Probable urine scald :-(

[hannahs26]

Hi everyone, been a while posting here - always seems to be when something is wrong! (I am so grateful for this forum in times of need!)
So I had to take my 5yr old sow Jessie to the after hours vet this eve, after she hadn't eaten for nearly 3 hours. Noticed she was in need of a good bum wash a couple of days ago, but haven't been able to do it until today. She was behaving unhappily since yesterday too, facing the sides of the cage, and not moving around much. Until this afternoon though, she was still showing interest in food. After bathing her rear end I discovered that she had some balding around her genitals and tummy, and poor girl had a small sore patch too, which I think she may have been licking or nibbling. I gave her metacam in the hope it would help any pain she was in, and also make her more interested in food, as she wasn't interested from after her bath onwards, but it didn't help. I got her an appointment to see the vet tomorrow, but then she stopped eating, and so got her to the out of hours vet as an emergency.
The vet checked her thoroughly (from what she described, as I had to wait outside), gave an xray too, and has given ivermectin spot on just in case it's mites, however doubts it's mites, and suspects it may be urine scald. So she's also been given some antibacterial and antifungal hydrating wipes to use over her wet areas twice a day for 10 days (Douxo S3 PYO), designed for dogs and cats, but the vet said it's be fine to use for Jessie. She also gave some recovery food sachets too. The vet said that there was no sign of gut stasis, or cysts or bladder stones, but said there could be something in the urine which is causing a problem, or it could be that the urine scald is what's making her uncomfortable and making her sit around more. She said that a urine sample is a good idea to check if anything going on, as the xray wasn't definitely negative for stones, as it's hard to see if small stones apparently.

I'm quite upset that she's got urine scald, as always pamper our herd to the best of our ability - feel sorry that she became so uncomfortable without me noticing. We were away a few days a few weeks ago, and they were cared for by my husband, then we all got covid, so with me in bed for days, it was down to hubby doing his best again with daily cleans and bedding changes etc, but as he's not as close to them or as observant as I am with them, I think she just got worse without being noticed. I was only able to start doing the daily cleans and checks 3 days ago, after a few weeks of not being able to. Feel like I've really let her down, but know it couldn't be helped, and I hope that I'm doing enough now to get her better asap.

Any advice from you lovely people here about anything else I could be doing for bladder scald? The herd of 4 has a large home - 'L' shaped 5 x 2.5 c and c grid, with 2x2 grid extension on the side, fleece over towels bedding, with sleeping areas and hay areas with fresh fleece bedding changed daily. Jessie has never been very active, and always had a bit of a damp bottom, as she has very tight thick curls. Is wiping with those wipes twice a day, and encouraging her to eat, and keeping up the metacam enough? And with none of the other girls having any symptoms of mites, is the ivermectin really necessary? I was only given one dose for each girl too, which seems a half-hearted approach, knowing it's usually a 3 dose thing, isn't it?

Thanks everyone, hoping Jessie feels more comfortable by the morning, fingers crossed. Off to try her with some more recovery feed again shortly, before getting some sleep.

 

[piggieminder]

Sending Jessie healing vibes.
I'm not a health expert but my first thought if the vet found no stones would be did they check for a urine infection?
Vet bed in the areas she sits a lot should help. It locks the urine underneath (I put a thick layer of newspaper under mine) and stays dry on top. I find it invaluable for my oldies who don't move around as much as they used to, one of mine gets sore feet if he sits a lot on ordinary fleece.

 

[Piggies&buns]

I agree in using squares of vetbed in the high traffic areas (ie the places she likes to sit most) is a good idea. It is really nice bedding and being able to change out smaller areas is regularly is easier.

Make sure you weigh her daily while you are having to syringe feed her to make sure she is getting enough.

The ivermectin -
Mites can take off if the immune system is down so if she is unwell from another cause, mites can use that and become a problem.
You are right though, giving her one dose isn’t going to deal with mites though, should they be a factor but the vet doesn’t seem to think that it is by the sound of it.

