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Urine Scald... please help

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frost1375

I was horrified to find my piggy last night. The underside of her bum was all open wounds and it was wet with poop and urine. I took her to the emergency room last night and the vet said she has severe urine scald. I'm not sure how it got bad so quickly. I take very good care of my pets and make sure they are clean at all times. I feel terrible that this is happening to her. The vet gave me an antibiotic to give to her twice a day and I'm supposed to soak her bum in warm water 3x a day and put an ointment on it after it is dry. I've never seen anything this bad before. It looks very painful and the smell is awful. The vet said she can't guarentee this treatment will work, but she's hopeful. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had an experience like this and if there is ANY advice I can be given. I don't wanto to put her to sleep but I'm not sure if she's going to be okay. I just called to request some pain medication for her and haven't gotten a call back yet. When I look online to find information about urine scald, none of the pictures seem as bad as what my poor Mocha has. I'm really upset and I hate myself right now that this has happend to her so if there is any advice, I would greatly appreciate it. I feel terrible for her. I'm sorry for the long post. I've just never had to deal with anything like this in my life and I'm just hoping it looks worse than it really is. :(
 
frost1375 said:
I was horrified to find my piggy last night. The underside of her bum was all open wounds and it was wet with poop and urine. I took her to the emergency room last night and the vet said she has severe urine scald. I'm not sure how it got bad so quickly. I take very good care of my pets and make sure they are clean at all times. I feel terrible that this is happening to her. The vet gave me an antibiotic to give to her twice a day and I'm supposed to soak her bum in warm water 3x a day and put an ointment on it after it is dry. I've never seen anything this bad before. It looks very painful and the smell is awful. The vet said she can't guarentee this treatment will work, but she's hopeful. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had an experience like this and if there is ANY advice I can be given. I don't wanto to put her to sleep but I'm not sure if she's going to be okay. I just called to request some pain medication for her and haven't gotten a call back yet. When I look online to find information about urine scald, none of the pictures seem as bad as what my poor Mocha has. I'm really upset and I hate myself right now that this has happend to her so if there is any advice, I would greatly appreciate it. I feel terrible for her. I'm sorry for the long post. I've just never had to deal with anything like this in my life and I'm just hoping it looks worse than it really is. :(
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could you put some pictures up of it for us to see there are experts on here and it may not be a urine burns but need to see it firstxx
 
I'm at work until 5 so when I get home at 5:30 I'll try to put up some pictures if she can sit still long enough. :/ It's really bad though... or at least I think it is. The vet didn't seem overly concerned but I'm not sure if she was just trying not to get me upset. Do you think if it was extremely serious the vet would have suggested to put her down? I'm just not sure what to think.
 
I'm not sure what to suggest but maybe you could pm alcesterpigs or laura? They are the experts on these kind of things...
 
All I can say is Fanny Adams had a horrendous infectionand open areas around her bits due to urine scald and lack of vit c I used a product called f10 barrier ointment it was brilliant in helping healing. If you search for Fanny Adams sure there are some pics on here
 
maybe you can use something like what they use for nappy rash?
 
I'm sorry your Mocha has these problems. It is hard to know what the vets real thoughts were, as vets vary so much in the way they work with clients (the animals owners).

Is the odour very strong, distinctive, or stale? Does she squeak when peeing? What bedding is she on? My initial thought, based only on what you've described so far, is possible cystitis (urinary tract infection), which can lead to the urine scald.

What antibiotic and ointment was given?
 
have a look at www.guineapig-rehoming-norfolk.co.uk the story of fany adams page pics are on there. F10 is anti bacterial and forms a protective layer without being sticky etc I have used all sorts of creams but have never seen one heal as quick as when this is used. good luck
 
Wow... that story of Fanny Adams made me cry. That's how Mocha's underside looks. The vet called it "skin sloughing". She never mentioned any underlying illness or what could have caused this. I'm assuming she just wants to see if we can get her through this and get the skin healed. The ointment I'm putting on her is Silver Sulfadiazine and the antibiotic is Trimethoprim with Sulfamethoxazole... aka Bactrim, Septra, Tucoprim, or Tribrissen. Months back, I noticed Mocha's water intake increased a lot and she had a weird greasy patch on the top of her butt/back but after cleaning it, it went away. I'm waiting for a call back from the vet because I believe she should have some pain meds. The smell is just terrible. I think it smells because of the infection. I can't even describe it, but it's terrible. She doesn't seem to be making much noise or fussing too much. Occasionally, she'll squeak and I'm assuming it does hurt her to urinate. She squirms when I try to put the ointment on, as I'm sure it's painful. I have carefresh on the bottom of her cage and a fleece cloth under her hide. I separated her from her 2 cagemates, who are not having any health issues. Thank you all for helping me through this. It's all I can think about and I'm so afraid to go home and see her because it just breaks my heart. I don't usually pay much attention to my pet's undersides so it was sort of overlooked. I had surgery a couple weeks ago so I've been relying on other people to care for my pets while I wasn't able to. This hurts me so much and I keep praying she will pull through and I wish there is more I can do.
 
