This is good news and fingers crossed it finally does the trick.
I know when we struggled with urinary issues with Ruby it was an extended course of antibiotics that finally shifted it for good, and I think the 'plumbing' for boys is even trickier.
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Peeing blood
- Thread starter frenchi700
- Start date
I know when we struggled with urinary issues with Ruby it was an extended course of antibiotics that finally shifted it for good, and I think the 'plumbing' for boys is even trickier.
frenchi700
Junior Guinea Pig
Just found this in Mr Gilbert’s pen. He wasn’t peeing this much blood on Monday before he started taking the antibiotics again! Can anyone help? 
Free Ranger
Forum Donator 2023/24
It looks to me like Mr Gilbert has still got UTI. I type slow so I'll pop this on while I do part 2 so you know someone is replying! See you in a few mins...
Free Ranger
Forum Donator 2023/24
Those poops look a good size and the blood looks like it arrived in a puddle of wee. This makes me think it is blood in urine. UTIs are not uncommon - we've seen a few in boys and in girls. Sometimes there is a stone and sometimes not. The fact that your x-rays look clear is a good sign. Baytril is the go-to antibiotic for piggies in the UK and has been for longer than I've had pigs so there is some resistance to it. Fortunately there are other ABs available. Just because a pig has a UTI doesn't mean every pee will contain blood. The loxicom is a painkiller and anti-inflammatory, another brand's name is metacam. It's popular with pigs and we've had it with all ours - my boy has been on a similar dose twice daily for over 2 years with his arthritis. I don't worry about that - and it's tasty so they think it's a treat too.
I think in your shoes - well, in your postcode area - I'd be trying to get in to see Ellie...
You said you had Baytril once a day. Now fair enough it did seem like quite a high dose (I'm assuming it's something standard like 2.5% solution) but we've never had it once a day. We've had between 0.2ml and 0.5ml twice a day. There's a range of active doses and it depends on other things like piggy's weight. It would work out similar but the point is that pigs have quite a fast metabolism and I'd be a bit concerned that the AB goes in and starts to work but over 24 hours wears off and the residual bacteria start to grow back etc. The next day you're repeating the cycle. That and unlike loxicom, which is sweet, Baytril tastes disgusting and even getting 0.2ml into a resistant piggy can be a challenge so how you managed nearly a ml I can't imagine! Now maybe dosing protocols are changing - I'm not a vet - but I'm just saying that once a day is a bit unusual.
If you have a piggy with UTI you generally see blood in pee, 'chirping' in pain when peeing (or pooping), wet round the bits from dripping urine (either incontinence from inflammation of piggy trying to hold in a painful pee. They sometimes pee more often so you might hear him squeal in the day and at night. They hide away and they are put off eating hay - hence the weight loss. They might still be greedy for veggies but don't be tempted to try and overfeed these to compensate for the weight loss because it can risk bloating them up, and we don't need complications!
When antibiotics work for piggy UTI they usually follow a pattern. The symptoms should subside within the first day or two. Sometimes it's before the end of day 1 if you dose early, sometimes it's overnight. The AB start to work straight away but the inflammation has to subside a bit and the body starts to heal. As a general rule if we've not seen improvement after 3 days I phone my vet and tell them, and they generally tell me to come in and pick up another prescription for a different antibiotic. That being said you should always complete a course unless the vet tells you not to (like if they switch you to another one). If you have a 5 day course complete it - if you have a 3 week course complete it - because even a few leftover bacteria can rapidly grow into a million once the AB pressure is removed. Finish too soon and you'll be back to square one. But whatever the length of the course, if after 3 days you don't see any difference contact your vet and tell them. Mostly pigs find they feel a bit better and start eating more straight away... sometimes the AB affects their appetite and they need a bit of syringe food support with a bit of probiotic mixed in: all vets should have a type of support food and a probiotic in stock but these can also just be bought online without prescription - it's just food.