Did the vet do a urine test?

 

[hannahs26]

I agree in using squares of vetbed in the high traffic areas (ie the places she likes to sit most) is a good idea. It is really nice bedding and being able to change out smaller areas is regularly is easier.

Make sure you weigh her daily while you are having to syringe feed her to make sure she is getting enough.

The ivermectin -
Mites can take off if the immune system is down so if she is unwell from another cause, mites can use that and become a problem.
You are right though, giving her one dose isn’t going to deal with mites though, should they be a factor but the vet doesn’t seem to think that it is by the sound of it.

Did the vet do a urine test?

Thank you, I will get some vet bed. Jessie had a tiny bit of recovery mix during the night, and is refusing completely this morning. Only thing she'll eat this morning is an inch sized piece of lettuce. :-(

The vet said she didn't wish to put her under GA to get a urine sample, due to her age, but they would if I wasn't able to get one. I'm going to try today, however she's refusing water too, so getting her hydrated enough to get her to wee in a bowl is going to be a challenge.

The vet said if she was still not eating this morning to ring and she'd give me some ranatidine for her. Would this help her increase her appetite?

I've put some natural and gentle nappy cream on her sore and over her bare area just now, so really hoping she won't groom it off too quickly, and it may help her feel better.

 

[hannahs26]

Sending Jessie healing vibes.
I'm not a health expert but my first thought if the vet found no stones would be did they check for a urine infection?
Vet bed in the areas she sits a lot should help. It locks the urine underneath (I put a thick layer of newspaper under mine) and stays dry on top. I find it invaluable for my oldies who don't move around as much as they used to, one of mine gets sore feet if he sits a lot on ordinary fleece.

Thank you, I will get some vet bed! I didn't realise it was more wicking than the fleece, wish I'd got some earlier!
The vet has asked me to try to get a urine sample, but unsure how I'll be able to. Have read a guide to help though, and will do my best.
Thanks!

 

[Piggies&buns]

Thank you, I will get some vet bed. Jessie had a tiny bit of recovery mix during the night, and is refusing completely this morning. Only thing she'll eat this morning is an inch sized piece of lettuce. :-(

The vet said she didn't wish to put her under GA to get a urine sample, due to her age, but they would if I wasn't able to get one. I'm going to try today, however she's refusing water too, so getting her hydrated enough to get her to wee in a bowl is going to be a challenge.

The vet said if she was still not eating this morning to ring and she'd give me some ranatidine for her. Would this help her increase her appetite?

I've put some natural and gentle nappy cream on her sore and over her bare area just now, so really hoping she won't groom it off too quickly, and it may help her feel better.

I'm seeing ranitidine mentioned in a few of the newer threads again now. It was completely recalled some years ago and emeprid was the alternative. It may be that your vet has access to it again. It’s a gut stimulant.

Is she pooping?
Make sure you weigh her every morning so you know she is eating hay/getting enough syringe feed.

You need to be very careful putting creams on - you don’t want her ingesting any.

 

[Wiebke]

Hi everyone, been a while posting here - always seems to be when something is wrong! (I am so grateful for this forum in times of need!)
So I had to take my 5yr old sow Jessie to the after hours vet this eve, after she hadn't eaten for nearly 3 hours. Noticed she was in need of a good bum wash a couple of days ago, but haven't been able to do it until today. She was behaving unhappily since yesterday too, facing the sides of the cage, and not moving around much. Until this afternoon though, she was still showing interest in food. After bathing her rear end I discovered that she had some balding around her genitals and tummy, and poor girl had a small sore patch too, which I think she may have been licking or nibbling. I gave her metacam in the hope it would help any pain she was in, and also make her more interested in food, as she wasn't interested from after her bath onwards, but it didn't help. I got her an appointment to see the vet tomorrow, but then she stopped eating, and so got her to the out of hours vet as an emergency.
The vet checked her thoroughly (from what she described, as I had to wait outside), gave an xray too, and has given ivermectin spot on just in case it's mites, however doubts it's mites, and suspects it may be urine scald. So she's also been given some antibacterial and antifungal hydrating wipes to use over her wet areas twice a day for 10 days (Douxo S3 PYO), designed for dogs and cats, but the vet said it's be fine to use for Jessie. She also gave some recovery food sachets too. The vet said that there was no sign of gut stasis, or cysts or bladder stones, but said there could be something in the urine which is causing a problem, or it could be that the urine scald is what's making her uncomfortable and making her sit around more. She said that a urine sample is a good idea to check if anything going on, as the xray wasn't definitely negative for stones, as it's hard to see if small stones apparently.

