Weight loss & blood in urine

[Toots33]

Apologies for the really long post but I wonder if anyone has any ideas about what could be wrong with our guinea pig. We sadly lost one of our guinea pigs and got Harmony from a rescue to be a cage mate to our single guinea but unfortunately in the short space of time we’ve had Harmony, she’s had some baffling health issues.

In April, we noticed that she wasn’t eating much hay, her weight was dropping and her urine was an orange colour so we took her to the exotic vet at Cheshire Vets. He did an x ray but there was no evidence of stones so he gave her a 10 day course of antibiotics, pain relief and recommended critical care as he thought she might have an infection. There was no improvement after this so we took her back and he expressed some urine which was bright yellow and slightly gritty so he recommended a bladder flush which she’s had. Unfortunately this hasn’t made any improvements. She’s also had an ultrasound which has not shown any issues. We’ve had her urine analysed which showed no blood or infection despite the colour of it but there were ketones present in her urine. The vet did a blood sample which showed low white blood cells and an issue with the red blood cells. She’s had a second course of antibiotics and ongoing metacam which hasn’t improved anything. He also recommended a liver supplement which we tried but she didn’t respond well to this and it reduced her appetite further. We’ve been feeding her 60ml of critical care a day since April and whilst we can stabilise her weight, as soon as we reduce the critical care, her weight drops. Her poo is tiny so we know she isn’t eating enough hay.

The vet has advised that as she’s made no improvement following the previous treatments, she would require further invasive treatments and tests to try and diagnose the issue but he’s not sure that this would get to the bottom of things.

We are now 3 months down the line of feeding critical care with no improvement and we are stuck in limbo. We’ve tried multiple different hays and whilst she picks at them and eats the odd strand here and there, she’s definitely not eating enough. She loves the critical care and would happily eat that all day every day. She will eat it from the syringe and independently from a bowl. She eats all of her veg and is very active. She is popcorning and doing zoomies around her cage.

We are going back to the vet on Saturday as I want him to do another examination and check her teeth due to the lack of hay she’s eating but I wonder if anyone has any suggestions as it’s heartbreaking to see her in this situation when she seems to have so much life left in her.

I was wondering if IC would cause these problems or whether it’s something more serious and we are fighting a losing battle?

 

[A Guinea Pig]

Orange is a normal pee colour, it can happen when pee oxidises. Yellow pee is when they are being feed a balanced diet. Gritty pee means that there is a lot of calcium in a guinea pigs diet. It can be fine at first but if you see large chunks or sharp bits it can been that there are crystals forming in the bladder. Bladder flushes are good and gentle. If you are only syringe feeding her, the teeth will not be grinned down properly. That could cause pain in a guinea pig and make that most want to eat. If she is not getting anywhere you many need to find another vet or at least see what they think. 60ml a day is good of critical care. If she get bored of the flavour then you could try mushing up some veggies and adding it to the mix.

What are you feeding your guinea pig?

I can’t answer your other things though.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

 

[A Guinea Pig]

What does she eat now and what was she eating before she got sick?

 

[Piggies&buns]

Apologies for the really long post but I wonder if anyone has any ideas about what could be wrong with our guinea pig. We sadly lost one of our guinea pigs and got Harmony from a rescue to be a cage mate to our single guinea but unfortunately in the short space of time we’ve had Harmony, she’s had some baffling health issues.

In April, we noticed that she wasn’t eating much hay, her weight was dropping and her urine was an orange colour so we took her to the exotic vet at Cheshire Vets. He did an x ray but there was no evidence of stones so he gave her a 10 day course of antibiotics, pain relief and recommended critical care as he thought she might have an infection. There was no improvement after this so we took her back and he expressed some urine which was bright yellow and slightly gritty so he recommended a bladder flush which she’s had. Unfortunately this hasn’t made any improvements. She’s also had an ultrasound which has not shown any issues. We’ve had her urine analysed which showed no blood or infection despite the colour of it but there were ketones present in her urine. The vet did a blood sample which showed low white blood cells and an issue with the red blood cells. She’s had a second course of antibiotics and ongoing metacam which hasn’t improved anything. He also recommended a liver supplement which we tried but she didn’t respond well to this and it reduced her appetite further. We’ve been feeding her 60ml of critical care a day since April and whilst we can stabilise her weight, as soon as we reduce the critical care, her weight drops. Her poo is tiny so we know she isn’t eating enough hay.

The vet has advised that as she’s made no improvement following the previous treatments, she would require further invasive treatments and tests to try and diagnose the issue but he’s not sure that this would get to the bottom of things.

We are now 3 months down the line of feeding critical care with no improvement and we are stuck in limbo. We’ve tried multiple different hays and whilst she picks at them and eats the odd strand here and there, she’s definitely not eating enough. She loves the critical care and would happily eat that all day every day. She will eat it from the syringe and independently from a bowl. She eats all of her veg and is very active. She is popcorning and doing zoomies around her cage.

We are going back to the vet on Saturday as I want him to do another examination and check her teeth due to the lack of hay she’s eating but I wonder if anyone has any suggestions as it’s heartbreaking to see her in this situation when she seems to have so much life left in her.

I was wondering if IC would cause these problems or whether it’s something more serious and we are fighting a losing battle?

I’m sorry to hear this.
Your vet is obviously concerned about the urine colour also.
I think as you have an exotic specialist, you need to be guided by them in the prospects of finding out the issue with further investigation, whether the invasiveness outweighs the likelihood of finding something and being able to treat it etc.
You could speak to your vet about trying her with glucosamine.
Does she appear to be in pain when urinating?
I really hope you can solve whatever is going on with her

 

[Toots33]

I’m sorry to hear this.
Your vet is obviously concerned about the urine colour also.
I think as you have an exotic specialist, you need to be guided by them in the prospects of finding out the issue with further investigation, whether the invasiveness outweighs the likelihood of finding something and being able to treat it etc.
You could speak to your vet about trying her with glucosamine.
Does she appear to be in pain when urinating?
I really hope you can solve whatever is going on with her

Thanks for you reply.

We have been giving her Cystease and this seems to have improved her drinking but it has not reduced what we think may be blood in the urine. She doesn't seem to be in pain as we have not heard any vocalising when weeing and pooing and she is very active.

We are very concerned about the lack of eating as this will cause a host of other problems. I understand that hay is usually the food group that is dropped when a piggy is unwell so there is clearly a problem somewhere. She will eat some hay, she particularly likes timothy seed heads but she's not eating enough independently to sustain her weight and we are at the stage were we feel like we are keeping her alive with the critical care.

My vet is concerned that the issue could be liver failure due to the ketones in the urine although the blood test results didn't show any issue the liver or the kidneys. The other issue that he has suggested is lymphoma due to the low white blood cell count.

Unfortunately, we are having to consider our financial situation in this as the costs of treatment have already been well over £1200 and the tests that we have done so far have not given any clear indication as to what the problem may be.

The next stage of tests that the vet is considering are things like CT scans which obviously comes with a high cost and may not give us the answers we're looking for or exploratory surgery and we're not sure that she is healthy enough to recover from that.

We are really at a loss as to what to do next but we can't continue the way that we are currently. Myself and my partner both work full time and we are exhausted from the intensive care that we are currently giving.

Sadly we have experienced a number of challenging health issues with out guinea pigs over the years and we are coming to the end of our guinea pig cycle as the heartbreak of losing them has become too much for us.

 

[Toots33]

Orange is a normal pee colour, it can happen when pee oxidises. Yellow pee is when they are being feed a balanced diet. Gritty pee means that there is a lot of calcium in a guinea pigs diet. It can be fine at first but if you see large chunks or sharp bits it can been that there are crystals forming in the bladder. Bladder flushes are good and gentle. If you are only syringe feeding her, the teeth will not be grinned down properly. That could cause pain in a guinea pig and make that most want to eat. If she is not getting anywhere you many need to find another vet or at least see what they think. 60ml a day is good of critical care. If she get bored of the flavour then you could try mushing up some veggies and adding it to the mix.

What are you feeding your guinea pig?

I can’t answer your other things though.
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Thanks for your reply.

I understand that urine can oxidise but I don't think this is oxidised urine and I don't think the illuminous yellow urine is because she is having a balanced diet because she has lost a significant amount of weight which would indicate that she is not eating enough.

I am concerned about her teeth and this is one of the reasons that I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow as I would like her teeth to be checked again.

Regarding vegetables, we feed her the recommended IC diet from the forum. We also feed unlimited timothy hay and meadow hay (we have tried numerous varieties but it doesn't make any difference to how much she eats). We don't feed pellets due to the calcium content and we filter the water. She is clearly hungry as she has no problems eating large amounts of critical care at a time.

I don't think changing vets is necessary as we are already seeing an exotics specialist from one of the vets recommended by the forum and he has done a lot to try and help us to get to the bottom of things.

 

[Piggies&buns]

You are doing everything as we would recommend regarding diet and the support feeding to ensure her weight remains stable.

You need to have that open discussion with your vet about whether further investigation is going to prove helpful, what the likely outcomes are and whether any treatment can be provided if an issue is found.

 

[weepweeps]

I’m so sorry you are going through this. I have had a piggy with illuminous yellow pee. I took him to the vets. It was caused by him being on antibiotics for over 8 weeks. That has now resolved and his pee is normal now but it did take a long time though. Good luck. I hope you can get some answers soon.