My George was peeing blood and crying and we had 5 days of Baytril and an x-ray. It didn't work, and we were switched to Septrin (sometimes called Sulfatrim). George's case was complicated because he is 6 and we saw on the x-ray that he also had a big bladder stone. So we had to decide whether there was no UTI and all this was just down to the stone, or whether to go for the Septrin. I'm so pleased we did - within 24 hours George was feeling much better, out and about, crying much less frequently and not so loud - unfortunately this particular AB killed his appetite and he had to be on it for a very long time (over two weeks) which was a battle, and he lost a lot of weight. It was actually day 5 when we stopped seeing blood tint to his pee which is a pretty long time in our experience but then he did have the stone. But in the end it worked (and earlier this month George survived the op to remove the stone so he's feeling pretty good). I'd previously had a girl who had a really similar thing - Baytril didn't touch her symptoms, she was also switched to Septrin. Great improvement within a day or so - in fact back to normal by the 3rd morning - but we still finished the course (over two weeks!) and luckily she wasn't affected by it at all and by the end got quite used to the taste (it's not as grim as Baytril) But within a few days of the course finishing the symptoms returned and my heart sank... another UTI? No, it was the same one coming back, and despite that really long course it still wasn't quite enough so we had another nearly 3 weeks on Septrin (twice a day) and saw exactly the same thing - symptoms improved within a day or so of starting the medicine. But luckily this time when she finally finished her bottle we'd beaten it.
If you have no signs of stones or sludge a UTI is most likely what you're looking at but I'm not sure whether Baytril is the right antibiotic - it will all depend on the timings. If he was still peeing blood and in pain by the third day I'd be hoping for an alternative AB. It's tricky as you can sometimes see a little improvement even if a bug is resistant to an AB it might not be 100% resistant. So it depends on your timings - and whether once-a-day AB is going to be effective even if it's the right choice.
Hence I might be thinking about going to see Ellie...
Hope that helps - and isn't too complicated! Good luck Mr Gilbert x
PS: Is he an older boy? Does he get a bit impacted? Or is he in his prime
I think in your shoes - well, in your postcode area - I'd be trying to get in to see Ellie...
You said you had Baytril once a day. Now fair enough it did seem like quite a high dose (I'm assuming it's something standard like 2.5% solution) but we've never had it once a day. We've had between 0.2ml and 0.5ml twice a day. There's a range of active doses and it depends on other things like piggy's weight. It would work out similar but the point is that pigs have quite a fast metabolism and I'd be a bit concerned that the AB goes in and starts to work but over 24 hours wears off and the residual bacteria start to grow back etc. The next day you're repeating the cycle. That and unlike loxicom, which is sweet, Baytril tastes disgusting and even getting 0.2ml into a resistant piggy can be a challenge so how you managed nearly a ml I can't imagine! Now maybe dosing protocols are changing - I'm not a vet - but I'm just saying that once a day is a bit unusual.
If you have a piggy with UTI you generally see blood in pee, 'chirping' in pain when peeing (or pooping), wet round the bits from dripping urine (either incontinence from inflammation of piggy trying to hold in a painful pee. They sometimes pee more often so you might hear him squeal in the day and at night. They hide away and they are put off eating hay - hence the weight loss. They might still be greedy for veggies but don't be tempted to try and overfeed these to compensate for the weight loss because it can risk bloating them up, and we don't need complications!
When antibiotics work for piggy UTI they usually follow a pattern. The symptoms should subside within the first day or two. Sometimes it's before the end of day 1 if you dose early, sometimes it's overnight. The AB start to work straight away but the inflammation has to subside a bit and the body starts to heal. As a general rule if we've not seen improvement after 3 days I phone my vet and tell them, and they generally tell me to come in and pick up another prescription for a different antibiotic. That being said you should always complete a course unless the vet tells you not to (like if they switch you to another one). If you have a 5 day course complete it - if you have a 3 week course complete it - because even a few leftover bacteria can rapidly grow into a million once the AB pressure is removed. Finish too soon and you'll be back to square one. But whatever the length of the course, if after 3 days you don't see any difference contact your vet and tell them. Mostly pigs find they feel a bit better and start eating more straight away... sometimes the AB affects their appetite and they need a bit of syringe food support with a bit of probiotic mixed in: all vets should have a type of support food and a probiotic in stock but these can also just be bought online without prescription - it's just food.
