UTI or interstitial cystitis symptoms?

[trina1234]

Hi, Rose has had an occasionally wet bum for nearly a week now, smells quite pungent and a bit of hair loss round genitals and on tummy. Sometimes dry when I check her, she’s been dry for 2 days then wet again tonight. No signs of pain when weeing, is eating well and weight stable, no blood. She was diagnosed with IC several years ago so is on metacam daily for that. So I guess I’m asking is wet bum and strong smell a sign of IC, or is it more likely UTI? She’s just recovered from a nasty bloating / digestive infection episode so because of that she may have been over grooming fur (as she had messy sloppy poo at one point) / got a bit of urine scald from sitting hunched / got a UTI from the poo? Obv I will take her to vet if it continues but don’t want to upset her if unecessary as that makes her IC flare up.
Any ideas if wet bum and strong smell without pain or bleeding are signs of IC?

 

[Wiebke]

Hi, Rose has had an occasionally wet bum for nearly a week now, smells quite pungent and a bit of hair loss round genitals and on tummy. Sometimes dry when I check her, she’s been dry for 2 days then wet again tonight. No signs of pain when weeing, is eating well and weight stable, no blood. She was diagnosed with IC several years ago so is on metacam daily for that. So I guess I’m asking is wet bum and strong smell a sign of IC, or is it more likely UTI? She’s just recovered from a nasty bloating / digestive infection episode so because of that she may have been over grooming fur (as she had messy sloppy poo at one point) / got a bit of urine scald from sitting hunched / got a UTI from the poo? Obv I will take her to vet if it continues but don’t want to upset her if unecessary as that makes her IC flare up.
Any ideas if wet bum and strong smell without pain or bleeding are signs of IC?

Hi

Unfortunately, there is no way of telling whether you are dealing with a bacterial UTI or a sterile IC without testing.

A lab test for the bacterial count in the urine can tell - zero or a low count of bacteria (most piggies have some faecal bacteria in their urinary tract from scent marking their territory) means that you are dealing with IC while an acute UTI (urine infection) would have a high bacterial count. A strong smell is a sign of infection but this can apply to either.
The only other way is if antibiotics do not work at all or can only temporarily suppress a in infection in the urinary tract and any other issues in the urinary tract can be excluded.

Please make sure that the wet bum and strong smell are not coming from the womb instead - it happened to my Cariad who needed an emergency spay just months after a fast growing bladder stone op because of a grossly distended fluid-filled and borderline pyometric womb containing a potentially cancerous lump with some rather nasty looking ovarian cysts thrown in , as it turned out. I only thought she might have another batch of crystals (which she also had since something in her calcium absorption had suddenly flipped). thankfully, she sailed through her full spaying op and lived for another year until she became too frail for further bladder flushes at around 5 years of age.