still, as they put them on their side and sometimes they hunch their legs up blocking the view.

Then she said that i could try giving him grass/dandelions, hay and veg no dry food as they dont need it. She said they need to eat one carrier bag full of grass/dandelions a day!

I then asked was their any antibiotic's and she said i can try some for a week if i wanted, so i said yes and she gave me septrin, she told me he need 1ml twice a day, is this the correct dose? He weighs 1225g.

I took a urine sample down and she didnt even test it, she just looked at it squirted it into the bottle and said it looks ok. She said its normal for them to have some deposits in the urine eg calcium deposits.

She asked me to come back in a week for another check up and to tell her how i got on with grass/dandelions and septrin.

She also said that cranberries are too high in sugar and shouldn't be given. mallethead She also said that males sometimes makes noises when they wee to show the other male? What ever that means! :{

I really dont know what to do! The cavy vet is back on Thurs and I'm due to go back next tues 5.10. Do i wait until then and see if the septrin works? He is fine in himself and eats/drink, very active and his usually cheeky self. :)

I forgot to add that i ordered some of the urine strips to home test, so they will be here tomorrow so i shall be testing.
 
I forgot to ask shall i get a probiotic? As the vet didnt say anything about giving one.

I need to give his first dose soon, so I'm hoping someone will help me on the dose, is it 1ml what the vet stated or 0.5mls like ive read in other threads?

:)
 
I'm not sure about the dosage as Eliza was on a higher dosage and my vet assured me she would be okay and she was but I can't remember what it was now. Yes, it is right that it is normal for there to be some deposits in the urine but the vet should have tested it for blood. Eliza's urine looked normal after 2 weeks but when the vet tested it and looked at it through the microscope, he saw droplets of blood in it. Blood in urine is not always seen by the naked eye.

With Connie, my vet did feel her bladder and said he couldn't feel any stones but said he would do the x ray just to be sure.

I've never heard of males squeaking more when weeing but I've never had males.

It is good that she gave you the septrin but she should have at least tested the urine.

In this case, I would still carry on giving the cranberry juice xx
 
I put a tiny bit in the water to begin with but didn't give as much as when she was on baytril as baytril is harsher on a guinea pigs gut than septrin. This is another reason why septrin is a better antibiotic :)
 
Ive just given him his first dose 1ml and he hated it but i loved the smell, bananas mmmm.

Also he had another wee with no squeaks as soon as i put him in the cage. :) I'm hoping it is just a touch of cystitis, as with bladder stones wouldnt he be in alot of pain?

:)

Thanks for all your advice Claire. :))
 
It's certainly wise to treat for cystitis first, then if no improvement an xray to check for stones - you're on the right track and Gizmo's condition doesn't sound severe/chronic at the moment.

Septrin dosage, I replied in your other thread, but yes 1ml is a safe dose although it is the high dose usually saved for stubborn/chronic infections. Be glad you got the Septrin without a fight...! It's up to you if you give 0.5ml or 1ml twice daily, Guinea Lynx has a dosage calculator which states that the optimal dose for a guinea weighing 1225g is 0.7ml twice daily - right in the middle! I think as long as you don't go over 1ml twice a day, it's your choice whether to reduce the dose a little or not.

I don't think the vet you saw was terrible, better than many "non guinea" vets, but a few bits of what she told you were questionable. Squeaking when peeing to show other males.......? I'm puzzled with you on that one. :)
 
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I'm think I'm going to stick with the 1ml of septrin just to be safe. I did have a look on guinea lynx and too noticed the 0.7mls dose. I do remember the vet saying that the reason she said 1ml is because just incase any dosent go in his mouth.

The vet has only given me 12mls of septrin so ive only got enough for 6 days. But I'm hoping that i should see an improvement in 48 hours if it is cysistis, is that correct? Maybe when i see the cavy vet on Tuesday he maybe offer more advice.

Thank you all for replying i really cant thank you enough, as i am one parnoid piggy mum and having everyones advice has really helped ease my mind! :)
 
Yes, I'd see how he goes for the next few days. If there's any sign of squeaking when he wees after that I'd take him back to the other vet to check for stones.

Like the others have said already, it's up to you if you prefer to stick with the lower dose of Septrin. My poorly boy is on 1ml twice a day even though he weighs less (1060g)

Sarah
 
My cavy savvy Vet recently prescribed the same Septrin dosage that your Vet did (1ml twice daily), for similar symptoms, although perhaps more stubborn in my case. I was also concerned that it seemed a high dosage, so I double checked it with the Vet and then triple checked it with Laura before I felt safe to start giving it!

I'd definitely agree that just looking at a urine sample isnt enough - testing is required! I'd ask your usual Vet to test it when you go back and in the meantime you could try testing at home. (And a tip for a first time home tester: use a dropper or small syringe to drop little drops of urine onto the raised square sections on the sticks, rather than dipping/wiping the whole stick into the urine. You can easily get a false reading if you're not careful, due to the coloured 'dye' bleeding and contaminating the squares around it, so you need to try and keep the urine contained within each square as much as poss. Might sound obvious but try not to overload it with too much liquid or it will be running all over the place!) Happy testing! :)
 
Ive just done the test and i used the syringe to drop one amount of urine onto each section. The only things that came up were PH 8.5 and Protein was the 300 which was the highest, all the others were normal, they were negative or normal.

What does the PH and protein indicate?

:)
 
pH is spot on, just what it should be.

Must admit I'm not sure what the protein level indicates, as far as I am aware it should be negative. Worth phoning the vet to ask, and I'll see what I can find out.
 