My George was peeing blood and crying and we had 5 days of Baytril and an x-ray. It didn't work, and we were switched to Septrin (sometimes called Sulfatrim). George's case was complicated because he is 6 and we saw on the x-ray that he also had a big bladder stone. So we had to decide whether there was no UTI and all this was just down to the stone, or whether to go for the Septrin. I'm so pleased we did - within 24 hours George was feeling much better, out and about, crying much less frequently and not so loud - unfortunately this particular AB killed his appetite and he had to be on it for a very long time (over two weeks) which was a battle, and he lost a lot of weight. It was actually day 5 when we stopped seeing blood tint to his pee which is a pretty long time in our experience but then he did have the stone. But in the end it worked (and earlier this month George survived the op to remove the stone so he's feeling pretty good). I'd previously had a girl who had a really similar thing - Baytril didn't touch her symptoms, she was also switched to Septrin. Great improvement within a day or so - in fact back to normal by the 3rd morning - but we still finished the course (over two weeks!) and luckily she wasn't affected by it at all and by the end got quite used to the taste (it's not as grim as Baytril) But within a few days of the course finishing the symptoms returned and my heart sank... another UTI? No, it was the same one coming back, and despite that really long course it still wasn't quite enough so we had another nearly 3 weeks on Septrin (twice a day) and saw exactly the same thing - symptoms improved within a day or so of starting the medicine. But luckily this time when she finally finished her bottle we'd beaten it.
If you have no signs of stones or sludge a UTI is most likely what you're looking at but I'm not sure whether Baytril is the right antibiotic - it will all depend on the timings. If he was still peeing blood and in pain by the third day I'd be hoping for an alternative AB. It's tricky as you can sometimes see a little improvement even if a bug is resistant to an AB it might not be 100% resistant. So it depends on your timings - and whether once-a-day AB is going to be effective even if it's the right choice.
Hence I might be thinking about going to see Ellie...
Hope that helps - and isn't too complicated! Good luck Mr Gilbert x
PS: Is he an older boy? Does he get a bit impacted? Or is he in his prime
frenchi700
Junior Guinea Pig
Thank you for all the information.Those poops look a good size and the blood looks like it arrived in a puddle of wee. This makes me think it is blood in urine. UTIs are not uncommon - we've seen a few in boys and in girls. Sometimes there is a stone and sometimes not. The fact that your x-rays look clear is a good sign. Baytril is the go-to antibiotic for piggies in the UK and has been for longer than I've had pigs so there is some resistance to it. Fortunately there are other ABs available. Just because a pig has a UTI doesn't mean every pee will contain blood. The loxicom is a painkiller and anti-inflammatory, another brand's name is metacam. It's popular with pigs and we've had it with all ours - my boy has been on a similar dose twice daily for over 2 years with his arthritis. I don't worry about that - and it's tasty so they think it's a treat too.
I think in your shoes - well, in your postcode area - I'd be trying to get in to see Ellie...
You said you had Baytril once a day. Now fair enough it did seem like quite a high dose (I'm assuming it's something standard like 2.5% solution) but we've never had it once a day. We've had between 0.2ml and 0.5ml twice a day. There's a range of active doses and it depends on other things like piggy's weight. It would work out similar but the point is that pigs have quite a fast metabolism and I'd be a bit concerned that the AB goes in and starts to work but over 24 hours wears off and the residual bacteria start to grow back etc. The next day you're repeating the cycle. That and unlike loxicom, which is sweet, Baytril tastes disgusting and even getting 0.2ml into a resistant piggy can be a challenge so how you managed nearly a ml I can't imagine! Now maybe dosing protocols are changing - I'm not a vet - but I'm just saying that once a day is a bit unusual.
If you have a piggy with UTI you generally see blood in pee, 'chirping' in pain when peeing (or pooping), wet round the bits from dripping urine (either incontinence from inflammation of piggy trying to hold in a painful pee. They sometimes pee more often so you might hear him squeal in the day and at night. They hide away and they are put off eating hay - hence the weight loss. They might still be greedy for veggies but don't be tempted to try and overfeed these to compensate for the weight loss because it can risk bloating them up, and we don't need complications!
