Sterile cystitis

[princesspiggies]

Hi! My girl cinnamon recently had bloat, and elevated white blood cells. She was on an antibiotic and all of her symptoms cleared up. However, I know with Sterile cystitis it can re occur. Would giving glucosamine hurt if she doesn’t have it? What glucosamine is safe? What’s the dosage?

 

[princesspiggies]

Hi! My girl cinnamon recently had bloat, and elevated white blood cells. She was on an antibiotic and all of her symptoms cleared up. However, I know with Sterile cystitis it can re occur. Would giving glucosamine hurt if she doesn’t have it? What glucosamine is safe? What’s the dosage?

She was having little bits of blood in her stool. They weren’t sure if it was Sterile cystitis or an infection

 

[Wiebke]

Hi! My girl cinnamon recently had bloat, and elevated white blood cells. She was on an antibiotic and all of her symptoms cleared up. However, I know with Sterile cystitis it can re occur. Would giving glucosamine hurt if she doesn’t have it? What glucosamine is safe? What’s the dosage?

Hi and welcome

I would not not give extra glucosamine just on spec when there is nothing but the very vaguest of suspicions. The glucosamine is not going to prevent sterile IC in the first place and the traces of blood could well have other causes if they ever amount to anything.

I appreciate that it is extremely difficult especially for owners with anxiety to wait and see when their minds are racing ahead at a thousand miles an hour but filling your own need for answers to questions that cannot be asked at this stage is not necessarily helpful for your piggy - even more so if your own private research and home treating on spec is getting it dead wrong. I hope that you can understand that. In order to diagnose sterile IC your piggy needs to fulfill several other criteria which are simply not present in your own case.

 

[princesspiggies]

Hi and welcome

I would not not give extra glucosamine just on spec when there is nothing but the very vaguest of suspicions. The glucosamine is not going to prevent sterile IC in the first place and the traces of blood could well have other causes if they ever amount to anything.

I appreciate that it is extremely difficult especially for owners with anxiety to wait and see when their minds are racing ahead at a thousand miles an hour but filling your own need for answers to questions that cannot be asked at this stage is not necessarily helpful for your piggy - even more so if your own private research and home treating on spec is getting it dead wrong. I hope that you can understand that. In order to diagnose sterile IC your piggy needs to fulfill several other criteria which are simply not present in your own case.

What is the specific criteria? She was bloated and was found to have fluid. She was in partial GI stasis, and the doctors ruled out GDV. They couldn’t figure out what was going on with her and she went to a team of exotic specialists

 

[Wiebke]

Sterile cystitis presents with pretty much the same symptoms as a bacterial urinary tract infection (which is caused by an overgrowth of faecal bacteria in the urinary tract) with squeaking when peeing and pooing, intense red porphyrin coloured pees that are usually mistaken for blood), usually infection markers for the presence of some blood in any but not all pees (it usually takes several days for symptoms to solidify), raised protein levels in urine (infection marker).
What is different in sterile cystitis is the absence of or a much lower count of bacteria than expected (most piggies have some facal bacteria in the urinary tract from scent marking) compared to a UTI; that is why antibiotics can at the best only temporaily suppress symptoms or not work at all. Sterile cystitis affects primarily the insulating natural glucosamine layer of the urinary tract that prevents highly corrosive urine from coming into painful direct contact with raw tissue and causes inflammation. It is also characterised by recurring flare-ups every few weeks, hence its name old name' interstitial cystitis or IC. It can occur from the very mild to the unmanageably severe.

Please accept that symptoms of problems in urinary tract are very similar for any problems from stones/sludge to infections. What none of them does cause is blood in the stool - that points towards a problem in the digestive tract (where poos are coming out of) but not the urinary tract which is there to carry away the fluid waste from kidneys and liver in the urine.

I hope that this clarifies things a bit?

Please accept that we are an owners forum and not a medical forum. We cannot replace any necessary veterinary examinations, especially not sight unseen and without knowledge of an ongoing case and what has been already checked and ruled in or out.

 

[princesspiggies]

That makes sense, thank you. The vets were stumped and weren’t sure what to diagnose her with. They just gave us some supportive care at home, pain meds and antibiotics and monitored her from there. There were no stones, and they never could give us a clear answer of what was going on. She does have intense red spots that may just be porphyrin in her urine, but they didn’t start until she got sick two weeks ago. I figured I’d ask if anyone had some strange situation that wasn’t a clear diagnosis either but similar symptoms. Thank you for your help

 

[princesspiggies]

That makes sense, thank you. The vets were stumped and weren’t sure what to diagnose her with. They just gave us some supportive care at home, pain meds and antibiotics and monitored her from there. There were no stones, and they never could give us a clear answer of what was going on. She does have intense red spots that may just be porphyrin in her urine, but they didn’t start until she got sick two weeks ago. I figured I’d ask if anyone had some strange situation that wasn’t a clear diagnosis either but similar symptoms. Thank you for your help

I didn’t mean stool, I meant in her urine. Sorry about that.