I'm quite upset that she's got urine scald, as always pamper our herd to the best of our ability - feel sorry that she became so uncomfortable without me noticing. We were away a few days a few weeks ago, and they were cared for by my husband, then we all got covid, so with me in bed for days, it was down to hubby doing his best again with daily cleans and bedding changes etc, but as he's not as close to them or as observant as I am with them, I think she just got worse without being noticed. I was only able to start doing the daily cleans and checks 3 days ago, after a few weeks of not being able to. Feel like I've really let her down, but know it couldn't be helped, and I hope that I'm doing enough now to get her better asap.

Any advice from you lovely people here about anything else I could be doing for bladder scald? The herd of 4 has a large home - 'L' shaped 5 x 2.5 c and c grid, with 2x2 grid extension on the side, fleece over towels bedding, with sleeping areas and hay areas with fresh fleece bedding changed daily. Jessie has never been very active, and always had a bit of a damp bottom, as she has very tight thick curls. Is wiping with those wipes twice a day, and encouraging her to eat, and keeping up the metacam enough? And with none of the other girls having any symptoms of mites, is the ivermectin really necessary? I was only given one dose for each girl too, which seems a half-hearted approach, knowing it's usually a 3 dose thing, isn't it?

Thanks everyone, hoping Jessie feels more comfortable by the morning, fingers crossed. Off to try her with some more recovery feed again shortly, before getting some sleep.

Hi

The wipes will hopefully do the trick. An alternative to them would be flamazine cream, very thinly applied. We do not recommend sudocrem as it dries out the skin and can cause cracks in it. I would also recommend to use the wipes for the soles of her feet.

You may find some of the tips in our mobility guide helpful, as they also apply to piggies with urinary problems that do not move around all that much: Looking After Guinea Pigs With Limited or No Mobility
Switch from the usual health monitoring weekly weigh-in to weighing once daily at the same time. I find first thing in the morning best when a piggy's weight is at its lowest so you can plan any support care in terms of extra or syringe feed accordingly for the day.
Our new medicating and syringe feeding guide is also looking at the weight monitoring side as well as how to judge whether or which level of supportive care you may want to apply. Just watching your piggy eat or not eat can be very misleading as you cannot measure the real crucial hay intake by eye and looking at the poos means that you are running a day or two behind events - it takes about 24 hourd for food to pass from one end of the body to other, and then piggies eat some of thei poos again.
Only your kitchen scales will give you a real up to date insight in what is going on. Please do not be tempted to weigh all the time because the weight fluctuates quite a bit over the course of a day and that may actually stress you out much more than help you because you need to look at the day-to-day comparison at the same time to really judge a potential weight loss or gain correctly: All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

Hot weather can impact especially on an already weakened immune system, so please try to keep your piggies as cool as possible and keep in mind that you may need to implement all possible measures you can and not just one or two to get your piggies through the coming week.
Hot weather warning for the UK - plan now to keep your piggies safe! (recap and hot weather questions/feedback/support)
Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike (list of all possible things you can do, how to spot if your piggies are overheating and what to do in this case)

Here is the link to our one-stop emergency care advice in the unlikely case you need it: Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

Ranitidine is the active ingredient in what used to be prescribed as zantac; it is used as an anti-bloating gut stimulant.