When antibiotics work for piggy UTI they usually follow a pattern. The symptoms should subside within the first day or two. Sometimes it's before the end of day 1 if you dose early, sometimes it's overnight. The AB start to work straight away but the inflammation has to subside a bit and the body starts to heal. As a general rule if we've not seen improvement after 3 days I phone my vet and tell them, and they generally tell me to come in and pick up another prescription for a different antibiotic. That being said you should always complete a course unless the vet tells you not to (like if they switch you to another one). If you have a 5 day course complete it - if you have a 3 week course complete it - because even a few leftover bacteria can rapidly grow into a million once the AB pressure is removed. Finish too soon and you'll be back to square one. But whatever the length of the course, if after 3 days you don't see any difference contact your vet and tell them. Mostly pigs find they feel a bit better and start eating more straight away... sometimes the AB affects their appetite and they need a bit of syringe food support with a bit of probiotic mixed in: all vets should have a type of support food and a probiotic in stock but these can also just be bought online without prescription - it's just food.
My George was peeing blood and crying and we had 5 days of Baytril and an x-ray. It didn't work, and we were switched to Septrin (sometimes called Sulfatrim). George's case was complicated because he is 6 and we saw on the x-ray that he also had a big bladder stone. So we had to decide whether there was no UTI and all this was just down to the stone, or whether to go for the Septrin. I'm so pleased we did - within 24 hours George was feeling much better, out and about, crying much less frequently and not so loud - unfortunately this particular AB killed his appetite and he had to be on it for a very long time (over two weeks) which was a battle, and he lost a lot of weight. It was actually day 5 when we stopped seeing blood tint to his pee which is a pretty long time in our experience but then he did have the stone. But in the end it worked (and earlier this month George survived the op to remove the stone so he's feeling pretty good). I'd previously had a girl who had a really similar thing - Baytril didn't touch her symptoms, she was also switched to Septrin. Great improvement within a day or so - in fact back to normal by the 3rd morning - but we still finished the course (over two weeks!) and luckily she wasn't affected by it at all and by the end got quite used to the taste (it's not as grim as Baytril) But within a few days of the course finishing the symptoms returned and my heart sank... another UTI? No, it was the same one coming back, and despite that really long course it still wasn't quite enough so we had another nearly 3 weeks on Septrin (twice a day) and saw exactly the same thing - symptoms improved within a day or so of starting the medicine. But luckily this time when she finally finished her bottle we'd beaten it.
If you have no signs of stones or sludge a UTI is most likely what you're looking at but I'm not sure whether Baytril is the right antibiotic - it will all depend on the timings. If he was still peeing blood and in pain by the third day I'd be hoping for an alternative AB. It's tricky as you can sometimes see a little improvement even if a bug is resistant to an AB it might not be 100% resistant. So it depends on your timings - and whether once-a-day AB is going to be effective even if it's the right choice.
Hence I might be thinking about going to see Ellie...
Hope that helps - and isn't too complicated! Good luck Mr Gilbert x
PS: Is he an older boy? Does he get a bit impacted? Or is he in his prime
Mr Gilbert is 3 and a bit.
I rescued him when he was 2 and he’s had a lot of UTI’s since I’ve had him.
Free Ranger
Forum Donator 2023/24
George was that age when he started to get impacted but it was very clear that something was wrong with his pooping because I suddenly found a ball of poops in his cage as big as a champagne cork! That was when he first got a UTI and actually he was then clear of them until last autumn - 2 years later. He got arthritis about the same time and that probably affected it all. Because the other thing about George - and this is a bit personal so I hope he'll forgive me - is that his penis hides away inside his anal pouch. He's the first of my boars that I've had to examine quite so personally and so regularly to make sure he's unbunged. I knew he was neutered so he has no testicles, but it took a while for me to realise there was no penis visible at all. Quite a shock! There's just a single, slightly swollen opening that he poops out of - although in his case it's where poops accumulate - and that's where his penis opening is, which is why we have to be very careful about UTI because everything is so tightly packed in. The arthritis stopped him being able to clean himself. With glucosamine supplements and daily metacam he got his mojo back and was fine until age (and possibly the heatwave) triggered a stone last summer. It's worth giving Mr Gilbert a full check over for possible complications like impaction or a 'shy' penis which might not help repeated UTI. But it's also worth looking at whether these UTIs are actually being cleared effectively or whether it's the same one coming back to haunt him each time. That's why I'm thinking about Ellie's good reputation - if she approaches his case from scratch she might pick up on something that might have been missed before. It's at least worth phoning up to enquire about prices and appointments etc.
