Bloody urine with a terrible smell

[doubtful101]

My female guinea guinea pig has been peeing very red pee for about a month. She is having a lot of pain when peeing/pooping. We saw a vet immediately, and she has been on an antibiotic (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole - idk if this has another name) since then, along with metacam and buprenorphine, and critical care. She got an xray and was stone free. My vet said to give it a few weeks and see if it got better. She mentioned IC, saying it was common these days.

Her pee went back to just sort of pink, but then it got worse again, it’s back to blood red and her pain is definitely worse, so we’re going back to the vet again tomorrow.

Sort of throwing everything at this, I wanted to buy cystease, but the only place I found it for sale was from a secondary seller on Amazon, and shipping would be over a month.

I ordered shilintong and yesterday I gave her the proper dosage. I also ordered glucosamine, the oxbow joint supplements, which arrive tomorrow.

My main concern now is that for the past day or so her pee has started to smell really really bad. Sort of fishy, she smells so bad I can smell her from a few feet away. I have been cleaning and drying her once daily to prevent scald, but she still smells foul.

We are seeing the vet again tomorrow to get a urinalysis tomorrow, but I want to be prepared going into it, because my vet seemed ready to say it was IC from the get go.

I am furiously googling all hours of the day and night because her crying while peeing for a month has been hard. I’m to the point of diminishing returns for my effort searching. Any answers to the questions I have would be greatly appreciated.

Is the smell indicative of a bacterial infection vs sterile IC? Could it possibly be because of the shilintong? The herb smells ultra pungent, but different to how she smells.

Photo evidence of guinea pig included

 

[weepweeps]

Wow what a little stunner she is.

I’m sorry I haven’t got any experience of IC. Hopefully one of the experts will be along in the morning. Good luck at the vets. I hope your piggy is soon feeling better.

 

[Wiebke]

My female guinea guinea pig has been peeing very red pee for about a month. She is having a lot of pain when peeing/pooping. We saw a vet immediately, and she has been on an antibiotic (trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole - idk if this has another name) since then, along with metacam and buprenorphine, and critical care. She got an xray and was stone free. My vet said to give it a few weeks and see if it got better. She mentioned IC, saying it was common these days.

Her pee went back to just sort of pink, but then it got worse again, it’s back to blood red and her pain is definitely worse, so we’re going back to the vet again tomorrow.

Sort of throwing everything at this, I wanted to buy cystease, but the only place I found it for sale was from a secondary seller on Amazon, and shipping would be over a month.

I ordered shilintong and yesterday I gave her the proper dosage. I also ordered glucosamine, the oxbow joint supplements, which arrive tomorrow.

My main concern now is that for the past day or so her pee has started to smell really really bad. Sort of fishy, she smells so bad I can smell her from a few feet away. I have been cleaning and drying her once daily to prevent scald, but she still smells foul.

We are seeing the vet again tomorrow to get a urinalysis tomorrow, but I want to be prepared going into it, because my vet seemed ready to say it was IC from the get go.

I am furiously googling all hours of the day and night because her crying while peeing for a month has been hard. I’m to the point of diminishing returns for my effort searching. Any answers to the questions I have would be greatly appreciated.

Is the smell indicative of a bacterial infection vs sterile IC? Could it possibly be because of the shilintong? The herb smells ultra pungent, but different to how she smells.

Photo evidence of guinea pig included

Hi and welcome

Good that you are going to have her vet checked.

Please have both her urinary and her reproductive tract checked. She could have sterile IC indeed if the antibiotic hasn't made any real impact.
The fishy smelling fluid could also be coming from the womb instead (it did with my Cariad 'Darling', who additionally had recurring issues with bladder sludge in the wake of a very fast growing stone when her womb went badly wrong just half a year later) and it would indeed require an antibiotic, irrespective of which tract it was from.

- Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones
- Sow Problems 'Down Below' (Ovarian Cysts, Super-seasons, Womb Infection, Pregnancy & Mammary Tumours)

Wishing you all the best.

 

[doubtful101]

Hi and welcome

Good that you are going to have her vet checked.

Please have both her urinary and her reproductive tract checked. She could have sterile IC indeed if the antibiotic hasn't made any real impact.
The fishy smelling fluid could also be coming from the womb instead (it did with my Cariad 'Darling', who additionally had recurring issues with bladder sludge in the wake of a very fast growing stone when her womb went badly wrong just half a year later) and it would indeed require an antibiotic, irrespective of which tract it was from.

- Wiebke's Guide to Pees and Stones
- Sow Problems 'Down Below' (Ovarian Cysts, Super-seasons, Womb Infection, Pregnancy & Mammary Tumours)

Wishing you all the best.

Thanks for your response. Is the antibiotic different for an infection of the reproductive tract? She’s already on baytril, and she’s been on it for a few weeks.

The smell is also definitely her urine, if that helps. When she pees it’s like getting hit with a wave of smell, especially the last few drops of pee which are usually more red, they smell very strong. She has no mucus or discharge down there from what I’ve seen, just pee.

This morning her urine looked less red, just pink, but she still has pain. I was hoping maybe the shilintong was helping, or that the antibiotics had finally done the trick, but now I noticed that she is bloated with gas and stringy poops. So even though it might be helping her urine (maybe?), I’m stopping the shilintong. I guess we’ll get to see if it correlates to the smell of her urine, which started around the same time.