I hope that this will help you.

 

[hannahs26]

Hi

The wipes will hopefully do the trick. An alternative to them would be flamazine cream, very thinly applied. We do not recommend sudocrem as it dries out the skin and can cause cracks in it. I would also recommend to use the wipes for the soles of her feet.

You may find some of the tips in our mobility guide helpful, as they also apply to piggies with urinary problems that do not move around all that much: Looking After Guinea Pigs With Limited or No Mobility
Switch from the usual health monitoring weekly weigh-in to weighing once daily at the same time. I find first thing in the morning best when a piggy's weight is at its lowest so you can plan any support care in terms of extra or syringe feed accordingly for the day.
Our new medicating and syringe feeding guide is also looking at the weight monitoring side as well as how to judge whether or which level of supportive care you may want to apply. Just watching your piggy eat or not eat can be very misleading as you cannot measure the real crucial hay intake by eye and looking at the poos means that you are running a day or two behind events - it takes about 24 hourd for food to pass from one end of the body to other, and then piggies eat some of thei poos again.
Only your kitchen scales will give you a real up to date insight in what is going on. Please do not be tempted to weigh all the time because the weight fluctuates quite a bit over the course of a day and that may actually stress you out much more than help you because you need to look at the day-to-day comparison at the same time to really judge a potential weight loss or gain correctly: All About Syringe Feeding and Medicating Guinea Pigs with Videos and Pictures

Hot weather can impact especially on an already weakened immune system, so please try to keep your piggies as cool as possible and keep in mind that you may need to implement all possible measures you can and not just one or two to get your piggies through the coming week.
Hot weather warning for the UK - plan now to keep your piggies safe! (recap and hot weather questions/feedback/support)
Hot Weather Management, Heat Strokes and Fly Strike (list of all possible things you can do, how to spot if your piggies are overheating and what to do in this case)

Here is the link to our one-stop emergency care advice in the unlikely case you need it: Emergency, Crisis and Bridging Care until a Vet Appointment

Ranitidine is the active ingredient in what used to be prescribed as zantac; it is used as an anti-bloating gut stimulant.

I hope that this will help you.

Hi Wiebke,
Thank you for your comprehensive advice. The link to the help for piggies with limited mobility is a great help, as are the other links. I am picking up some vet bed this afternoon and will switch to using that in areas where Jessie hangs out most. She's not currently lying in the hay, but will raise the hay into a holder if she starts to again, so as not to get too damp.
They're all indoor girls and the room they're in is nicely insulated against the current heat, and have been placing wrapped ice blocks in their home on very hot days, which they sometimes like to lie near. In the past I've brought them to cooler rooms during heat waves, but think I've finally worked out how to keep the temperature pleasant in the room they're in.
I am glad to say that Jessie perked up quite a bit in the last couple of hours, and has been interested in food, and actually eating hay again. After speaking with the vet surgery we agreed to just keep an eye on her and keep helping encourage her to eat and supplement her if needed - I will do daily weigh-ins - and to call them if she appears to start going downhill again.
Really hoping she's turned a corner, and with the metacam, wipes, thin layer of nappy cream (it's a gentle calendular one, not sudacrem), change to vet bed, and frequent encouraging to eat and drink, she'll soon start behaving more happily.

Thanks so much for your help! x

 

[Lady Kelly]

I've had a couple of piggies get urine scald. One was cysts and the other arthritis. Well it was cysts for her the first time and then arthritis the second time. It can be quite hard to see on x-rays too so if things continue and she seems to be in pain/ no signs of infection in her urine etc then it might be worth mentioning to the vet to have a look at.