You're doing everything you can from the sounds of it, don't blame yourself. You've had her seen by a vet and you're doing your best to get her back to normal; you're doing fine. :)

It sounds as though she could well have cystitis. Pain relief/anti-inflammatories will help - Metacam (meloxicam) or Rimadyl (carprofen) are the usual ones - and will help relieve the pain from the suspected infection and any pain caused by the sores on her underside. The antibiotic you have got for her is the best one for cystitis, so hopefully it should clear things up very soon. Once the infection eases the urine scald should heal up quite quickly; until then keep up the routine of making sure her underside is clean and dry 2-3 times daily, and keep applying the ointment - even if it doesn't clear the sores up right away, it will soothe them and should prevent the problem worsening.

Good luck with her, please do keep us updated!
 
Bepanthen was the name i was looking for it was on the tip of my tonuge - Thanks Laura though the cream of choice for me and my sores is cavilon cream which is magic but is super expensive which is what is used on the people who need inco pads
 
Thank you all again for the responses. She's not eating her pellets but has eaten hay, carrots, and broccoli. I'm glad she's eating.. that's a good sign, right? After I give her a soak, how should I dry her off? I've just been putting her on a towel and letting the water sort of absorb off of her onto the towel. I don't want to rub it or pat it too much. I know it bothers her when I put the cream on so I don't want to touch the area too much. The vet told me while I'm doing the soaks, I want to move the water around underneath her so as much dead skin as possible can come off. It's very hard to move the water around and I don't want to try to rub the skin off. I'm hoping the antibiotics will help clear it up so I don't need to worry about trying to get dead skin off of her. I can only imagine how painful this is for her. :( But thank you all so much. I'm sure you all know how terrible it is when one of your babies is sick/hurt. :(
 
The pain/discomfort is out of all proportion to the severity of the condition.
However, she needs to be examined for possible causes of the cystitis, including an xray to check for stones in the bladder or urinary tract.
Give her as much cranberry juice as she wants.
 
The vet gave me some pain meds for Mocha. I feel like it's not enough, but it's something. It's Metacam .15ml once daily for just 3 days. I gave it to her a half an hour before her 3rd soak of the day. She did not seem very happy in the water this time. I have noticed she does cry out in pain when she urinates. I had her in a towel bundled up so she can dry off and she started to get sleepy and didn't move very much. I'm assuming the pain meds kicked in. I held her in the towel for a little bit before putting on the Silver Sulfa cream. Her wounds still look bad. But she is eating hay and veggies, but not her pellets and not drinking too much. I'll try to give her some cranberry juice tomorrow. If there's anything more I should be doing, please let me know. Should I have her checked for Cystitis when she gets better or is that something that has to be done right away? Thank you all again. I can't let you know how much your help is appreciated. I'm doing everything I can to hold it together and take care of her. I've never felt so guilty in my life for not catching this sooner. I really hope she's not in too much pain.

The vet wants to recheck her on Monday unless she worsens or isn't getting better. Any idea at what point should the medicine start working or when I should assume she's not getting better?
 
Basically, the condition will improve given time, until then there is not much else you can do. The problem is, as the new skin starts to grow over the affected area, she wees and scalds skin again. It is very much two steps forward and one step backwards.
 
I just have a question about soaking her wounds. It's better for her to have the soaks than for her to be dry? I was wondering if instead of soaking her three times a day, I can soak her twice a day, but still put on the cream three times a day. I just feel like she doesn't like the water and I want to keep her as stress free as possible. If more soaks are better, then I'll continue to do so. She looks slightly better. It's still really bad, but she still seems to be doing okay. At least she's not worse. Let me know if anyone has any thoughts! Thank you. :)
 
Just a gentle wipe over with warm water as often you feel is necessary, dry carefully to avoid damaging the layer of new skin, then apply Bepanthen ointment.
 
I just wanted to update you all. Mocha seems to be doing soooo much better. I'd say she's about 85% better. I can't wait to bring her in for the recheck with the vet on Monday. I'm hoping we can get to the bottom of why this happened and treat whatever else needs to be treated. I'm still soaking her, putting the cream on, and giving her antibiotics. Thank you all for your help. :)
 
Just to repeat the question; what ab has been prescribed - it can make a significant difference.
 
The pig is on Septrin, confirmed by the owner on the first page:

frost1375 said:
The ointment I'm putting on her is Silver Sulfadiazine and the antibiotic is Trimethoprim with Sulfamethoxazole... aka Bactrim, Septra, Tucoprim, or Tribrissen.
Click to expand...
 
Thank you all again for your responses. After clearing up Mocha's urine scald, she was being treated with antibiotics because I noticed she was crying while urinating and some blood was coming out. It was a few weeks since her vet visit and she seemed to be back to normal. I was actually going to put her back with her brother and sister today. But, sadly, I found Mocha had passed away. :*( I'm so sad because I thought she was doing better and I'm not sure why she had passed away. And I feel so bad that she wasn't with her siblings for a few months. I hate losing pets. I'm terribly sad today. I also lost my 19 year old cat 2 weeks ago so I'm especially heartbroken. Thank you all for your support. I suppose I did everything possible to help Mocha. Obviously something was going on inside of her that the vets couldn't even fix.
 
I'm just trying to catch up on all the threads during my lunch break and just read this and what a sad story and i am so sorry that your little friend didn't make it - RIP little one xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 
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