Although that certainly looks like blood to me it might also be worth mentioning that there's something called Sterile Interstitial Cystitis (SIC) which flares up in some piggies causing all these sorts of symptoms but which doesn't seem to be associated with bacterial infection. It can be triggered by stress, but it's not well understood. Cats get it too. SIC can't be 'cured', only treated, with painkiller and glucosamine supplements, to manage flare-ups. But my money is still on UTI. When you're that low to the ground and your bits are sitting in your own poop there's a every chance of a bladder infection! It's hard for a loving owner to hear then cry, my heart goes out to you. Stay strong x
Although that certainly looks like blood to me it might also be worth mentioning that there's something called Sterile Interstitial Cystitis (SIC) which flares up in some piggies causing all these sorts of symptoms but which doesn't seem to be associated with bacterial infection. It can be triggered by stress, but it's not well understood. Cats get it too. SIC can't be 'cured', only treated, with painkiller and glucosamine supplements, to manage flare-ups. But my money is still on UTI. When you're that low to the ground and your bits are sitting in your own poop there's a every chance of a bladder infection! It's hard for a loving owner to hear then cry, my heart goes out to you. Stay strong x
frenchi700
Junior Guinea Pig
Just wanted to let everyone know we took Mr Gilbert to see Ellie on Friday morning. He had 2 x rays and no stones are present. He doesn’t have an infection as he’s been on antibiotics for three weeks already. His body is creating cystitis. He’s on meds and we’re back to see Ellie in 2 weeks.
Free Ranger
Forum Donator 2023/24
Hi, it's really good news about the stones at least. What meds has Ellie got him on?
If he gets diagnosed with the SIC it's beyond my experience but I know there are members who can advise on 'managing' flare-ups and possibly excluding certain things from the diet that might trigger it (lettuce for example is something I've seen that some people don't give to their SIC pigs - but it's not the same for every pig). You are in good hands with Ellie - and it's lucky that she's pretty local for you!
Hang in there Mr Gilbert, you're being very brave x
If he gets diagnosed with the SIC it's beyond my experience but I know there are members who can advise on 'managing' flare-ups and possibly excluding certain things from the diet that might trigger it (lettuce for example is something I've seen that some people don't give to their SIC pigs - but it's not the same for every pig). You are in good hands with Ellie - and it's lucky that she's pretty local for you!
Hang in there Mr Gilbert, you're being very brave x
I’m glad to hear it’s not stones etc.
Wiebke has confirmed that lettuce can be fed to piggies with sterile cystitis. It is changes to the diet which may be an issue not what is fed
Wiebke has confirmed that lettuce can be fed to piggies with sterile cystitis. It is changes to the diet which may be an issue not what is fed
Claire W
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I’m pleased to hear there are no stones. When I had IC piggies, they had a capsule of cystease daily and metacam when they had a flare. I still fed lettuce daily as well as cucumber, pepper and coriander
frenchi700
Junior Guinea Pig
He’s on higher dosage of loxicom twice a day as well as gabapentin twice a day and cystophan.
He’s going back in two weeks so fingers crossed we see an improvement.
Thanks for all your help xx
frenchi700
Junior Guinea Pig
Thanks for letting me know, that’s great.
Josie_lg
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My girls on gabapentin for her bladder issues and it really does help. When we were waiting for her stone to be removed it honestly made her so much more comfy. Fingers crossed it helps your little one xx
frenchi700
Junior Guinea Pig
Thanks for letting me know.
frenchi700
Junior Guinea Pig
Thank you for letting me know. It does help put my mind at rest.