What does my guinea pig have?

[ericz6]

Some context first:

I've had my guinea pig (female) since about mid 2016, so she's about 6 years old now.

3 nights ago, she started urinating blood, and I read up online that it was probably a UTI or some reproductive system infection. Whatever it was, I took her to the vet but the price of a radiology scan or an ultrasound were $300 and $170 respectively which were both out of my budget on top of the $173 consultation fee. I ended up getting her some vial with a painkiller medication and the antibiotic for UTI, which combined were ~$50.

The issue now is deciding whether or not she has an UTI or if it's something else. If it's something else, it's unfortunately likely that I'll be unable to pay for the cost of any corrective surgery, especially seeing how I'd need to pay for the radiology scan or ultrasound to diagnose it in the first place.

Yesterday though, I carefully examined her urination and realized that she seemed to pee just regular pee at first, but what followed where drops of what looked to be pure blood. The vet also noted that there was slight hairless on her sides, which I also saw, which I believe indicates some reproductive organ infection.

Either way, my main concern is deciding what exactly she has, I'm unsure if the detail about the blood drops being "separate" in a sense from the actual urine is helpful to postulate a diagnosis, but I don't want her to suffer or live a poor quality of life if it's something I can't afford to cure.

Any additional insights or advice on what I can do would be of tremendous help, thank you.

 

[Wiebke]

Some context first:

I've had my guinea pig (female) since about mid 2016, so she's about 6 years old now.

3 nights ago, she started urinating blood, and I read up online that it was probably a UTI or some reproductive system infection. Whatever it was, I took her to the vet but the price of a radiology scan or an ultrasound were $300 and $170 respectively which were both out of my budget on top of the $173 consultation fee. I ended up getting her some vial with a painkiller medication and the antibiotic for UTI, which combined were ~$50.

The issue now is deciding whether or not she has an UTI or if it's something else. If it's something else, it's unfortunately likely that I'll be unable to pay for the cost of any corrective surgery, especially seeing how I'd need to pay for the radiology scan or ultrasound to diagnose it in the first place.

Yesterday though, I carefully examined her urination and realized that she seemed to pee just regular pee at first, but what followed where drops of what looked to be pure blood. The vet also noted that there was slight hairless on her sides, which I also saw, which I believe indicates some reproductive organ infection.

Either way, my main concern is deciding what exactly she has, I'm unsure if the detail about the blood drops being "separate" in a sense from the actual urine is helpful to postulate a diagnosis, but I don't want her to suffer or live a poor quality of life if it's something I can't afford to cure.

Any additional insights or advice on what I can do would be of tremendous help, thank you.

Hi

I am very sorry for your problems. Vet cost have sadly gone sky high and are becoming increasingly unaffordable for many caring pet owners; especially in the USA, although the UK is start to catch up fast now.

Can you please clarify:
- Have bladder stones/sludge been exlcuded by the scan? Sheer blood from the urinary tract is often the result of a stone scraping its way down a urethra; more rarely from cancer in the bladder.
- Bleeding from the reproductive tract of a sow generally indicates some serious issues in there (potentially an ovarian cyst becoming cancerous).
In either case, it would unfortunately need a removal operation of the stone or of the reproductive trat (spaying operation).

I am however not a vet and do not have access to your piggy, so I can only guess based on your information, which doesn't necessarily mean that my guesses are correct. I am very sorry to not have any better news.

 

[Princess Dustmop]

I'm surprised the ultrasound was that much; Some of the vets around here will include that in the regular appointment, though it sounds like you may have been at an emergency vet given the consultation fee, so they may not include much of anything, or you may have had a emergency vet (general, triage, etc.)and needed an exotics consultation to read a guinea pig ultrasound. Radiographs are just that expensive, unfortunately.
Urinalysis would be useful and generally cheaper than imaging type tests, though not free. It would indicate whether there were bacteria in the urine to be treated with the antibiotic. The ultrasound looks for inflammation of the urethra and/or bladder. The radiograph looks for stones. For the urinalysis, you need a sample, but guinea pigs have pretty small bladders, so you can usually get one by putting the piggy in a clean carrier/surface and waiting for urine (and hoping they don't poo in it) and then collecting that. If the vet needs a cleaner sample, they have to get it during an appointment.
If it is an infection, you should see an improvement on the antibiotics relatively quickly (but you finish the course even after improvement, or it comes right back, unless there are extenuating circumstances, but that would generally involve a vet again).

 

[ericz6]

Hi

I am very sorry for your problems. Vet cost have sadly gone sky high and are becoming increasingly unaffordable for many caring pet owners; especially in the USA, although the UK is start to catch up fast now.

Can you please clarify:
- Have bladder stones/sludge been exlcuded by the scan? Sheer blood from the urinary tract is often the result of a stone scraping its way down a urethra; more rarely from cancer in the bladder.
- Bleeding from the reproductive tract of a sow generally indicates some serious issues in there (potentially an ovarian cyst becoming cancerous).
In either case, it would unfortunately need a removal operation of the stone or of the reproductive trat (spaying operation).

I am however not a vet and do not have access to your piggy, so I can only guess based on your information, which doesn't necessarily mean that my guesses are correct. I am very sorry to not have any better news.

So unfortunately I didn't pay for the scan as like I said it was out of my budget range, and all I have at home to work with is some sort of pain killer and antibiotics for any possible UTI.
Would it hurt her to give her the antibiotics if she didn't have UTI? Is surgery the only way to deal with ovarian cysts for example?
I'll try to provide updates here on whether or not her urine stops having blood, I've given two doses of the antibiotic meds so far and one of the painkillers, it's been about 20 hours since the first anti biotic dose.

 

[Wiebke]

So unfortunately I didn't pay for the scan as like I said it was out of my budget range, and all I have at home to work with is some sort of pain killer and antibiotics for any possible UTI.
Would it hurt her to give her the antibiotics if she didn't have UTI? Is surgery the only way to deal with ovarian cysts for example?
I'll try to provide updates here on whether or not her urine stops having blood, I've given two doses of the antibiotic meds so far and one of the painkillers, it's been about 20 hours since the first anti biotic dose.

Hi

Please give your piggy the antibiotics in case it is a urinary tract infection and see whether that is working. If you haven't got clear indications that something specific is going wrong (like a scan or palpitation showing up a stone), then you work your way down the check list of potential issues from the most easiest and common to the more difficult, which is exactly what your vet is doing.

Speculating about all potential worst case scenarios at this early stage will not help you and will only increase your anxiety. It was not quite clear from your initial post what diagnostics had been actually done or not.

We simply cannot tell you what is going on sight unseen, guess accurately based on your guesses and speculations and come out better than any hands-on vet examination or any diagnostic instruments/procedures. I hope that you can understand that?

 

[Princess Dustmop]

Antibiotics can potentially affect appetite, so make sure that you're monitoring her to make sure that she's still eating enough and not losing weight. You'll usually see any effect on appetite within a first couple doses, but if there is an infection, stopping too antibiotics early can create recurrence or resistance. If the meds do affect her appetite, that can always be addressed by support feeding and probiotics.