Bladder woes

[Helen C]

A quick question for those of you experienced in these matters...

One of my girls, Eglantine, started peeing blood last week. We went to the vet last Friday, and Eglantine was obviously pretty sore when the vet examined her. On the pictures of her wee I had taken (the things that hide on our phones...), you could see that the urine was very cloudy, on top of being bloody. The vet did an ecography, that showed that the bladder walls are pretty thick and inflamed and lots of deposits in the urine.
The vet started her on Meloxicam (the dog version) with a high dose for three days and a lower dose for three more, to be continued if there was still blood. She told us to switch to calcium-less veggies, change the drinking water and make sure Eglantine gets plenty of exercise.

It's been a week now, and despite the anti inflammatory, Eglantine still complains when she wees (not every time, I assume, it seems to be worse when she's peeing and pooping at the same time). Yesterday, I spotted a bit of cleaner wee, but tonight, there's blood again.
I called the vet (she's piggy savvy) and she said it might happen for a little while, until the bladder is well flushed. It just seems so long to see her in pain... Shouldn't the blood have stopped by now?

 

[piggieminder]

Sending Eglantine lots of healing vibes, I hope she gets well soon.
Hopefully a health and illness expert will be along soon.

 

[piggiemummy03x]

sending your piggie lots of love and healing vibes its so horrible having to see our babies suffer, my della has had bladder problems and it kills me to see her in pain.. sorry i can’t give you any advice, i really hope she recovers soon!

 

[weepweeps]

Hello the only experience I’ve had with a piggy in pain and blood when peeing was a bladder stone. Could there be an infection that needs antibiotics?

 

[Helen C]

Hello the only experience I’ve had with a piggy in pain and blood when peeing was a bladder stone. Could there be an infection that needs antibiotics?

Thanks for your reply. The vet is confident that the pain and the blood are due to the inflammed bladder--the ecography showed that there were a lot of crystals in the bladder, so she's hoping the calcium-free diet and trying to get her to drink more will help flush it all out. Eglantine isn't losing weigth and seems reasonably perky, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
I'll call the vet back next week to keep her informed and see if she wants to check Eglantine over again, though.

 

[Piggies&buns]

The first important thing to note is that you cannot and should not go for a calcium free diet (it will actually be impossible to do so given there is some calcium in everything) but a diet too low in calcium is just as a bad as one which is too high. They still need some calcium to remain healthy.

Most calcium comes into the diet via pellets and drinking water. Ensure water is filtered and pellets are kept to a minimum (no more than one tablespoon per day) and are ideally grain free.

Keeping the diet as wet as possible is also a good idea - ie a good amount of veg and some fresh grass will help. Run filtered water over veggies and feed them wet to help increase water intake if she is not a good drinker.

Definitely keep in touch with your vet about the crystals - sometimes they need their bladders flushed to remove sediment.