Have you been given any pain relief for her? Sorry I am skim reading so might have missed it. I would definitely make sure she is on some pain relief. If it is a pain issue causing her to sit in her own urine this could make a huge difference for her

 

[hannahs26]

I've had a couple of piggies get urine scald. One was cysts and the other arthritis. Well it was cysts for her the first time and then arthritis the second time. It can be quite hard to see on x-rays too so if things continue and she seems to be in pain/ no signs of infection in her urine etc then it might be worth mentioning to the vet to have a look at.

Have you been given any pain relief for her? Sorry I am skim reading so might have missed it. I would definitely make sure she is on some pain relief. If it is a pain issue causing her to sit in her own urine this could make a huge difference for her

Thank you! Haven't been able to get a urine sample from her yet, am going to try again later. She was refusing to drink much, and is refusing water-rich veg, and when she weed just a small amount while monitoring her earlier, unfortunately it just stayed on her body, as there wasn't enough to leave a pool.
She was x-rayed yesterday, but not sure they were looking for arthritis as a cause. When she moves she moves ok, but just doesn't want to move much.
Have her on Metacam pain reliever since yesterday, which may be helping as she's eating a small amount now - but still staying still, and refusing water from bottle, bowl and syringe. Hoping now she's eating a little she'll feel like drinking again too very soon.
Thank you!

 

[Lady Kelly]

Thank you! Haven't been able to get a urine sample from her yet, am going to try again later. She was refusing to drink much, and is refusing water-rich veg, and when she weed just a small amount while monitoring her earlier, unfortunately it just stayed on her body, as there wasn't enough to leave a pool.
She was x-rayed yesterday, but not sure they were looking for arthritis as a cause. When she moves she moves ok, but just doesn't want to move much.
Have her on Metacam pain reliever since yesterday, which may be helping as she's eating a small amount now - but still staying still, and refusing water from bottle, bowl and syringe. Hoping now she's eating a little she'll feel like drinking again too very soon.
Thank you!

When I had this with my piggy, the one with arthritis, I had several tests and x-rays etc done at my regular vets who are very good with small animals. It didn't show anything up and they suggested a referral to a specialist who found arthritis when doing an x-ray. It's definitely worth bearing in mind if all tests are not giving any answers.

I hope you are able to get some answers soon as I know how worrying it is to see a poorly piggy and not being able to find out what the problem is

 

[hannahs26]

When I had this with my piggy, the one with arthritis, I had several tests and x-rays etc done at my regular vets who are very good with small animals. It didn't show anything up and they suggested a referral to a specialist who found arthritis when doing an x-ray. It's definitely worth bearing in mind if all tests are not giving any answers.

I hope you are able to get some answers soon as I know how worrying it is to see a poorly piggy and not being able to find out what the problem is

Thank you! It's quite a relief as Jessie seems to have turned a corner this afternoon :-) She's been enjoying resting on the vet bed I got, and taking water, had a bit of hay, and has just come running out when I brought their veggies! So good to see, and really hoping she continues to improve!

 

[Free Ranger]

George says glucosamine for arthritis. He's a big fan of his oxbow joint support biccies and he doesn't lay in his wee any more. But if I'm scooping out into a nice brown paper 'toilet' bag he does like to make himself at home in that!

 

[hannahs26]

George says glucosamine for arthritis. He's a big fan of his oxbow joint support biccies and he doesn't lay in his wee any more. But if I'm scooping out into a nice brown paper 'toilet' bag he does like to make himself at home in that!

Thank you! The eldest 2 are taking those oxbow supplements, and also papaya digestion support ones. Mine also love a good paper bag too

 

[hannahs26]

Glad to report that Jessie seems much more herself today! She's been interested in all her food and meds, joining in with her herd, and happily enjoying the new vet bed, along with her herd family! :-) Such a relief! The wipes and tiny bit of nappy cream seems to be helping her tummy sore, and I'm using it on her feet too, which I think are a little darker pink than they should be. All in all I think she's much more comfortable, and moving around like she used to :-)

Thanks so much for everyone's help!