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Uti?

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Pigmad

Pigmad

Teenage Guinea Pig
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Hi everyone :) i've been having a few problems with my boy patch thats been going on for nearly 6 weeks now. he was wheeking like mad when pooing and weeing.

he was originally diagnosed with a uti and was given baytril and metacam, he was on it for 10 days with no improvement, he then went on to have some xrays to check for stones, thankfully none showed up on the xray but it did show that his pelvis is out of line ( the right side of his pelvis is closer to the spine than the left side ), the vet said he has probably been kicked or dropped ( must add ive only had them since may, had one boy put down due to a stone, i rescued them from a dreadful women who had no idea about pigs! pow-pow ) and after the xrays he stopped wheeking so much when going to the toilet but he's been doing it for the past couple of days so hes got vet on friday morning hopefully he'll have a course of septrin.

hes been having cooled barley water which he absolutely adores ( it really stinks!) and cranberry juice (unsweetened) not sure there alot else i could be doing!

hes eating and drinking normally :)

any other advice greatly received :)

Tanya xx
 
Sorry to hear that your piggy seems unwell, Tanya, but it sounds like you are doing alll the right things for him.

How old is Patch?
 
I'm sorry that Patch is having these problems. I can't really think of anything else you could be doing as you seem to be doing the right things at the moment. The only thing I could think it might be could be the kidneys causing the problems. This website might help.

http://www.oginet.com/pgurney/kidneys.htm
 
goldie, the woman who i rescued him from said he was 2 years old but i think he could be older

thanks for that info rw3399 do you know if theres any test they could do to find out if its his kidneys?

in all the years ive had pigs this is the first time ive had any health problems :(
 
The vet could do a simple stick test(clinitest) in the surgery if you take a urine sample along. This only takes a few seconds and will show if there is any protein or blood in the urine.A high protein level would indicate an infection and blood would indicate a possible stone.Is your piggy passing any blood at all?.If not,it is most likely a deep infection .Septrin is the best anti biotic for this.

Sometimes renal stones do not show up on x ray.This happened to one of my boars,but he had been passing a lot of blood.There was obviously something very wrong so my vet did a laporotomy and found a large stone inbedded in the wall of the bladder.He was fine after the surgery and lived for another 3 years with no problems.Also a friend of mine had a boar who was also crying when urinating and passing blood,his x ray was nad as well.,and a stone was discovered when he was opened up.He too did very well after the surgery and is still alive 10 months later.
Try the Septrin for about 14 days then if there is no improvement and /or there is any blood in the urine,have another x ray done.If that shows nothing you may have to consider laporotomy.
 
thanx for your reply mary :) he hasn't been peeing blood his pee is normal, the thing thats confusing me is when he pees or poos sometimes he doesn't squeak ?/ I'm wondering if the infection is finally going but just needs a little bit of help from the septrin? ill let you know what vet says tomorrow :)
 
I agree with everything Mary says. Today Riff had a huge stone removed (which was shown on x ray yesterday). Until recently there were no crystals in the urine, just blood and protein. I wish I had acted quicker with Riff.

Good luck.
 
hi lucinda hope your piggy is ok :) well we had an eventful morning at the vets! firstly patch decided he was going to bite the vet and took a chunk out of her finger! it was so embarassing! anyway she managed to check him over and all his bits look normal so she put him on 0.15ml of septrin twice a day and 0.5ml of metacam twice a day. he had a poo and a wee when he was at the vets and she said it looked completely normal. she seems to think thst he just needs a bit of help getting rid of the infection so he on his meds for 2 weeks.

just a quick question ive put probiotic in his water but he lives with his brother, it won't hurt the other pig to drink it will it?
 
ok so hes had his first dose of septrin and he hated it! he only has 0.15 ml so most of it gets stuck in the syringe rolleyes i was wondering if i could mush it up with something (maybe baby food?) so i can get the whole of the dose in him

any ideas greatly recieved?
 
I'm not very familiar with probiotics but when giving piggies medication I wouldn't put anything in the water as it will dilute the strength of it and secondly you don't know how much of it he's getting. I would syringe it directly. I'm not sure if it would be bad for your other piggie but I don't think it would be as it something to protect the stomach I think.
 
another question, sorry i ask alot of questions :red

ok so patch is on septrin but I'm not sure the dose is right? on the bottle it says SEPTRIN PAEDIATRIC SUSP give 0.15ml twice daily, but that is literally just a drop, he is 1.3 kg (he's been this weight since the vet weighed him at the first sign of his UTI 6 weeks ago), he is quite a big lad and the dose just doesn't seem to be alot?

he seems to be ok in himself, he just stuffed his face and is now flaked out in his cage :)
 
hi everyone, well patch has been on the septrin for a week now :) he seems to be getting better but is still squeaking sometimes when he goes to the toilet, not as often as before. I'm a little worried about his poo though it seems to have gone lighter in colour and they are quite large could this be the septrin?

edit: i know he must be feeling better because he has been popcorning alotthe past few days
 
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I would think it's probably from the medication like when we take medication and sometimes it upsets us.
 
hi rw3399 :) i had him at the vets this afternoon and thats what she seems to think, but she has got some of his poo's and she's sending them off to lab to be analysed (sp?) as some of them have been quite runny :{ ive checked him tonight and they are getting firmer :) he off veg for a few days so time will tell :)
 
Hopefully it is a side effect from the medication and he is feeling better soon x
 
still waiting to hear back from vets about the poo sample :... patch seems to be getting worse :( hes really going mad when he wees and especially when he poos it a real painful squeak :( hes still eating and drinking.

does anybody know how quick bladder stones can form? he had an xray about 3 weeks ago and it was clear, no sludge or anything :{ now he doing what my other pig who had a stone was doing :( i really don't want to lose him 8...
 
thanks rw3399 but i think ive read all the stuff there is on stones after my other pig had one :(

he is just really confusing me at the moment to look at him he looks perfectly healthy he has a shiny coat bright eyes his weight has stayed the same. I'm just still hoping its the infection but hes been on meds for 3 weeks in total now and they don't seem to be working :(
 
If he's been on the same meds for three weeks, would it be possible to speak to your vet and see if they can change the antibiotic to see if he responds to a different one?
 
hes had baytril and that didnt do anything and he's now on septrin i dont know what other ones there are?
 
MaryH or one of the other more experienced people would know. Sorry I can't help you. Hope someone can soon xx
 
thats what i was thinking but to be honest i dont think they will find anything :{ i've had to clean his bum 5 times today so maybe he is just impacted :{ i just dont know ?/
 
had his test results back today and they are normal, hes off his meds so i guess its just a wait and see situation to see if he gets any better :{
 
It's good news that the test results were clear. Maybe now all the meds have been stopped he might be a bit better. Could it be possible that one of the meds has upset him and caused his 'impaction'?
 
thats what I'm thinking I'm gonna give him a couple of weeks to see if it clears up and if hes still doing it, ive found a vet who specialises in small animals, ill take him to this new vet and see what they say, it could just be that his dodgy hip is pressing on his bladder/bowel but i will have to wait and see :)
 
I was just thinking..........i use a colic drop for our boy who's older and has impaction.....is it worth a go?
and what about maybe a probiotic? everyone in the UK swears by it...i was kindly sent some and it's great as it's def helped settled our boys tum :) i know what he used to be like, super miserable..........i'm sure the probiotic has helped and i know i've heard the others talk of using it when their piggies have been unwell to help settle their tums :)
Healing wheeeeeeeeks and loves from us both xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
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