UTI issues

[Sarah1515]

Hello,

I have had one of my boys at our vets with a suspected UTI.

On Tuesday, I noticed he was drinking more than usual. I have urine test strips at home, and so did a test.
The result showed blood in his urine, and slightly higher protein, his wee was visibly red as well.

The vet concurred that a UTI was likely, but did also discuss the possibility of bladder stones/ sludge/cystitis etc.
She explained that an ultrasound would be able to determine a more accurate idea of what was going on.

However, our boy seemed well in himself, has been eating, pooing and weeing. So she got him started on a course of antibiotics, and I was to monitor him and weigh him daily.

I’ve been doing this the past couple of days.

Tonight, I have heard squeaking, and seen hunching when he is weeing/pooing. The wee and poo is coming out, but he is clearly in pain doing it.
He is still eating normally.

I have had him at an out of hours vet tonight, and explained all of this.
She has done an ultrasound and couldn’t see anything obvious that could be causing a problem, such as stones.
She said there is possibly a little bit of sludge, but it wasn’t fully clear. But she did say that could be because of the aggravation from whatever is going on.

She has given him an injection of metacam (pain relief) and we have got more to give him once a day.

The bit of wee she did see him do did look a bit more normal colour.

Does anyone have any experience of this that could help me help my boy through this?
I’ve been giving him plenty of fresh water and extra cucumber to help keep fluid up.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thank you xx

 

[Piggies&buns]

So they think this is as a result of sludge?
Sludge needs to be flushed out - very small amounts might come out with strong urination but other times surgical flushing is needed.

Whether once a day painkillers are enough will depend on many factors - including dosage, strength (whether it’s cat or dog version - a small dose of cat version may not do much for severe pain) - and piggies often need painkillers twice a day. You will have to see how he does with it.

Check his diet to ensure his water is filtered, pellets are kept strictly limited and high calcium veggies are not fed often.
Additional cucumber will help with fluid intake but it rather depends on the levels of sludge as to whether alone additional fluid and urination will be enough to flush it out .

I’ve added a guide below which explains all the types of bladder issues piggies can have. This also includes sterile cystitis which can only be diagnosed after no other cause is found and antibiotics have failed to treat symptoms.

I hope he is ok

Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones