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UTI in question?

lydvn

lydvn

New Born Pup
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We took our guinea pig to the ER vet last night due to some very small drops of blood in her urine. There are a few concerns of mine that weren't in my head at the time of the vet visit (it was 2AM). With some of these bloody pees, there were hardened calcium deposits -- they usually dry up and feel powdery with a little mix of sandy texture from time to time, but mostly always powdery. The last time we went to our trusted exotic vet, they said it is likely just some sludge that is in there because they confirmed, and also sent her X-rays to an x-ray specialist and nothing came back as alarming or a sign of bladder stones. This was 3-4 months ago, so who knows what could've popped up since then.

This ER vet did an ultrasound, and x-rays and they didn't find anything to be concerned about so they ruled out stones. They did bill us with a urine smear, but I am unsure what the results were... They didn't really tell us much because it was super busy last night. She is being treated for a UTI, but something about the calcium worries me. I've seen some posts saying with UTI's it's normal for more calcium to appear due to inflamation of the bladder. I was wondering if anyone here knew anything about this, or experienced this before?

I should also mention, her pee smells very sour (literally stinks up the room), she doesn't squeal when she pees, she is eating fine, drinking a bit less so I will syringe feed some water, shes a bit more lethargic than usual, and she hasn't had any blood in the urine since last night. It is only calcium as of now. Her lady area is very clean and isn't wet or matted. This is our first time dealing with a UTI. We have had a piggy who passed from stones, so we were mostly afraid of that. Her symptoms do not match stones I don't think, besides the calcium and blood + they ruled them out.

Any advice would help! We are planning on taking her to our regular vet once they can get an appointment, which is likely Monday or Tuesday.
 
I also must say that they did say all they noticed was she had inflamation. I'm starting to think this is sterile cystitis? I'm very confused honestly. I hope her regular vet would be able to clear this up.

Any ideas?
 
lydvn said:
I also must say that they did say all they noticed was she had inflamation. I'm starting to think this is sterile cystitis? I'm very confused honestly. I hope her regular vet would be able to clear this up.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Hello,
I have a similar case. My guinea pig had a staphylococcal urinary infection and bladder sludge.
I repeated the tests last week and it came back negative.

Now the pee still stinks, but it is most likely from the sludge.
Now we use Phyllanthus-based supplement, metacalm and glucosamine.
 
Federica93 said:
Hello,
I have a similar case. My guinea pig had a staphylococcal urinary infection and bladder sludge.
I repeated the tests last week and it came back negative.

Now the pee still stinks, but it is most likely from the sludge.
Now we use Phyllanthus-based supplement, metacalm and glucosamine.
Click to expand...
Is that supplement something I can just find online? Or should I consult with our vet first?
 
Please don’t supplement something you aren’t sure is without consulting your vet.

Is she still on antibiotics for the UTI?
Have they helped?
The symptoms of bladder related issues tend to be very much similar.

Please do also review the diet if she has sludge and a lot of calcium pees, particularly gritty/sandy ones.
Excreting calcium in the urine is normal but it is a lot and sometimes it feels sandy/gritty then it suggests something is off in the balance of calcium in the diet.

Ensure a mostly hay and grass based diet.
One cup of veg excluding high calcium veg such as kale, spinach and parsley.
Ensure pellets are low calcium and kept limited to one tablespoon per pig per day.
Ensure water is filtered.
It takes several weeks to make any change to the calcium levels in the body and any sludge which is currently in there does need to come out ideally through increased urination but if it is packed then a flush can be needed.

Do keep an eye and make adjustments as needed because a diet too low in calcium can also be as bad as a diet too high in calcium. The balance is still wrong, it’s just wrong in the other direction and seeing white pee with a diet too low can also occur.


Should this turn out to be sterile cystitis, then you have to find a balance of glucosamine and painkillers as maintenance, increase during a flare and then reduce back to maintenance dose.
 
Piggies&buns said:
Please don’t supplement something you aren’t sure is without consulting your vet.

Is she still on antibiotics for the UTI?
Have they helped?
The symptoms of bladder related issues tend to be very much similar.

Please do also review the diet if she has sludge and a lot of calcium pees, particularly gritty/sandy ones.
Excreting calcium in the urine is normal but it is a lot and sometimes it feels sandy/gritty then it suggests something is off in the balance of calcium in the diet.

Ensure a mostly hay and grass based diet.
One cup of veg excluding high calcium veg such as kale, spinach and parsley.
Ensure pellets are low calcium and kept limited to one tablespoon per pig per day.
Ensure water is filtered.
It takes several weeks to make any change to the calcium levels in the body and any sludge which is currently in there does need to come out ideally through increased urination but if it is packed then a flush can be needed.

Do keep an eye and make adjustments as needed because a diet too low in calcium can also be as bad as a diet too high in calcium. The balance is still wrong, it’s just wrong in the other direction and seeing white pee with a diet too low can also occur.


Should this turn out to be sterile cystitis, then you have to find a balance of glucosamine and painkillers as maintenance, increase during a flare and then reduce back to maintenance dose.
Click to expand...
She's finished with her antibiotics, and they seem to have helped. Her pee still smells funky every now and then, but I notice it only smells whenever there is calcium involved. We have her on a low calcium diet, and have her water filtered. Our vet recommended we drench her veggies in water before handing them to her so she gets some extra water through that. We started syringe feeding water every now and then because our vet thinks she's just not drinking enough water to flush it out.

We've gotten at least 2 x-rays done within the last 2 weeks and they said she looks perfect, so it makes us very confused as to what is happening with all this calcium. I just keep wondering, what if we went too low with the calcium? How will we know?

Her calcium deposits are more chalky again, but they still will randomly have like a little sandy feel to them every now and then. Yesterday she had about 7 deposits, which is insane compared to what she normally has. It used to only be 2-3 a week, but after her antibiotics ended we have seen a major increase. She isn't having any problems while peeing either, she looks normal while doing it... it's just lots of calcium.
 
The amount of water wetting veggies introduces is negligible. Most of it is simply going to run off.

Have you tried adding plenty of water bottles as well as trying bowls to see if that helps her drink more.

What is her diet?
 
We have a bowl for her and she empties it once or twice a day.

We feel one tablespoon of oxbow's adult guinea pig pellets with unlimited hay and filtered water. We have been giving a cup of green leaf lettuce every night for veggies, and we are thinking of introducting cucumber into that. We used to do yellow, orange, and red peppers + green leaf, but we noticed that actually seemed to make things worse for her so we switched to just green leaf.
 
Now going to the vet - pee in blood… I don’t know what else we can do at this point
 

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Our exotic specialist believes it’s a reproductive issue because of a few things that we went over:
1. No straining or squealing while peeing
2. UTI was treated with antibiotics for 2 weeks and our specialist said she was good at her check up about a week ago.
3. No stones have been present in any X ray taken

Shes getting spayed on the 18th, she was given pain/anti inflammatory meds for 10 days. Hopefully it helps everything
 
Nothing has truly helped, and she PASSED A STONE! So we canceled the spay, and we got her another x-ray. No signs of stones, so it's either another tiny stone, or just sludge. We just bought sherwood urinary support pills, so we are going to try those out and see what happens. They also sent her pee off because it was a bit dilute, and they said her bloodwork came back really good. No signs of kidney issues or liver problems.
 
lydvn said:
Nothing has truly helped, and she PASSED A STONE! So we canceled the spay, and we got her another x-ray. No signs of stones, so it's either another tiny stone, or just sludge. We just bought sherwood urinary support pills, so we are going to try those out and see what happens. They also sent her pee off because it was a bit dilute, and they said her bloodwork came back really good. No signs of kidney issues or liver problems.
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Can you let us know how you give the Sherwood urinary support pills please, because we are giving them for prevention (And Herberts been squealing a bit when going to the toilet, but not all the time), and it says on there to not give any veggies but we can't really do this because it wouldn't be fair to just give Bramble veggies when Herbert isn't allowed any, especially as he does really love his veggies! 😟 Also, they won't take them from us, so we have to crush the pills and mix it in with water, and leaves as much as possible!

It's not as easy as we thought it would be to give them these pills, some of the (Excellent) reviews I read about them said that their pigs/rabbits took them treats straight from their hands, but ours won't, sadly.
 
Storm1974 said:
Can you let us know how you give the Sherwood urinary support pills please, because we are giving them for prevention (And Herberts been squealing a bit when going to the toilet, but not all the time), and it says on there to not give any veggies but we can't really do this because it wouldn't be fair to just give Bramble veggies when Herbert isn't allowed any, especially as he does really love his veggies! 😟 Also, they won't take them from us, so we have to crush the pills and mix it in with water, and leaves as much as possible!

It's not as easy as we thought it would be to give them these pills, some of the (Excellent) reviews I read about them said that their pigs/rabbits took them treats straight from their hands, but ours won't, sadly.
Click to expand...
My girl was squeaking regularly when going to the loo (wee or poop) I used Sherwood tablets 1 a day diluted with water for one week. Seems to have stopped her squeaking be.
Also she eats 1-2 tablets a week as I found out she loves the taste 😛
I find they go out of stock very quickly though 🙈
 
Lisanjake said:
My girl was squeaking regularly when going to the loo (wee or poop) I used Sherwood tablets 1 a day diluted with water for one week. Seems to have stopped her squeaking be.
Also she eats 1-2 tablets a week as I found out she loves the taste 😛
I find they go out of stock very quickly though 🙈
Click to expand...
Please could I ask how you give the Sherwood tablets? I've got some for our piggie, but they are quite a lot harder than I thought and I've found it hard to crush them. Do you crush them and administer with water? Thank you
 
SarahCR said:
Please could I ask how you give the Sherwood tablets? I've got some for our piggie, but they are quite a lot harder than I thought and I've found it hard to crush them. Do you crush them and administer with water? Thank you
Click to expand...
You can crush them and mix in with 1ml of water. I’m lucky my girl enjoys eating them now but yeah they are hard.
Or you could dip in water and try and give it to them to help soften it too x
 
Lisanjake said:
You can crush them and mix in with 1ml of water. I’m lucky my girl enjoys eating them now but yeah they are hard.
Or you could dip in water and try and give it to them to help soften it too x
Click to expand...
So do you literally hand feed them (or put them down and they eat them?) They are so hard, that I didn't know if they would be able to chew/swallow them without choking!
 
SarahCR said:
So do you literally hand feed them (or put them down and they eat them?) They are so hard, that I didn't know if they would be able to chew/swallow them without choking!
Click to expand...
Yes I now give it by hand. She just chews a little bit at a time like a little treat. Just wait for them to take it from you.
If they don’t then crush and syringe it
 
SarahCR said:
So do you literally hand feed them (or put them down and they eat them?) They are so hard, that I didn't know if they would be able to chew/swallow them without choking!
Click to expand...
I ended up purchasing a pill crusher from Wal-Mart Equate Easy Grip Pill Crusher
Then I mixed it with organic carrot baby food ... only one of my guinea pig gobbles it up but the others will eat it if I sprinkle a few pellets on top :P

None of my three piggies will eat the tablets on their own, but they do occasionally enjoy the Snackies

I found this PDF to be very informational:
3 Easy Steps for Digestive Health

I hope this helps! :D
 
Aznurf said:
I ended up purchasing a pill crusher from Wal-Mart Equate Easy Grip Pill Crusher
Then I mixed it with organic carrot baby food ... only one of my guinea pig gobbles it up but the others will eat it if I sprinkle a few pellets on top :P

None of my three piggies will eat the tablets on their own, but they do occasionally enjoy the Snackies

I found this PDF to be very informational:
3 Easy Steps for Digestive Health

I hope this helps! :D
Click to expand...
Goodness . What a lot of links.
 
Aznurf said:
I apologize for the oversight! I'm new to the forum and now realize that posting links is considered spam. Thank you for your understanding!
Click to expand...
Posting lots of links in first few posts will trigger spam filter and also our attention. Some people sign up just to spam discussion boards.
 
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