Thanks Laura, all i can find is that in humans it can be a sign of infection eg water infection/cysistis.

I'm glad that there wasnt any blood etc as then i would have been very worried.

:)
 
This result is pretty much the same as I found when testing my own pig during cystitis-like symptoms. High PH and a presence of protein but no blood.

High PH values indicate high alkaline. On every test my piggy's urine was highly alkaline and my Vet advised that this is normal for guinea pigs so I didn't really enquire further and am not sure whether or not high PH can point to any specific medical conditions. I personally wouldn't be worried about a PH reading of 8.5 but please check with your Vet to be sure - I'm no expert!

I'd be more concerned about monitoring the protein though. I could be wrong but I think protein in urine can indicate kidney/urinary issues, which ties in with the cystitis symptoms your piggy has. Anyway, with my pig, the level of protein gradually decreased during the course of Septrin (from 300mg/dL down to just a trace), so hopefully you'll find the same. To be honest I didn't really ask my Vet much about the protein as, by the time I spoke to her about the results, it had already dropped significantly.

Definitely keep a record of results and discuss them with your usual Vet ASAP (and make sure he/she does a test for you too). Obviously in the meantime if you're overly worried and/or your piggy's symptoms worsen, then I'd go back to the other Vet or find another.

Really hope your little one responds well to the Septrin and you see improvements in him very soon x
 
How often did you test your piggys urine to see if the protein levels were dropping?

Gizmo has only had 2 doses of the septrin and i have enough for 6 days. The urine i tested was yesterdays urine before i started the septrin.

:)
 
My piggies have come up with high protein levels during cystitis as well. Blood was not always present in tests and the alcaline level in guinea pigs urine are normally high - that's the reason why bladder stones are comparatively frequent in guinea pigs.

Just continue with the medication and see how it goes. You may have to repeat the course of septrin, as UTIs can be pretty stubborn to clear sometimes.
 
Thanks, i know that I'm being too parnoid and I'm not expecting him to be fine just after 2 doses of the septrin, but i just worry. It didnt help that the vet didnt test his urine and i just worried from there onwards.

I am going to relax now and enjoy cuddle time and floortime with my boys.

Thank you all again for all your help and advice, i do need to stop worrying so much as he is fine in himself and very cheeky as always, which is a good sign. :))
 
If you have enough sticks then I would test every day. Don't know if this is too often but, for me, it'd make me feel better if I felt like I was monitoring more closely....although of course there is a risk of getting disheartened if there's a 'blip' and the results go up and down a bit.

I only had a few sticks so I was testing much less frequently than I would've liked. I started testing a while before the Septrin and continued during it and it worked out every 4-5 days or so.
 
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Joey&Gizmo said:
Ive just done the test and i used the syringe to drop one amount of urine onto each section. The only things that came up were PH 8.5 and Protein was the 300 which was the highest, all the others were normal, they were negative or normal.
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Btw, with my test sticks (Bayer Multistix 10 SG) a result of 300mg/dL is the second highest protein result on the scale noted. After this it jumps right up to 2000mg/dL as the highest result.

When you say yours tested at "300", was that measured in mg/dL?

Not trying to get too finicky or technical, just wondering if your reading is perhaps not as scarily big as you might imagine, just because it's the highest on that particular scale....if you know what I mean?!

Glad to hear that he's on good form as a cheeky lil piggy! :)
 
Yes sorry i am using those ones too, my mistake! Yes it the 300 mg/dl, so you are right it isnt the highest on the scale! :)

I have 24 test strips left as i bought the one pack of 25 strips. I may aswell use them as the expiry date is 12-2010.

:)
 
Phew!

I thought you must've been using a different version and was confused! Glad to hear that it's not the highest possible result on the scale :)
 
Both Connie and Eliza had high protein levels in their urine when they had infections. Make sure that you get another course of septrin before your existing one runs out as you don't want to stop giving Gizmo the septrin only to have to start it up again a day or 2 later if he does have an infection :)
 
Will do Claire, in fact I'm going to ring the vets now and make sure that i see Mark the cavy vet on Tuesday. :)
 
I have just done another urine test and now today the protein levels have dropped from 300 mg/dl to 30 mg/dl, but now there is blood present in his urine. :( Its showing that their is non hemolyzed blood and its the second one on the test, which i suppose is good as it means that it isnt high, but i am worried now or is blood sometimes present with UTI's or mainly caused by stones?

8...
 
It's good that the protein has dropped but I'm afraid I can't comment on the presence of blood as I have no experience of that. Hopefully someone knowledgeable can advise soon.

The only thing I'd add is, are you certain that the result is accurate i.e. no dye has spread from another part of the stick? When I first started testing there was one time that I got what I initially thought was a positive result for a trace of blood. Green speckles on a yellow background indicated a trace of blood but when I checked properly I realised that there weren't actually any green speckles in the square, but the green colour was simply just bleeding in slightly from around the edges of the yellow square. I suspected that the test was contaminated from the green PH dye on the square next to it, thus giving a false reading. From then on I made sure I was more careful and all future blood readings were negative, in my case.
 
I was very careful and i made sure that none run onto the other sections and again i used the 1ml syringe to carefully put each drop of urine onto the sections. But i think i will do another test this evening just to make sure that i didnt have a false reading and i think i will put the drop of urine onto the blood one first and wait for the result before i do the others.

I looked on the internet to see what it mean as i cant remember what it meant from back in the days i was a veterinary nurse and i found that its normally comes from the bladder due to infection eg water infection. Will see how my other test goes later.

Thanks Missy.
 
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