Blood In Urine & loss of appetite

[RichF]

Hi,
I was looking for some guidance please?
One of our guineapigs, Honey, had an issue with what the vets thought was a UTI. She had blood in her urine & her poos were really soft. She was given pain killers & antibiotics.

She has totally lost her appetite & the poor thing just looks fed up. She seems interested in food but then doesnt bother eating any. We had to start syringe feeding & I took her back to the vets & they gave her an injection to help bring her appetite back. Not sure what it was.

It doesn't seem to have helped & she there is still blood in her wee. She's worse than before we took her for treatment. The vet didn't know what to do so told me to visit an exotic pets specialist. This visit & information cost me £28. Fuming about this visit.

She had a scan & an xray & they didn't think it was stones.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Is she still on the antibiotics?
What antibiotic was it?
Did the loss of appetite start when she went on antibiotics? They can upset the digestion in some cases and cause loss of appetite. We advise giving a probiotic to a piggy on antibiotics as it can help boost the gut bacteria.

What are her weight checks telling you?

All you can do as an owner is weigh her daily and syringe feed enough to keep her weight stable each day.
I would definitely see another vet particularly as she is getting worse.

Not Eating, Weight Loss And The Importance Of Syringe Feeding Fibre
All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

 

[RichF]

Hi,
She was given Baytril. She is no longer on it. We did start to get her a probiotic in her water about half way through the course. Her pellets have probiotics in them as well. I was a little disappointed the vet didn't suggest this.

The loss started when she was on the antibiotics. You could see that she wasn't eating her normal amount. It wasn't until about 7 days in when she just stopped.

She's lost just over 100g in the past two weeks.

It's just horrible to see. She's got such a great little personality & she just looks so fed up.

I'm waiting on the new vet to ring me. All her details are being sent over. Hopefully, they can help her.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Hi,
She was given Baytril. She is no longer on it. We did start to get her a probiotic in her water about half way through the course. Her pellets have probiotics in them as well. I was a little disappointed the vet didn't suggest this.

The loss started when she was on the antibiotics. You could see that she wasn't eating her normal amount. It wasn't until about 7 days in when she just stopped.

She's lost just over 100g in the past two weeks.

It's just horrible to see. She's got such a great little personality & she just looks so fed up.

I'm waiting on the new vet to ring me. All her details are being sent over. Hopefully, they can help her.

Not all vets would suggest a probiotic as they are not a prescription item.
Please don’t add probiotics to her drinking water. It can have a negative effect on their drinking habits (nothing should ever be added to drinking water). Probiotics should be given directly, the means by which depends on which one you used. Fibreplex comes in a tube which can be directly inserted into a piggy mouth (if they are amenable to it, not all will take Fibreplex) or a dot of it can be added into a syringe feed. Pro c - a sprinkle can be added into a syringe feed. The other reason probiotics should not be added into drinking water is because there must always be a 1-2 hours gap between an antibiotic dose and a probiotic dose. If it’s in water which piggy can use freely then that gap cannot be controlled and the antibiotic dose can render the probiotics useless.

Make sure to weigh her daily and syringe feed a minimum of 60ml per day to stop any further weight loss.
I’m glad you’ve been in touch with another vet. Keep us posted on how things go

 

[RichF]

The probiotic was a pinch in a syringe. I didn't put it in the main water bottle. She's not drinking from that anyway.

She hated fibreplex. I found the syringe quite stiff as well. It was hard to administer.

Thanks for the advice! I'll update once I know more.