I’m worried about the bloat. During her morning hot tub bowl time to rinse her pee soaked butt, I gave her a little massage to try and help it. I noticed she has developed a sort of floppy foopa now that she didn’t have a week ago; saggy squishy skin on her lower belly. I’m thinking that’s maybe because she’s eating about 4-5 scoops of critical care daily and has gained weight, but even that worries me (is it some kind of fluid? Is it part of her infection? It came on so fast, like less than 4 days).

But underneath the squishy skin it’s definitely bloated. It’s a little distended and not fully hard but still a little hollow sounding. She has started to protest me touching her there where before she was fine with it, so I think she has pain. We changed their veggies recently and started giving her green beans, but I’m gonna stop both the veggies and shilintong until it improves.

I’m very worried about her and it’s hard to see her going through all of this. She’s barely 4 and is a very friendly and trusting little creature. This is all going to get regurgitated to a vet today but I like to get as much info as I possibly can.

 

[Wiebke]

Thanks for your response. Is the antibiotic different for an infection of the reproductive tract? She’s already on baytril, and she’s been on it for a few weeks.

The smell is also definitely her urine, if that helps. When she pees it’s like getting hit with a wave of smell, especially the last few drops of pee which are usually more red, they smell very strong. She has no mucus or discharge down there from what I’ve seen, just pee.

This morning her urine looked less red, just pink, but she still has pain. I was hoping maybe the shilintong was helping, or that the antibiotics had finally done the trick, but now I noticed that she is bloated with gas and stringy poops. So even though it might be helping her urine (maybe?), I’m stopping the shilintong. I guess we’ll get to see if it correlates to the smell of her urine, which started around the same time.

I’m worried about the bloat. During her morning hot tub bowl time to rinse her pee soaked butt, I gave her a little massage to try and help it. I noticed she has developed a sort of floppy foopa now that she didn’t have a week ago; saggy squishy skin on her lower belly. I’m thinking that’s maybe because she’s eating about 4-5 scoops of critical care daily and has gained weight, but even that worries me (is it some kind of fluid? Is it part of her infection? It came on so fast, like less than 4 days).

But underneath the squishy skin it’s definitely bloated. It’s a little distended and not fully hard but still a little hollow sounding. She has started to protest me touching her there where before she was fine with it, so I think she has pain. We changed their veggies recently and started giving her green beans, but I’m gonna stop both the veggies and shilintong until it improves.

I’m very worried about her and it’s hard to see her going through all of this. She’s barely 4 and is a very friendly and trusting little creature. This is all going to get regurgitated to a vet today but I like to get as much info as I possibly can.

No, the antibiotic would not be different. I can only guess but your vet is the one who can do the hands-on examination and take everything in and put it into a context, which I can't - not that I am a vet.

The shilingtong herbal supplement is for kidney stones? In this case the swelling could be caused by a stone fetching up just behind the muscle ring at the end of the urethra, as it usually does with urethral stones in sows - but as said, I can only guess wildly without access to your girl.

 

[worrier]

She is such a lovely looking pig! I hope you and her are doing okay x

I had a similar problem with the smell of one of my piggies (female, almost 6). I did so much googling and couldn't work out why her urine smelled so bad. Even when I picked her up and put my nose to her tummy I could smell it. No matter how much I cleaned everything and cleaned her the smell was so pungent and I couldn't get rid of it. This began happening maybe a few hours before she started bleeding. Of course I'm not a vet so I can't be sure but I now associate that smell with cancer. We took her to the vets immediately once she started peeing blood (which still smelled bad) and found out she had cancer all through her body including the womb. Of course there may be absolutely nothing wrong with your sweet piggy but that smell would be a cause of concern for me, I'd definitely go get her checked thoroughly, see if they can feel any lumps and bumps and maybe get her an ultrasound if it's needed.

Like I said, nothing like that could be going on. Blood from any animal, humans even can have an awful smell, especially mixed with urine which already smells funky. However I'd still get her checked all over and maybe an ultrasound just to be safe.

 

[doubtful101]

Update: We saw the vet, who took a sample of her urine. She ooked at it through a microscope, where she saw an abnormal amount of white blood cells. That coupled with the foul smell made her believe there was infection present. She said it was strange, because antibiotic resistant uti’s are uncommon for guinea pigs.

We sent her urine off to get cultured and it’s going to take about a week for results. For the time being we have switched antibiotics

As for the bloat, gas, and the little foopa, she said it was most likely too much critical care! She said Frosty had gained 80g since last weigh in and it was all going to her tummy flab. She said to stop free feeding it, wean back and get her back on hay if possible.

She is still in pain, still has blood in her urine, and the smell of her urine is absolutely foul, but at least now I have a little more hope that possibly the answer is just getting some stronger meds. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high because we still have to wait for the culture.

 

[doubtful101]

No, the antibiotic would not be different. I can only guess but your vet is the one who can do the hands-on examination and take everything in and put it into a context, which I can't - not that I am a vet.

The shilingtong herbal supplement is for kidney stones? In this case the swelling could be caused by a stone fetching up just behind the muscle ring at the end of the urethra, as it usually does with urethral stones in sows - but as said, I can only guess wildly without access to your girl.

We had an xray done and there were no stones, the shilintong was a supplement i read about that may help with stones and sludge. I got that in case the infection was IC related to sludge, knowing it probably wouldn’t help immediately but thinking it couldn’t hurt!